Sports
UConn muscles through Illini, set for title shot at Final Four
Apr 4, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Connecticut Huskies guard Braylon Mullins (24) shoots against Illinois Fighting Illini forward David Mirkovic (0) in the first half during a semifinal of the Final Four of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images INDIANAPOLIS — UConn acted like the team that belonged and the Huskies are headed back to the national championship game after controlling Illinois start to finish in a 71-62 win Saturday at the Final Four.
Tarris Reed Jr. had 17 points and 11 rebounds and freshman Braylon Mullins had a huge first half and closing exclamation points to win a battle of touted freshmen with Fighting Illini second-team All-American Keaton Wagler.
The Huskies (34-5) defeated Illinois (28-9) for the second time this season and remained the only team to hold the Fighting Illini under 65 points in 2025-26.
Wagler finished with 20 points but was 2 of 10 from 3-point range, worn down by the Huskies challenging him for every inch and movement for the full 37 minutes he was on the court.
UConn came up with an offensive rebound on Alex Karaban’s missed 3 and Mullins knocked down a 3 for his first points of the second half with 52 seconds left.
Wagler had the answer. Facing a full-speed closeout from Silas Demary Jr., Wagler splashed a 3 from the left wing and Illinois spent its final timeout with 43.5 seconds remaining to make it a 66-62 game.
Demery made both free throws and Wagler’s long 3 banged hard off the front of the rim to help the Huskies leave Illinois disheartened and 1-5 all-time in the Final Four.
Earlier, Mullins missed a runner off the glass left of the lane and Reed’s follow didn’t fall for UConn coming out of a Huskies’ late-shot clock timeout. Wagler groud his way into the lane and cut the UConn lead to 63-59 with 1:38 to play.
Wagler missed a 26-foot 3 and a long rebound outlet to Ball put UConn up 61-53. With a chance to extend the lead or run precious ticks off the clock following another Wagler missed 3, the Huskies gave the ball back to Illinois. Ball missed in transition and Ben Humrichous made a 3 in front of the Illini bench to trim the deficit to 61-56 when the media timeout arrived with 2:46 remaining.
“You’ve just got to stay composed. Holding the lead, finding a good shot,” Mullins said. “That’s what we do.”
UConn is in the Final Four for the third time in four seasons and improved to 13-1 all-time on Saturday.
UConn had Illinois on the ropes quickly in the second half, building its lead to 11 with Karaban’s free throws when the Illini beat a double-team trap and found Mirkovic alone for a 3 from the left wing as the clock hit 17:08 to play. Ball got all 3 right back on a transition triple at the other end and a few minutes later made it 52-40 Huskies with a 3 that bounced off the rim twice before settling in the net.
Illinois’ dual-engine offense was slowed to running in fits and starts by UConn’s grinding defense, but the consolation prize paid dividends. The Fighting Illini made 18 of 23 free throws in the game.
They reached the double-bonus on the Huskies 10th foul of the second half with just under nine minutes to play. Kylan Boswell made two free throws and Tomislav Ivisic hit two with 8:03 on the clock, shrinking the UConn lead to 57-49 to awaken a partisan Illinois crowd. With UConn in the midst of a three-minute scoreless stretch, Ivisic got two more at the 7-minute mark, making it 57-51 Huskies.
UConn shrugged off Illinois’ token defensive pressure — the Huskies first turnover of the game was on their 40th possession — and went right at the tandem 7-foot Isivic Twins.
Illinois, which averaged 83.8 points per game, appeared to face challenges with the open shooting background at the south end of Lucas Oil Stadium and shot 34.5 percent in the first half with one assist on 10 field goals. Top free-throw shooter Andrej Stojakovic (82.3% entering Final Four) badly missed a pair in the first half.
The Illini missed their first six 3-point tries with UConn’s full-court press causing the offensive juggernaut to shift approach and attack the paint.
Wagler finally nailed a 3 with 10:30 left in the first half and broke the ice.
Ivisic hit a line-drive lefty 3 to give Illinois its first and only lead of the game, 22-21, in the midst of a nearly four-minute scoring drought for UConn. At that under-8 timeout in the first half, which came at the 6:25 mark, the teams were a combined 15 of 44 from the field.
–Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media
Sports
LeBron James, depleted Lakers face Mavericks
Feb 12, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) pleads his case to referee Che Flores (91) in the second half against the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images The Los Angeles Lakers head into the final week of the regular season with an opportunity to sew up home-court advantage for the first round of the NBA Playoffs, but they begin the final push Sunday at Dallas with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves sidelined.
Doncic, a 2026 Most Valuable Player candidate and former Maverick, sustained a hamstring injury in Thursday’s 139-96 blowout loss at reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City.
Reaves will be sidelined for the remainder of the regular season with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury, according to ESPN.
Doncic went into the matchup with the league-leading Thunder on a run scoring 41-plus points in the previous three contests, boosting his NBA-best scoring output to 33.5 points per game. Doncic is also averaging 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game, the latter a team-high for Los Angeles (50-27).
“We’re not going to put a player at risk,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Doncic being in the game in the third quarter, despite Oklahoma City holding a 31-point lead at halftime. “(The coaching staff) thought we’d give (the Lakers starters) about six minutes, and if we didn’t cut into the lead, we were gonna pull them.”
Doncic’s injury came shortly before that six-minute mark in the third period.
Meanwhile, Reaves was enjoying a breakout season, averaging 23.3 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.7 rebounds across 51 games.
Their absence now looms with Los Angeles playing five games in the final eight days of the regular season and holding a half-game lead over fourth-place Denver.
After West-leading Oklahoma City and San Antonio, which are vying for home-court advantage throughout the Playoffs, the conference is a logjam. The third-place Lakers are separated from sixth-place Minnesota by just four games, with Denver and Houston between.
With Doncic and Reaves out, LeBron James is expected to shoulder a large workload. The 41-year-old, who posted a triple-double last Monday vs. Washington, is averaging 20.6 points, 6.9 assists, and 6.0 rebounds per game.
James leads the Lakers against a Dallas team that has dropped eight of its last nine, including the last three.
In their most recent outing, the Mavericks (24-53) fell to Orlando, 138-127, despite rookie Cooper Flagg’s career-high 51 points.
The 19-year-old Flagg became the youngest player in NBA history to score 50-plus points, shooting 19-of-30 from the floor and 6-of-9 from 3-point range on his way to the milestone. Flagg is averaging a team-high 20.8 points per game, as he makes his case for 2025-26 Rookie of the Year.
“He should be Rookie of the Year,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “It’s unbelievable, the country is not watching the same thing that we get to watch on a daily basis.”
Flagg is jockeying with his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel for the award. Knueppel is averaging 18.8 points per game for the surprising Eastern Conference playoff contenders Charlotte.
Flagg has five games remaining to finish his case for Rookie of the Year, four of which pit Dallas against teams bound for the postseason, including the Lakers. Flagg missed the Mavericks’ most recent matchup with Los Angeles, a 124-104 loss on Feb. 12.
The Lakers moved to 3-0 against Dallas on the season with that win and can complete the season sweep on Sunday. Los Angeles has won the past five meetings.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Robert MacIntyre maintains lead at weather-shortened Valero Texas Open third round
Apr 4, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; Robert MacIntyre reacts to his shot from the second tee during the third round of the Valero Texas Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre maintained the lead during the storm-interrupted Valero Texas Open’s third round Saturday in San Antonio.
MacIntyre was 1 under through six holes, putting him at 15 under for the tournament and holding a two-stroke edge on Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course. Aberg was 3 under for the round through six holes.
No golfers completed the third round, which will resume Sunday morning.
The third round was suspended late Saturday morning because of storms. There were multiple announced restart times, but the weather prevented those from taking place before the decision to not return to the course Saturday.
A pair of Englishmen made the biggest moves before the weather interfered. Matt Wallace was 7 under through 14 holes, moving to 11 under for the tournament. Marco Penge also completed 14 holes, doing so in 6 under to move to a tie for fifth place at 10 under.
Japan’s Ryo Hisatune is tied with Wallace in third place after finishing eight holes at 3 under Saturday.
Chris Kirk, Chandler Phillips, Michael Kim and Tony Finau — all only completing holes on the front side — were all at 10 under.
MacIntyre carried a four-shot lead into the weekend.
At 14 through two rounds, MacIntrye held the lowest opening 36-hole total since the tournament moved to TPC San Antonio.
MacIntrye is bidding to become the third consecutive left-hander to win the tournament following Akshay Bhatia in 2024 and Brian Harman in 2025.
Aberg had top-five finishes in his last two PGA Tour outings.
Defending champion Brian Harman shot 3 under through 11 holes Saturday to move to 6 under.
Play also was suspended Friday in the second round. Luke Clanton had to play his final hole Saturday morning before the third round began, and he made the cut. The third round was pushed up a couple of hours in hopes of avoiding weather problems, but those weren’t averted.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Avalanche defeat Stars, as Brent Burns makes history
Apr 4, 2026; Dallas, Texas, USA; Colorado Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns (84) looks on during the first period against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images Martin Necas scored with 9:21 left in the game, as the visiting Colorado Avalanche blanked the Dallas Stars, 2-0, on Saturday.
Nathan MacKinnon added his NHL-leading 51st goal with 58 seconds remaining.
The top two teams in the Central Division and the Western Conference split four meetings this season. This was the first result that did not require a shootout.
Necas’s winner came off assists from Artturi Lehkonen and Devon Toews. The Avalanche kept the puck in the zone off a failed Dallas clear. Toews sent the puck into the middle to Lehkonen, who worked into some space in the middle of the ice before finding Necas on the back doorstep for the easy tap-in.
Necas’s goal was his 36th of the season, a career high. His 14 goals since the Olympics break are tied for second in the league. Toews’s assist was the 300th point of his career.
It was the fifth straight road win for Colorado (50-15-10, 110 points), which is on the verge of clinching the Presidents’ Trophy. It was also a good response, particularly defensively, to a sloppy 8-6 home defeat to Vancouver on Wednesday.
Scott Wedgewood made 17 saves for his third shutout of the season. He came into the game with an NHL-leading 2.19 goals against average and .916 save percentage and improved to 28-6-6.
For Dallas (45-20-12, 102 points), which fell to 3-6-2 since a 14-0-1 run skyrocketed them up the standings, Casey DeSmith matched Wedgewood save for save through two and a half periods. He made 20 stops, but fell to 0-4-1 in his last five.
MacKinnon provided insurance with an empty-netter. He’s third in the league with 122 points. Necas assisted, giving him a career-high 58 assists and 94 points.
Colorado defenseman Brent Burns became just the second NHL player ever, and first blueliner, to play 1,000 consecutive games. The 2017 Norris Trophy winner, while with San Jose, Burns has not missed a game in 12 years and 138 days, dating back to November 17, 2013.
–Field Level Media
LeBron James, depleted Lakers face Mavericks
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