Sports
With high hopes for season, No. 12 Tennessee faces Gardner-Webb
Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler (5) is guarded by Indiana guard Gabe Cupps (2) and center Oumar Ballo (11) during a college basketball exhibition game on Sunday, October 27, 2024, in Knoxville. Tenn. With one of college basketball’s top guards in Zakai Zeigler and a revamped supporting cast, No. 12 Tennessee will start working toward its first Final Four appearance in program history when it hosts Gardner-Webb in Knoxville, Tenn., on Monday night.
It will mark the season opener for both teams.
Tennessee, which last season reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and finished 27-9, got a glimpse of what its new lineup will look like against strong competition when it hosted an exhibition game against 17th-ranked Indiana on Sunday.
However, the Volunteers struggled from the field in what ended up being a 66-62 loss to the Hoosiers, making just 18 of 59 shots (30.5 percent).
“Offensively, not very good. Had shots to start with, and to be honest with you, shots that we need to make,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after the exhibition. “But, with that said, if we’re not making them, our defense kept us in the game. And it (always makes it) harder when you’re not making shots, but you got to have something that you can count on every night.”
Zeigler led the way with 13 points and eight assists. But Barnes said he was not happy with Zeigler taking a contested 3-pointer in the closing seconds, instead suggesting that a timeout should have been called.
The Volunteers fizzled out down the stretch, with their last made field goal coming with 3:50 to play.
Jordan Gainey got the start and finished with 12 points, while Chaz Lanier, who Barnes said came in off the bench because he had not practiced as much prior to the game, recorded 10 points.
Gardner-Webb enters the season with optimism after longtime assistant Jeremy Luther was promoted to head coach in late March. Luther, a former guard at Robert Morris and Liberty, inherits a squad that finished third in the Big South Conference last season with a 17-16 overall record and an 11-5 mark in league play.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs lost their top two scorers from a season ago, Julien Soumaoro and Caleb Robinson (both averaged 12.7 points per game), but they were still picked to finish sixth in the Big South in the league’s preseason poll.
Gardner-Webb will, however, get a boost from two players who chose to transfer back into the program after spending last season elsewhere.
Anthony Selden played for the Runnin’ Bulldogs for three seasons before spending the 2023-24 campaign at Rice, where he averaged 5.5 points and 2.4 rebounds in 29 games (six starts). Jamaine Mann also is back at Gardner-Webb following stops at Vanderbilt and Georgia State.
Mann came off the bench in all 18 games he appeared in last season for Georgia State. He averaged 5.9 points and 3.1 rebounds.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs’ matchup with Tennessee will be the first meeting of a challenging three-game road trip to open the season that also includes visits to North Carolina Central and Pitt.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the season. I have really enjoyed coaching this team through the summer and fall,” Luther said. “I love our chemistry and the passion the kids show up with every day. Seems like it was just yesterday that I was hired, and now the season is already here.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Wings rally from 15 down in fourth quarter to stun Sky
Jun 20, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) and Chicago Sky guard Gabriela Jaquez (11) battle for the loose ball during the first half at College Park Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images Li Yueru converted the deciding free throws with 12.5 seconds left as the Dallas Wings put everything together in the fourth quarter to produce a wild, come-from-behind 93-92 win over the Chicago Sky on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
Dallas’ 36 points in the fourth quarter resulted in its highest-scoring period of the season, and the Wings (10-6) needed every one of them to beat Chicago, which dropped its fifth straight game.
Chicago led by 17 points late in the third quarter but the Wings rallied in the fourth, drawing to within 81-80 on a pair of Jessica Shepard free throws with 3:21 to play. Paige Bueckers’ layup with 1:35 left tied the game at 86 before Sydney Taylor poured in a 3-pointer with 1:26 remaining to put Chicago up 89-86.
Skylar Diggins had a steal that resulted in her two free throws with 35.7 seconds left to push the Sky’s advantage to six points. A free throw by Azzi Fudd and then a four-point play from Bueckers got Dallas to within one, and Chicago turned over the ball with 29.8 seconds to play.
Kamilla Cardoso then fouled Yueru, who made both free throws to give the Wings their first lead of the game. Chicago’s Jacy Sheldon then missed a short jumper with three seconds left, and Azura Stevens’ putback layup just before the buzzer glanced off the rim and away, allowing Dallas to walk off with the unlikely victory.
Shepard led the Wings with 21 points, with Bueckers adding 19, Fudd scoring 13 and Arike Ogunbowale hitting for 12 points.
Cardoso’s season-high 26 points led all scorers. Taylor added 18 for the Sky (4-11), while Diggins had 14 and Natasha Cloud tallied 10. Stevens led all players with 11 rebounds.
The Sky dominated the first quarter, going up 25-13 after a running jumper by Gabriela Jaquez at the 2:24 mark before carrying a 28-16 lead after 10 minutes of play. Dallas eventually pulled to within a point and missed on multiple chances to take the lead before the Sky swung back as Cloud’s left-handed layup with 5.7 seconds left allowed Chicago to take a 43-38 advantage into the break.
Cardoso led all scorers with 14 points at halftime, while Maddy Siegrist paced Dallas with eight points off the bench in the first half.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Flyweight Manel Kape continues successful run at UFC Fight Night
Dec 14, 2024; Tampa, Florida, UNITED STATES; Manel Kape (red gloves) reacts during he fight against Bruno Silva (blue gloves) at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Flyweight Manel Kape stopped Kyoji Horiguchi in the third round for his fourth straight victory on Saturday night in the UFC Fight Night main event in Las Vegas.
Kape’s TKO at 2:42 in the third of five scheduled rounds marked a transition period in a division whose champion, Joshua Van, successfully defended his title for the first time last month at UFC 328.
Kape (23-7 MMA, 8-3 UFC), a native of Angola fighting out of Portugal, exacted revenge against Japan’s Horiguchi (36-6, 1 NC MMA) from their 2017 bout in RIZIN, when Kape suffered one of only two submission losses in his career.
Kape paid respects to Horiguchi, recognizing that without him, his path to a potential title shot would look a little different, as he faced adversity in both fights.
Kape did make one thing clear, though.
“I knew he was going to touch me at some point,” Kape said after the fight about Horiguchi. “Because I felt his hand (speed) before. But, if I touch you one time — believe me — you’re gonna be dead.”
Kape, who has won seven of his last eight bouts, said he doesn’t know if he’ll get a title shot against Van immediately but was gracious toward UFC brass, including CEO Dana White.
The co-main event featured a pair of surging light heavyweights in New Zealand’s Navajo Stirling and Ion Cutelaba of Moldova.
After surviving five takedowns and a few potentially fight-ending submission sequences, including a standing guillotine, Stirling railed to secure a brutal TKO against Cutelaba at 3:23 of Round 2.
Since making his promotional debut in 2024, Stirling (10-0 MMA) is 5-0 in the UFC with back-to-back finishes and 10 straight victories.
Cutelaba (20-12-1), on the contrary, is 3-3 in his last six UFC fights, having been a fringe top-15 contender in the division and remaining part of the promotion since 2016.
The finishes kept coming in a trio of featherweight bouts, as Christian Rodriguez’s first-round head-kick marked the beginning of the end for Hyder Amil of the Philippines.
At 3:43 of the round, Rodriguez (13-4) successfully found an opening to secure a guillotine choke following the kick, after much of the fight was spent on the feet. The American has won four of his last seven, while Amil (11-3) fell to 3-3 in the promotion after three straight losses.
Featherweight Murtazali Magomedov added his name to the UFC history books with a modified twister submission 1:17 into the opening round against the usually durable Melsik Baghdasaryan.
Since the UFC’s inception in November 1993, only three other fighters have successfully executed the combined version of a neck crank and a spinal lock: Chan Sung Jung (2011), Bryce Mitchell (2019) and Da’Mon Blackshear (2023).
Magomedov (11-0 MMA) of Kyrgyzstan was making his UFC debut, while Armenia’s Baghdasaryan (8-4 MMA) has dropped two in a row and three of his last four.
The UFC Vegas 119 main card kicked off with Brazilian featherweight Vinicius Oliveira securing a second-round TKO (4:56) against Andre Fili of the United States to secure his fifth win in his last six outings.
Oliveira (24-4 MMA) now has two UFC wins by KO/TKO, marking the 19th finish of his career. Meanwhile, Fili (25-14, 1 NC MMA) fell to .500 in the UFC (13-13) since 2013.
The UFC caps off June with a trip to Baku, Azerbaijan, next Saturday for the second straight year.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Austin Hill captures emotional win at Naval Base Coronado
Jun 20, 2026; San Diego, California, USA; Nascar OReilly Auto Parts Series driver Austin Hill (21) celebrates his victory of the United Rentals Driven To Serve 250 at San Diego Street Course. Mandatory Credit:
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images SAN DIEGO – Austin Hill’s thrilling last-lap pass earned the veteran his first career road course NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory Saturday on a dramatic and ultimately emotional afternoon for his Richard Childress Racing team – capping a long and competitive day of racing in the inaugural United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 on Naval Base Coronado.
It marked the first win for the legendary RCR team since unexpectedly losing its NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch four weeks ago after the two-time series champion passed away unexpectedly due to complications from pneumonia. The emotion in Victory Lane Saturday was palpable – the celebration both a nod to Hill’s achievement and an ode to Busch and what he meant to the team and to the sport.
“It’s extremely special, just to finally check that box of getting that road course win, we’ve been so close so many times,” said Hill, whose No. 21 RCR Chevrolet had to be towed to Victory Lane after the rear wheels of the car were flattened after he performed a long burnout around Busch’s No. 8 logo painted on the track.
Hill, who now also drives the car Busch once drove in the NASCAR Cup Series, claimed Saturday’s win may have included a little divine intervention from his former teammate.
“I’m not gonna lie, I started talking to this guy a little bit down the straightaways,” Hill said, pointing to his hat, which carries the number eight Busch carried for the team. “I was like ‘Man, Kyle, if you’re here, give me something, let me find another gear.’
“And for whatever reason, the car started coming to life and the two leaders got together and when there was blood in the water behind the 54 (runner-up Taylor Gray), I knew it was going to be tough to get around him, that it was going to be a battle. And when I got clear of him, I was very surprised to see how much of a gap I got on him.
“I can’t thank these guys enough, everyone on this 21-team, at RCR. We’ve been through a lot these last several weeks. … Man, this is awesome, so cool.”
His Hall of Famer owner Childress was openly emotional as he greeted Hill in Victory Lane.
“It’s great to win here, and we all have Kyle in our hearts,” said Childress, his voice cracking in the poignant scene.
“You may not show it on the outside, but you do here,” he added, pointing to his heart.
Hill consistently showed Saturday he had a strong car – winning the opening stage — throughout an eventful day that included two red flags totaling more than an hour of race stoppage, an enthusiastic fan who jumped a fence and greeted driver Sheldon Creed during that red flag break, and lots of daring passes on the 3.4-mile 16-turn circuit around the famous Naval Base.
With five laps remaining in the 60-lap event, JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil led Gray and looked to claim his first career win and extend an already record 11-race road course winning streak for the JRM team.
However, with three laps to go, Gray pulled his No. 54 Toyota alongside Kvapil’s No. 1 Chevy and the contact bounced Kvapil’s car off a tire barrier and out of the lead.
Two laps later, Hill was able to get around Gray as they took the white flag signaling the last lap of the race. The 32-year-old Georgia-native went on to win by a convincing 1.127 seconds over Gray, who led the most laps (16) on the day and won Stage 2.
Gray blamed “wheel hop” for his contact with Kvapil.
“Pretty disappointed in myself, really proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Racing. … Obviously would love to be in victory lane right now, that’s where my guys deserve to be,” Gray said.
“Got really bad wheel hop, that’s what it boils down to,” he added. “He raced me tight like he should and I wheel-hopped underneath him.”
Kvapil and Gray spoke briefly after the race.
“It’s really hard to make peace with that, obviously I feel like that robbed me and everyone at this Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet,” Kvapil said. “They brought us a really fast car and gave us position to win a race and obviously we didn’t. That one really hurts.”
Haas Factory Team’s Creed finished third, followed by Kvapil and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith – who turned in an impressive rally forward after an eventful, full-contact day of his own.
Hill’s RCR teammate Jesse Love also rallied on the day, finishing sixth after starting from the last row of the 37-car field. Viking Motorsports’ Parker Retzlaff, who led five laps, finished seventh with Austin Green, Harrison Burton and Corey Day rounded out the top-10.
Two red flag periods – combining for more than an hour in time – slowed the action. The first coming out on the second lap and the later one coming out to properly repair the wall and fencing following a 23-car incident that eliminated many of the day’s strong cars.
While racing up front, Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer nicked the inside wall at Turn 1 and careened hard into the other wall collecting Anthony Alfredo’s No. 96 Chevrolet and starting a chain reaction among the mid-pack behind. The impact was enough to bring out a 43-minute red flag.
Almost immediately after the race start, there was an hour-long delay to repair a sewer vent cover in Turn 5 that came off in traffic and impaled into Day’s No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
The series championship leader, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier had an eventful day, and retired 17 laps early after being collected in multiple incidents on the day. Despite the DNF, the series-best five-race winner continues to hold an amazing 224-point advantage over reigning series champion Love atop the championship standings.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action in next Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at the renowned Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway a couple hours North on the California coast. Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner.
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race – United Rentals Driven to Serve 250
San Diego Street Course
San Diego, California
Saturday, June 20, 2026
1. (4) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 60.
2. (11) Taylor Gray, Toyota, 60.
3. (7) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 60.
4. (5) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, 60.
5. (10) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 60.
6. (37) Jesse Love, Chevrolet, 60.
7. (2) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 60.
8. (8) Austin Green, Chevrolet, 60.
9. (15) Harrison Burton, Toyota, 60.
10. (31) Corey Day, Chevrolet, 60.
11. (24) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 60.
12. (33) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 60.
13. (20) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 60.
14. (30) Andrew Patterson, Chevrolet, 60.
15. (27) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 60.
16. (17) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 60.
17. (22) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 60.
18. (13) Preston Pardus, Chevrolet, 60.
19. (26) Brad Perez, Toyota, 60.
20. (28) Patrick Staropoli, Chevrolet, 60.
21. (34) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 60.
22. (21) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 60.
23. (36) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 60.
24. (18) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 60.
25. (35) Jesse Iwuji, Chevrolet, 60.
26. (25) Leland Honeyman Jr(i), Chevrolet, 59.
27. (12) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, Electrical, 52.
28. (23) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 52.
29. (14) Lavar Scott, Chevrolet, 48.
30. (19) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 47.
31. (1) Brent Crews, Toyota, Engine, 44.
32. (16) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, Engine, 43.
33. (32) Baltazar Leguizamon, Chevrolet, Engine, 41.
34. (6) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, Accident, 34.
35. (3) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, Accident, 34.
36. (9) William Sawalich, Toyota, Accident, 34.
37. (29) Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, Engine, 28.
–Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
Wings rally from 15 down in fourth quarter to stun Sky
Flyweight Manel Kape continues successful run at UFC Fight Night
