BASKETBALL
Aaron Nesmith scored 21 points after being assigned from Boston, and the Maine Celtics opened their G League regular season with a 117-89 win Sunday against the Wisconsin Herd at the Expo.
Juwan Morgan added 17 points and 14 rebounds as six players scored in double figures for the Celtics. Bruno Fernando, also assigned to Maine from Boston, had 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Terry Larrier scored 42 points for Wisconsin.
HOCKEY
ECHL: Pascal Laberge scored in each of the first two periods, Patrick Shea added a short-handed goal and the Maine Mariners skated to a 4-1 win against the Adirondack Thunder at Cross Insurance Arena.
Laberge opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 2:39 into the game, then made it 2-0 in the second period.
Shea’s goal in the third increased the lead before Adirondack’s Ryan Smith ended Jeremy Brodeur’s shutout bid with a power-play goal.
Brodeur finished with 36 saves and Nick Master scored an empty-net goal for the Mariners.
GOLF
PGA: Cameron Smith finished with a 3-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for an 8-under 65 and a one-shot victory over Jon Rahm in the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, Hawaii.
Smith finished at 34-under 258, a tournament record by three shots and the best score ever on the PGA Tour. Rahm and Matt Jones, who tied the course record with a 61 to finish at 32 under, also broke the previous record.
FIGURE SKATING
U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS: Six-time U.S. champion Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou are headed back to the Olympics, joined by longtime fan favorite Jason Brown on a strong and deep American contingent for next month’s Beijing Games.
A selection committee picked the Olympic squad, and had to add three skaters who did not finish nationals: Alysa Liu on the women’s team and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier in pairs. Liu and Frazier tested positive for COVID-19.
The remainder of the roster has U.S. champion Mariah Bell and Karen Chen in the women’s competition; gold medalists Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc in pairs; titlists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, plus Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue and Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker in ice dance.
Brown missed the podium at nationals on Sunday in Nashville, finishing .38 points behind Zhou and nearly 13 points behind rising 17-year-old star Ilia Malinin. Malinin was picked as first alternate despite his dazzling display of quads on Sunday.
BASEBALL
MINOR LEAGUES: The New York Yankees are promoting Rachel Balkovec to manager at Low A Tampa, making her the first woman to skipper a team affiliated with Major League Baseball, according to two people familiar with the move.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on Sunday night on condition of anonymity because the club hadn’t announced the promotion.
Balkovec, 34, joined the Yankees organization as a minor league hitting coach in 2019. She got her first job in pro baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals as a minor league strength and conditioning coach in 2012.
Balkovec’s promotion was first reported by The Athletic.
TENNIS
ATP CUP: Felix Auger-Aliassime clinched the title for Canada with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 singles victory over Roberto Bautista Agut in Sydney to give his country an insurmountable 2-0 lead against Spain.
Denis Shapovalov opened the match for Canada with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Pablo Carreno Busta.
MELBOURNE SUMMER SET: Rafael Nadal won a title for the 19th consecutive year, beating American Maxime Cressy, 7-6 (6), 6-3 in the final.
ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL: Top-ranked Ash Barty won her the event for the second time in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Elena Rybakina.
SPEEDSKATING
U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS: Erin Jackson is heading to the Beijing Olympics, thanks to Brittany Bowe.
Bowe gave up her spot in the 500 meters, allowing Jackson — ranked No. 1 in the world in the 500 — to make the U.S. team, according to a report Sunday on USA Network. Jackson slipped in her race Friday at the U.S. trials in Milwaukee and finished third in the event she has dominated this season.
Bowe won the 500 and Kimi Goetz took second to earn the two available Olympic spots. Bowe also qualified in the 1,000 and 1,500 and will concentrate on those events at the Olympics.
Bowe and Jackson are friends from the same hometown of Ocala, Florida.
SKIING
WORLD CUP: Petra Vlhova cemented her status as the leading female slalom skier of the season with her fifth win in six races, overtaking first-run leader Wendy Holdener in Kranjska Goran, Slovenia.
Mikaela Shiffrin was third after the opening run but skied out in what seemed a blistering-fast second run until the American straddled a gate. It was the first time in nearly four years Shiffrin failed to finish a slalom.
• Wearing low-ranked bib No. 38, Johannes Strolz was the shocking winner of a slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland.
The 29-year-old Austrian had had never finished better than 10th and is not even an official member of the powerful Austria team this season and he prepares his own skis for races without the help of a technician. He finished 0.17 seconds ahead of Manuel Feller of Austria and 0.29 ahead of Linus Strasser of Germany.
SOCCER
FA CUP: Arsenal was beaten 1-0 by second-tier Nottingham Forest in the third round — the stage where top-flight clubs enter the draw.
It’s only the second time in 26 seasons that Arsenal has fallen at the first hurdle. Forest was responsible for the other occasion, too, in 2018.
Tottenham and Liverpool avoided the same fate as Arsenal, launching comebacks after falling behind at home to third-tier opponents. Tottenham beat Morecambe 3-1 and Liverpool won 4-1 against Shrewsbury.
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