MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Wake Forest wins in NIT, will host VCU next
Dallas Walton scored 17 points as Wake Forest defeated Towson in a first-round NIT game on Wednesday night in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Damari Monsanto had 14 points for Wake Forest (24-9), which will host VCU in a second-round game Saturday night.
Charles Thompson had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Tigers (25-9). Jason Gibson and Nicolas Timberlake each had 12 points.
Louisville hires Payne as coach
Louisville and Kenny Payne agreed on a deal for the former Cardinals player and current New York Knicks assistant to become the men’s basketball coach.
Payne, 55, will replace Chris Mack. Payne has spent the past two years with Knicks after 10 years as a Kentucky assistant on John Calipari’s staff. He was also an assistant at Oregon.
As a player Payne scored 1,089 points from 1985 to 1989 at Louisville. He was a freshman reserve on the Cardinals’ 1986 national championship squad.
East Carolina hired Tennessee assistant Michael Schwartz
- as its coach. Schwartz spent seven seasons at Tennessee, four as associate head coach. Schwartz has been Tennessee’s defensive coordinator the past five seasons, and the Volunteeers are 118-45 in that span. Tennessee had the nation’s fourth-best defensive efficiency rating, according to KenPom.com.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Kentucky’s Howard tops All-America team
Rhyne Howard joined an exclusive group by becoming a three-time Associated Press All-American. The Kentucky senior became the ninth player in women’s basketball history to earn first-team honors three times.
Howard was joined on the first team by South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith, Michigan’s Naz Hillmon and Stanford’s Haley Jones. Hillmon and Jones tied for the fifth spot. Boston, Clark and Smith were unanimous choices.
The last player to be a three-time All-American was Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu. Boston could join the club next year. South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, Baylor’s Brittney Griner, Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw, Duke’s Alana Beard, Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, and Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore are the only other players to earn first-team honors at least three times. Paris and Moore did it four times.
Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley, the ACC player of the year, was named to the third team. Navy’s Jennifer Coleman, a former Highland Springs star, earned honorable-mention honors.
Mike Carey
- retired after 21 seasons as coach at West Virginia. Carey guided the Mountaineers to 11 NCAA tournaments and is the program’s all-time winningest coach with a 447-239 record.
NHL
Panthers acquire defenseman Chiarot
The Florida Panthers landed one of the most coveted players on the trade market, acquiring defenseman Ben Chiarot from Montreal for Tyler Smilanic and two draft picks.
It was the second deal of the day for the Panthers, who cleared out about $2.5 million in cap room earlier Wednesday when they shipped forward Frank Vatrano — who had two goals for Florida on Tuesday night, the second in overtime — to the New York Rangers for a fourth-round draft pick.
Chiarot, 30, had seven goals and 11 assists for the Canadiens this season, averaging nearly 24 minutes of ice time per contest. He led Montreal with nearly 26 minutes of ice time per game in last season’s playoffs.
Seattle started its fire sale by sending forward Calle Jarnkrok to Calgary for three draft picks. Jarnkrok, 30, has 26 points in 49 games this season. The Kraken also are expected to trade captain Mark Giordano and forwards Marcus Johansson and Riley Sheahan
- before the trade deadline Monday.
San Jose agreed on an eight-year contract extension with Tomas Hertl
- . Hertl is tied for the team lead this season with 25 goals and is second on the team with 48 points. He is seventh in Sharks history in points (371), sixth in goals (176) and 11th in assists (195).
TENNIS
Nadal second to start season 18-0
Nursing a nagging foot injury, Rafael Nadal became the second player in ATP Tour history to start a season 18-0, edging Reilly Opelka 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.
Only Novak Djokovic has gotten off to better starts since 1990. The Serb went 26-0 to begin 2020 and 41-0 to open 2011.
- All four Grand Slam tennis tournaments will now use a 10-point tiebreaker when matches reach 6-6 in the final set. The Australian Open already uses the 10-point tiebreaker. The French Open, which begins May 22, was the only major to not use a deciding tiebreaker. Wimbledon had employed a seven-point tiebreaker from 12-12, and the U.S. Open used a seven-point tiebreaker from 6-6.
COLLEGE GOLF
Six players, nine overall die in fiery car crash
Nine people died in a fiery, head-on collision in West Texas, including six New Mexico university students and a coach returning from a golf tournament, as well as a 13-year-old boy, authorities said.
Those killed in the Tuesday evening crash included University of the Southwest students from Portugal and Mexico. Two Canadian students were hospitalized in critical condition.
A pickup truck crossed the center line of a two-lane road in Andrews County, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of the New Mexico state line, and crashed into a van carrying members of the university’s men’s and women’s golf teams.
The state agency identified the deceased as: Golf coach Tyler James, 26, of Hobbs, N.M.; and players Mauricio Sanchez, 19, of Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, Colo.; Karisa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal.
Also killed were Henrich Siemans, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, and an unidentified 13-year-old boy who had been traveling with him in a Dodge pickup.
— The Associated Press
