BASKETBALL
Mfiondu Kabengele capped off a 11-4 run with a layup basket to give the eighth-seeded Maine Celtics a 112-106 win over the top-seeded South Bay Lakers Monday in the G League’s Showcase Cup Tournament at Las Vegas.
Maine advances to the semifinals at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday against No. 4 Ontario.
Denzel Valentine led the Celtics with 25 points and Kabengele put up 18 points with 10 rebounds.
Bryce Hamilton led South Bay with 19 points.
The Winter Showcase features a target score ending rather than a traditional 12-minute fourth quarter, adding 25 points to the leading team’s score at the end of the third and playing an untimed period to determine the winner.
The Lakers led 86-85 after three quarters, rallying after trailing 64-50 at halftime.
SKIING
WORLD CUP: A day after an uncharacteristic third-place finish on the same course, Olympic champion Odermatt won another giant slalom at La Vallia, Italy, for his 15th career World Cup victory.
Odermatt, the reigning overall World Cup champion and current leader, maintained his first-run advantage during a wild second run down the Gran Risa, making a series of recoveries after getting bounced off the racing line several times.
The Swiss skier finished 0.20 seconds ahead of Norwegian veteran Henrik Kristoffersen and 0.92 ahead of Olympic silver medalist Zan Kranjec.
SOCCER
LYON: American businessman John Textor completed his takeover of French soccer club Lyon.
The sale was initially set for September but was pushed back several times.
Under the deal, Textor’s Eagle Football is acquiring a stake of 77.49% in the club. The agreement with Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings provides for a capital increase of 86 million euros ($90 million).
The American businessman made his fortune in digital media. It’s not the first time Textor has ventured into soccer. He also has stakes in Crystal Palace, Belgian second-division club RWD Molenbeek and Brazilian team Botafogo.
Lyon’s run of titles from 2001-08 made it the powerhouse of French soccer. But after Bordeaux ended Lyon’s run in 2009, the club’s fortunes dipped.
Lyon finished eighth last season, 25 points behind champion Paris Saint-Germain.
FRANCE: Forward Karim Benzema indicated he is retiring from internationals in a post on social networks, a day after the team lost the World Cup final without him.
After earning the Ballon d’Or as the world’s top player to crown his remarkable rise, Benzema’s dream of winning the World Cup ended before the tournament in Qatar when he tore a left thigh muscle in training with Les Bleus.
“I made the effort and the mistakes it took to be where I am today and I’m proud of it! I have written my story and ours is ending,” Benzema wrote on his 35th birthday, in a post accompanied by a picture of him in a France shirt.
The Real Madrid striker was France’s top scorer at the 2014 World Cup but did not play in the country’s victorious 2018 World Cup campaign because he was still exiled from the national team for his alleged role in a sex-tape scandal with then-France teammate Mathieu Valbuena.
The fallout from that scandal led to a dramatic fall from grace for Benzema. He faced a nationwide deluge of vitriol and scathing criticism, including on the political level. It led to a long exclusion from the national team from October 2015 until his recall by Deschamps in May last year.
With his relationship with Deschamps repaired, Benzema scored freely for France with 10 goals in 16 games after his return to reach 37 overall, and he formed a great partnership with Kylian Mbappe.
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