CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Austria’s Janine Flock finally erased her Pyeongchang pain on Saturday when, at the age of 36, she won the Olympic women’s skeleton singles with a performance of masterful consistency and iron nerve.

Flock, who led going into the final run eight years ago but slipped to fourth to miss a medal by two hundredths of a second, made no mistake this time to win a first women’s skeleton medal for her country.

Germany’s Olympic debutant Susanne Kreher took silver, three-tenths adrift but ahead of compatriot Jacqueline Pfeifer, who added bronze to her silver from 2018.

Another German, Hannah Neise, who won gold in Beijing as a 21-year-old, finished fourth.

Flock is the country’s second skeleton medalist after Martin Rettl took a men’s silver in 2002. She is also the oldest winner of the women’s event that joined the Games in the same year.

“I stayed with myself the whole time. I felt incredibly comfortable from the very beginning and never doubted that I could win here,” said Flock, who either side of Pyeongchang 2018 finished ninth and 10th in Sochi and Beijing, respectively.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to cross the finish line, to hear the cheering, to see the red white red flags and to be able to embrace all the team members and my family.

“I couldn’t tell what my time was (on the final run). I just knew I put down four really consistent runs and hoped that it was enough.”

FLOCK ENJOYS DREAM START

Flock had a dream start to the night as she went out first on the third run and posted the same time as on her second on Friday – 57.26 seconds – marginally behind the track record set on her first run and a level of consistency nobody could match.

She then sat back and watched the three Germans who had been breathing down her neck overnight all lose ground with scruffy third runs and suddenly she had a 0.21 cushion over Kreher, with Pfeifer and Neise looking out of the fight for gold.

Flock could have been forgiven for being nervous as she contemplated her final run. In Pyeongchang, she somehow found herself leading despite not managing a top-two finish in any of her three runs.

She had a scratchy run then, slipping agonizingly to fourth, but now, a more mature athlete with three overall World Cup titles to her name, she was bang on the money with a 57.28 – making all four runs within six hundredths of a second of each other.

Her times were all the more impressive given her shocking starts, where she was regularly among the very worst of the 25-woman field this week but routinely made up the time with her calm, smooth negotiation of the technically challenging upper half of the new Cortina course.

Overall World Cup champion Kim Meylemans of Belgium had a disappointing week, finishing sixth, but might perhaps find some Valentine’s Day comfort from her wife, Nicole Silveira, who came in 11th representing Brazil in a rare example of a married couple competing against each other at the Olympics.

The skeleton programme comes to a close on Sunday with the first Olympic outing for the two-person, mixed team relay, where Germany and Britain, boasting newly crowned men’s singles champion Matt Weston, will expect to battle it out for gold.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

Dylan Darling scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, leading No. 17 St. John’s to a 79-69 win over host Providence on Saturday afternoon in a game that included a benches-clearing altercation that led to six ejections.

The game changed for good with 14:25 left in regulation. Providence’s Duncan Powell committed a hard foul on former Friar Bryce Hopkins on a breakaway layup. Powell, Jaylin Sellers and Dillon Mitchell were ejected along with Kelvin Odih, Ruben Prey and Lefteris Liotopoulos, who left the St. John’s bench area.

Following a delay for video review and debriefing, the Red Storm sank three of the four ensuing free throws to start an 8-0 run and take a 47-40 lead. Darling finished that stretch with his first of back-to-back 3-pointers and stole an inbounds pass for a layup.

St. John’s outscored Providence 40-29 to finish.

Darling sank three 3-pointers, went 8 of 9 from the foul line and added eight rebounds en route to a season-best performance for the Red Storm (20-5, 13-1), who extended their win streak to 11 since a Jan. 3 home loss to Providence.

Zuby Ejiofor scored 14 points, Oziyah Sellers added 11 and Hopkins had nine points and nine rebounds to add to the St. John’s attack.

Stefan Vaaks had 20 points, Ryan Mela scored 14 and Jaylin Sellers added 13 for Providence (11-15, 4-11), which has lost six of its last eight.

Before the brawl, Providence had been on a 14-1 run dating back to the final minutes of the first half, with a Jaylin Sellers 3-pointer highlighting the spurt and kicking off a back-and-forth stretch during which the game was tied two other times.

After the altercation, Providence got within four after Vaaks’ outlet feed led to a Jamier Jones three-point play with 13:55 left, but got no closer as Darling scored the game’s next five points and Ejiofor responded to multiple Mela baskets midway through the half.

Oziyah Sellers’ midrange jumper with 5:52 left gave St. John’s a double-digit lead again as part of a 9-3 run that put the game out of reach.

The Red Storm stormed out of the gates, responding to Oswin Erhunmwunse’s opening layup with a 10-0 run. Two Providence turnovers extended the segment, with Hopkins scoring the first of back-to-back baskets off steals.

After Mela’s layup stopped the run, Stu Jackson sank a 3-pointer and turned another turnover into a dunk for a 15-4 St. John’s lead in less than five minutes. A 5-0 burst brought Providence within seven, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Darling and Joson Sanon gave the Storm a 13-point lead.

A Jones three-point play and a Vaaks trey bookended Providence’s longest first-half run, making it 25-20 with 7:09 to play. St. John’s answered a near six-minute field-goal drought with a 9-2 run including a Hopkins transition dunk, but five Jaylin Sellers points and a Powell triple ended the first half.

–Field Level Media

Nate Kingz drove the lane and hit the winning layup with 2.3 seconds to play to lift host Syracuse to a wild 79-78 win over SMU on Saturday afternoon in an Atlantic Coast Conference dustup.

The Mustangs led 61-49 with 12:15 to play before Syracuse (15-11, 6-7 ACC) rallied. Naithan George grabbed a rebound and went the length of the floor for a layup to put the Orange up by a point with 3:21 left.

Jaden Toombs’s follow-up tip in with 2:41 left put the Mustangs back on top, but Toombs then missed a pair of free throws with 1:28 to play that would have expanded the lead. Syracuse’s Tyler Betsey missed out a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left before SMU came up empty on the next possession, setting the table for Kingz’s game-winning drive to the basket.

Donnie Freeman led the Orange with 18 points, while George scored 16. Kingz and Kiyan Anthony had 13 points each.

Toombs paced SMU (17-8, 6-6 ACC) with 19 points. Corey Washington added 13 points and nine rebounds, Jaron Pierre Jr. scored 12 points, and Boopie Miller and Samet Yigitoglu tallied 11 each. SMU went scoreless over the final 2:41 and missed six of its final seven shots.

The game went back and forth over its first five and a half minutes and was tied at 12-12 after Freeman hit a free throw at the 14:35 mark of the first half. SMU took the lead and pushed its advantage to 24-17 on Jermaine O’Neal Jr.’s dunk off a fast break pass from Miller with 9:19 left in the half.

Syracuse was within 24-21 after a pair of free throws by Freeman with 8:37 to play before halftime. The Mustangs then got pair of baskets from Toombs along with two free throws and a 3-pointer from Pierre to stroke their lead to 33-21 with 6:22 remaining.

But the Orange swung back, using an 8-0 run to draw to within 37-35 after William Kyle III hit a pair from the charity stripe with 1:50 left in the half. Washington’s jumper 48 seconds later allowed SMU to carry a 39-35 lead into the break.

Freeman led all scorers with 11 first half points, while Toombs amassed 10 off the bench for SMU.

–Field Level Media