Sports
Alijah Arenas converts winning basket as USC beats Penn State
Feb 8, 2026; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions guard Dominick Stewart (7) dribbles the ball around the outside of Southern California Trojans guard Alijah Arenas (0) during the first half at Bryce Jordan Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images Alijah Arenas scored 24 points, including a spinning layup in traffic with 0.7 seconds remaining, as Southern California overcame a 12-point second-half deficit and rallied for a 77-75 victory over Penn State in Big Ten Conference play at University Park, Pa.
Kam Woods scored 13 points with nine assists and Ezra Ausar also had 13 points as USC (18-6, 7-6 Big Ten) extended its winning streak to three games. It is the first time the Trojans have won three consecutive games in Big Ten play since joining the conference last season.
It was USC’s third conference victory this season when rallying from a deficit of at least 10 points. The Trojans, who were playing without leading scorer Chad Baker-Mazara (knee), also overcame double-digit deficits to defeat Oregon and Wisconsin.
Freddie Dilione V scored 23 points and Josh Reed added 17 for Penn State (10-14, 1-12), who have dropped consecutive games after their first Big Ten victory Feb. 1 against Minnesota. Ivan Juric scored 13 points after missing the previous two games.
Penn State took its first double-digit lead at 48-38 with 18:09 remaining on a jumper from Dilione. A dunk from Dilione less than a minute later put the Nittany Lions up 50-38.
Penn State still led 53-42 with 15:56 left when USC began to close the gap with a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to 53-51 with 12:55 remaining. USC jumped on top 56-55 on a three-point play from Woods with 10:56 left.
Arenas, who scored the Trojans’ last eight points, was playing his sixth college game after starting the season for USC with a knee injury. He combined to score 30 points over his first four games before a breakout 29-point game against Indiana in a home victory Tuesday.
Penn State took a 40-36 lead at halftime by shooting 53.1% from the floor and getting 13 points from Dilione. Arenas and Ausar each had nine points in the first half for USC, which made half of its 32 shot attempts.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Knicks' OG Anunoby out, Karl-Anthony Towns to play vs. Celtics
Dec 30, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) reacts with guard Josh Hart (3), and forward OG Anunoby (8) after a field goal during the fourth quarter against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby has been ruled out of Sunday afternoon’s game against the host Boston Celtics due to a toe injury.
Anunoby joined center Karl-Anthony Towns (right eye laceration) in sitting out Friday as New York saw its season-best eight-game winning streak come to a halt with a 118-80 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Towns, however, and guard Josh Hart (ankle) are available to play on Sunday against the Celtics.
All three players were listed as questionable on the injury report.
Anunoby, 28, is averaging 16.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in 41 games (all starts) this season.
Towns, 30, contributes 19.9 points and a team-best 11.9 rebounds in 48 games (all starts) in 2025-26.
Hart, 30, is averaging 12.1 points and 7.6 rebounds in 40 games (26 starts) this season.
–Field Level Media
Sports
The UFC Heavyweight Division Is Broken — And UFC Vegas 113 Proved It
UFC Vegas 113 proved to be your typical UFC Fight Night, with the biggest standouts being main event and co-main event winners Mario Bautista and Kyoji Horiguchi, and even a last-second submission on the prelims.
But there was a different kind of big standout – a different kind of big, and a really bad standout.
UFC Vegas 113’s main card featured a heavyweight matchup between Jailton Almeida and Rizvan Kuniev. It was a chance for Almeida to rebound from his title eliminator loss to Alexander Volkov and prove he’s still relevant in the heavyweight title picture. For Kuniev, competing for just the second time in the Octagon, it was a chance to make a quick jump in the heavyweight rankings and show off his full potential.
Instead, we got a matchup where Kuniev held Almeida against the fence for most of the fight.The two fighters combined for just 30 significant strikes landed through two rounds. It was a matchup that did not truly benefit either fighter.
What the bout did was expose Almeida as having not developed any answer for when his grappling gets stopped. Everyone who was familiar with Kuniev and sung his praises and power were left with nothing to say after the performance he had, even in a win.
The fans in the arena booed, the MMA community eviscerated the two to the point they called for their UFC releases, and it just adds another blow to what is already a weak UFC heavyweight division.
The top of the heavyweight division is even stagnant right now. There is no clear timeline on when Tom Aspinall will be ready to return after the eye injury he suffered in his no contest with Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.
That has also left Gane’s status in question on which will happen first – a title rematch with Aspinall or fighting someone for an interim heavyweight title.
UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has teased a move up to heavyweight to try and become the first UFC fighter to win gold in three weight classes during their career. But UFC CEO and President Dana White is hesitant on the idea.
Jon Jones? Who knows whatever is going on with him, in or out of the Octagon. Jones has previously advocated to compete on the UFC White House card but White supposedly wants none of it.
And look at some of the rest of the top 15. Alexander Volkov beat Almeida in a title eliminator, but the mess at the top of the division has put his title shot in limbo. Sergei Pavlovich lost to Aspinall and Volkov, but he is the lone blemish in Waldo Cortes-Acosta’s current upward trajectory, and WCA is the talk of the heavyweight town right now.
Curtis Blaydes? Lost to Aspinall and should have lost to a debuting Rizvan Kuniev. No thank you. Tallison Teixeira seemed to have potential even with a loss to Derrick Lewis, but his win over Tai Tuivasa at UFC 325 last week was a stinker. Lewis himself is a legend, but his days of seriously pursuing a heavyweight title are behind him.
Speaking of Tuivasa, can someone explain to me how this guy can lose five fights in a row and still be ranked?!?
The only hope outside the top five is Valter Walker, who has picked more ankles for submission wins than a little kid picks their nose.
The UFC heavyweight scene is dull, boring, and has very little signs of strong activity. It needs life injected to it. And that’s not Josh Hokit and his cringe-based promo skills or the political schtick we’ve already seen from Colby Covington.
When an (at least for now) unrealistic matchup between Jones and Pereira is the most enticing potential matchup at heavyweight, and nothing comes close, the division has problems.
The screams of “Shut down heavyweight!” won’t be answered. It’s unfair to those who can’t drop to 205, and combat sports has long had heavyweight as a “glamor division.”
But these calls, and the lack of talent in the fights, show the division has lost the support of the MMA fanbase. And that’s just a sad fact.
Sports
Lindsey Vonn hospitalized in stable condition after downhill crash
This screen grab taken from a video shows Lindsey Vonn of the United States crashing during the women’s downhill on Sunday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — U.S. ski great Lindsey Vonn was flown to a hospital after her bold bid to win Olympic downhill gold with a ruptured ACL ended in a horrific crash after 13 seconds on Sunday.
A helicopter took the 41-year-old to a hospital in Treviso, a source told Reuters, after she was strapped into a medical stretcher and winched off the sunlit slope.
“Lindsey sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians,” the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team said in a statement after the Sunday crash.
It was the second time in nine days that she was airlifted off a mountain. She crashed in a World Cup race in Switzerland on Jan. 30 and suffered the ACL tear.
Vonn, whose battle to reach the start line despite her knee injury dominated the opening days of the Milan Cortina Olympics, saw her unlikely quest halted in screaming agony on the snow.
Wearing bib number 13 and with a brace on the injured left knee, Vonn looked pumped up at the start gate.
She tapped her ski poles before setting off in typically aggressive fashion down one of her favorite ski runs on a mountain that has rewarded her in the past.
The 2010 gold medalist in the Vancouver Olympics and the second most successful female World Cup skier of all time with 84 wins, Vonn appeared to clip the fourth gate with her shoulder, losing control and being launched into the air.
She then barrelled off the course at high speed before coming to rest in a crumpled heap.
Vonn could be heard screaming on television coverage as fans and teammates gasped in horror before a shocked hush fell on the packed finish area.
The helicopter took Vonn initially to Cortina’s Codivilla Putti Hospital for a medical assessment.
“The medical team responded immediately and the intervention time was excellent,” the International Olympic Committee said.
The crash left the other skiers shaken.
“My heart goes out to her,” said Breezy Johnson, her U.S. teammate who won the first American medal of the Games. She had skied before Vonn, and her time held up as the other skiers attempted to better it.
“When you love the course so much and it hurts you like that, it hurts even more.”
Vonn had been hoping to become the oldest Alpine skiing Olympic medallist after winning two World Cup downhills this year and finishing on the podium in the other three.
Double Olympic gold medalist Tina Maze, working the race on TV for Eurosport, said Vonn had risked too much in her run.
“Of course if you’re not healthy then the consequences are even worse, but we know all Lindsey,” she said. “It’s her decision that she wanted to do this no matter what.
“It’s really tough for everyone here to see this and especially for her family and her teammates and everyone working with her. I mean it’s terrible.”
Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, said she Lindsey put her “whole heart” into racing at the Olympics, especially as it was being staged on a course she loves so much.
“That’s definitely the last thing we wanted to see,” she told NBC. “When that happens, you’re just immediately hoping she’s OK, and it was scary.”
“She dared greatly, and she put it all out there.”
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
Knicks' OG Anunoby out, Karl-Anthony Towns to play vs. Celtics
Super Bowl LX performers: Who is singing the anthems
