BASKETBALL
A layup by Brodric Thomas started a tiebreaking 12-0 run in the third quarter, and the Maine Celtics held on for a 145-141 win over the Delaware Blue Coats in a G League basketball game Sunday at Wilmington, Delaware.
Matt Ryan paced Maine (13-14) with 34 points, shooting 10 for 13 from the field and 7 for 10 from 3-point range. Chris Clemons had 29 points, Thomas finished with 25, and Juwan Morgan chipped in with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Myles Powell led Delaware (18-8) with 33 points.
HOCKEY
ECHL: Cameron Askew scored twice, including one of Maine’s three goals in the first period, and Callum Booth made 26 saves in the Mariners’ 4-0 victory over the South Carolina Stingrays at Cross Insurance Arena.
Conner Bleackley and Nick Master also scored. Askew assisted on Master’s power-play goal that made it 3-0, then added a power-play goal of his own in the second period.
GOLF
PGA: Sam Burns holed a birdie putt from just over 30 feet on the 16th hole to beat Davis Riley on the second playoff hole at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida, giving him three PGA Tour victories in his last 22 starts.
Burns, who closed with a 2-under 69, is the second straight back-to-back winner at Innisbrook, following Paul Casey’s consecutive wins in 2018 and 2019. The tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Burns and Riley (72), a PGA Tour rookie, finished regulation at 17-under 267. Justin Thomas (70) and Matthew NeSmith (71) were one shot out of the playoff.
EUROPEAN TOUR: South Africa’s Shaun Norris claimed his first title on the European Tour, shooting a 70 to win by three shots at the Steyn City Championship in Johannesburg.
Norris birdied three of his last five holes to pull ahead of fellow South African Dean Burmester (69) and finish at 25 under.
TENNIS
BNP PARIBAS OPEN: American Taylor Fritz upset an ailing Rafael Nadel 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the final at Indian Wells, California, ending the 21-time major champion’s 20-match winning streak this year.
Nadal took two medical timeouts, one after the first set and another after falling behind 5-4 in the second set.
Fritz became the first American man to win the tournament since Andre Agassi in 2001.
In an error-filled women’s final, Iga Swiatek defeated Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1.
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: Josef Newgarden used the nonexistent high line to pass Scott McLaughlin in the final turn at Texas Motor Speedway and steal a race that his teammate had dominated.
The win gave Team Penske back-to-back victories to open the season and 600 overall wins across all its platforms. Chevrolet started the season with consecutive wins for the first time since 2017.
McLaughlin, winner of last month’s season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida, started second but snatched the lead from pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist on the opening lap. The New Zealander led 186 of 248 laps and wasn’t challenged until Newgarden’s last-ditch charge.
The margin of victory was .669 seconds.
FORMULA ONE: The start of Max Verstappen’s title defense turned into a nightmare when the Red Bull star retired near the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix, allowing Ferrari to clinch a 1-2 finish with Charles Leclerc winning ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz Jr.
Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton took an unexpected third place after Sergio Perez’s Red Bull also retired with the finish line in sight as the race finished under a yellow flag.
In a 57-lap race, Verstappen retired on Lap 54 and Perez on 56.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Manchester City reached the FA Cup semifinals for the fourth straight season, thanks to a flurry of second-half goals in a 4-1 win at Southampton.
Crystal Palace was also a big winner in the quarterfinals, easing past Everton 4-0 to join a lineup for the last four that already contained Chelsea.
In the last quarterfinal, Liverpool edged past second-tier Nottingham Forest 1-0, setting up a semifinal against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on the weekend of April 16-17.
• Harry Kane set up two goals by Son Heung-min as Tottenham earned a 3-1 win over West Ham in the Premier League.
Spurs jumped above West Ham and Manchester United into fifth place, three points behind Arsenal, which has played one game less than its north London rival.
COLLEGES
WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Kenzie Hauswirth broke a tie with 6:20 left and top-seeded Ohio State beat Minnesota Duluth 3-2 in State College, Pennsylvania, for the Buckeyes’ first women’s Frozen Four championship.
Hauswirth blasted a shot from the left side that deflected off a defender’s skate and slipped inside the far post.
Paetyn Levis and Clair Degeorge also scored for Ohio State (32-6-0) and Amanda Thiele made 17 saves.
Naomi Rogge and Elizabeth Giguere scored for Minnesota Duluth (27-12-1).
SKIING
WORLD CUP: Overall World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin’s season ended with a seventh-place finish in giant slalom at the World Cup Finals in Meribel, France, letting the season giant slalom title slip away to Tessa Worley.
Shiffrin was the first-run leader with a 0.82-second advantage, and needed to win the race to clinch an unlikely victory in the season standings.
Instead, Shiffrin’s time was the slowest of the 24 second-run finishers and she placed seventh. She was 0.67 behind race winner Federica Brignone.
That opened the door for Worley, and the 50 points she earned for placing fourth put her atop the giant slalom standings.
• Henrik Kristoffersen clinched the men’s slalom title in the last event of the season, placing second in a race dominated by Norway.
Kristoffersen finished second behind countryman Atle Lie McGrath, but that result was enough to take the season title ahead of another Norwegian, Lucas Braathen, who placed 11th.
INDOOR TRACK
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Olympic champion Mondo Duplantis of Sweden again broke his own pole vault world record, clearing 20 feet, 4 inches at the world indoor championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Also, triple jumper Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela broke her own women’s world record with a mark of 51-7 3/4.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
