BASKETBALL
The Maine Celtics used a 12-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to beat the Capital City Go-Go 116-114 Wednesday night in a G League game at Washington, D.C.
Luka Samanic had 33 points and 11 rebounds – his G League-leading ninth double-double of the season – for the Celtics (8-2), who had four other players score in double figures.
Denzel Valentine had 20, JD Davison 18, Marial Shayok 16 and Scottie Lindsey 10. Valentine scored 11 in the fourth quarter, shooting 4-7 from beyond the arc.
The Celtics, who are 2-1 on a six-game trip, play at Greensboro on Friday night.
The Go-Go (6-4) were led by Vernon Carey, Jr. with 25 points.
WNBA: WNBA teams will play a record 40-game schedule this upcoming season that begins on May 19 the league announced.
All 12 teams will have games the opening weekend, starting with New York playing Washington and Connecticut facing Indiana. The regular season concludes on Sept. 10 with all 12 teams playing.
Last season WNBA teams played a then-record 36-game schedule.
The All-Star Game will take place on July 15 and the third annual Commissioner’s Cup – the in-season tournament – will take place from May 19-July 12.
HIGH SCHOOLS
GIRLS’ HOCKEY: Avaya Desjardins scored three goals as Lewiston shut out Greely/Gray-New Gloucester 8-0 at Lewiston.
Desjardins has five goals in the first two games of the season for the Blue Devils (2-0).
Greely is 0-2.
Ava Geoffroy added two goals. Crew Langley, Taylor Melvin and Alyssa Marcoux each scored one.
Kim McLaughlin stopped 12 shots for the shutout.
SOCCER
PELE: Brazilian soccer great Pele was hospitalized in Sao Paulo to regulate the medication in his fight against a colon tumor, his daughter said.
Kely Nascimento added that there was “no emergency” concerning her 82-year-old father’s health.
Nascimento, who lives in the United States, made the comments in an Instagram post after what she called “lots of alarm in the media today concerning my dad’s health.”
ESPN Brasil reported earlier that the three-time World Cup champion was taken to Hospital Albert Einstein due to “general swelling.”
DOPING
TENNIS: Former top-10 professional tennis player Fernando Verdasco accepted a voluntary provisional doping suspension of two months after testing positive for a medication for ADHD, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced.
Verdasco, who turned 39 this month, said he was taking methylphenidate as medication prescribed by his doctor to treat ADHD but forgot to renew his therapeutic use exemption for the drug. The integrity agency said Verdasco has now been granted an exemption by the World Anti-Doping Agency moving forward.
GOLF
PRESIDENTS CUP: Former Masters champion Mike Weir has been selected as International captain for the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in 2024 as the Canadian tries to beat a U.S. team that has lost only once since the matches began in 1994.
Weir becomes the first International captain to lead his team in his home country since Greg Norman in Australia in 2011.
The Presidents Cup returns to Royal Montreal, the oldest golf club in North America, for the second time. Weir was a player in 2007 and took down Tiger Woods in a singles match, though the Americans will won.
The U.S. team has not announced its next captain. Davis Love III was captain in 2022, after having previously been a Ryder Cup captain in 2012 and 2016.
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