BASKETBALL
DJ Steward finished with 24 points, seven assists and five rebounds as the Maine Celtics beat Raptors 905, 130-112, on Saturday afternoon at the Portland Expo.
JD Davison added 23 points and 12 assists for the Celtics, who earned their second straight win. Jordan Walsh added 20 points, Jordan Schakel 16, and both Tony Snell and Neemias Queta added 10.
Jaysean Paige scored 24 points and Kevin Obanor added 20 for Raptors 905.
WNBA: The Indiana Fever won the WNBA draft lottery for the No. 1 pick for the second consecutive season.
The Fever took Aliyah Boston last season with the top pick and she earned the league’s Rookie of the Year honors.
Now Indiana will have to wait to see who decides to enter the draft. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, UConn’s Paige Bueckers and LSU’s Angel Reese all could head back to school for another year thanks to the extra season because of the coronavirus.
Indiana, which hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016, had a 44% chance of getting the No. 1 pick. Los Angeles has the No. 2 pick with Phoenix choosing third and Seattle fourth. The Sparks, who had an 18% chance at getting the top pick, have missed the postseason two straight years and last had No. 1 in 2012 when they drafted Nneka Ogwumike.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The Maine Mariners fell behind 3-0 and eventually lost to the Newfoundland Growlers 4-2 at Mary Brown’s Centre Sunday in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The Growlers went ahead 2-0 on first-period goals by Ty Voit and Tyler Weiss, and extended it to 3-0 on a tip-in by James Melindy 5:24 into the second period, when the Mariners had two goals disallowed – one that was ruled not to have crossed the goal line and the other that was high-sticked into the net.
However, Maine got two goals late in the period when Jimmy Lambert scored short-handed at 15:13 and Brooklyn Kalmikov got the other 48 seconds later.
Newfoundland’s Matt Brassard finished a 2 on 1 in the third for the final score.
BASEBALL
MLB: Left-handed reliever Will Smith, who has won World Series rings the past three seasons with three different organizations, has agreed to a $5 million contract with the Royals, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press.
The 34-year-old Smith can also make a certain amount of performance bonuses, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal for the 2024 season was pending a physical.
• The Miami Marlins acquired catcher Christian Bethancourt from the Cleveland Guardians, bringing in another player that new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix is familiar with from his days in Tampa Bay.
Bethancourt batted .225 with 16 doubles, 11 home runs, and 33 RBI in 104 games with Tampa Bay during the 2023 season. He also threw out 13 of 57 baserunners. The Panamanian-born backstop has a career batting average of .231 with 113 RBI and 31 home runs.
Cleveland claimed Bethancourt, 32, off waivers Nov. 6 and will receive cash considerations in the deal.
• The Cleveland Guardians are reuniting with Austin Hedges, agreeing with the popular veteran catcher on a $4 million, one-year contract, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
Hedges, who played in Cleveland from 2020-22, will sign the contract once he passes a physical, said the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal can’t be finalized until the medical tests are completed.
SOCCER
PREMIER LEAGUE: Without the injured Erling Haaland and trailing 1-0 to Luton at halftime, Manchester City was in danger of plunging into a full-blown crisis approaching the halfway point of its Premier League title defense.
The defending champions managed to turn it round, though, as goals by Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish in a three-minute span earned a 2-1 victory that ended their four-match winless run and trimmed the gap to first-place Liverpool to four points.
• Tottenham powered to its first Premier League win in six weeks by thrashing a tired-looking Newcastle team 4-1, with Richarlison scoring a goal in each half.
• Everton moved four points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone by beating Chelsea 2-0 for a third straight win.
GOLF
EUROPEAN TOUR: The Alfred Dunhill Championship in Malelane, South Africa is set to be completed on Monday after play was suspended on Sunday because of dangerous weather conditions, with South African major winners Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen sharing the lead on 16-under par in the European tour event.
Players were taken off twice because of a threat of lightning.
Schwartzel and Oosthuizen were both 1 under for their rounds after playing seven holes at Leopard Creek Country Club. They were three shots ahead of another South African, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (3 under after seven holes). Andy Sullivan and Matti Schmid are two strokes further back on 11 under.
PGA TOUR: The PGA Tour has narrowed its choice of potential investors to a new consortium led by Fenway Sports Group and said it would continue negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund as it races to meet a Dec. 31 deadline.
The PGA Tour board — six players and five independent directors — sent an email to players Sunday afternoon to say Strategic Sports Group was the unanimous choice to further negotiate a potential partnership in the new PGA Tour Enterprises.
SKIING
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Heavy snowfall overnight forced the cancellation of a women’s World Cup super-G race in St. Moritz, Switzerland where Mikaela Shiffrin was an expected strong contender.
MEN’S WORLD CUP: Snow and rain overnight in the French Alps forced the cancellation of a World Cup slalom in yet another loss to the men’s season.
The tally is now six races canceled, one abandoned and just two completed in a difficult season so far. A giant slalom Saturday was won by Marco Odermatt at Val d’Isere as snow fell.
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