Sports
Kentucky to test new winning formula against No. 18 Vanderbilt
Jan 24, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Otega Oweh (00) makes a lay up during the second half against the Mississippi Rebels at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images Kentucky looks to extend a five-game league winning streak when it travels to No. 18 Vanderbilt on Tuesday night in Nashville.
The banged-up Wildcats (14-6, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) scored a 72-63 home win over Ole Miss on Saturday despite playing without key players in starting point guard Jaland Lowe and forwards Kam Williams and Jayden Quaintance. Otega Oweh, a senior guard who has averaged 19.7 points in league games and 16.1 for 20 games overall, scored 23 in the win.
Coach Mark Pope, who gave double-digit minutes to nine players, lauded his team for its toughness and unselfishness.
“What we have right now is we have guys making winning plays,” Pope said. “So, we have guys that are falling in love with making the dirty, non-scoring, massively important winning plays of the game. We have guys stepping up and doing that all over the place, and it’s why we’ve had so much success in all these close games, and it’s because guys are falling in love with it.”
Vanderbilt (17-3, 4-3) snapped a three-game losing streak with an 88-56 win at Mississippi State on Saturday. The Commodores played without one of their top three guards in Frankie Collins, but Tyler Tanner (24 points, five assists) and Duke Miles (17 points, seven steals) more than picked up the slack.
Vanderbilt had been awful defensively in that three-game skid, allowing 80 points to Texas, 98 to Florida and 93 to Arkansas in a 25-point loss. Coach Mark Byington, who called the Jan. 20 performance against Arkansas “embarrassing,” was thrilled with how the team held MSU’s Josh Hubbard — then the SEC’s leading scorer — to seven points on Saturday to drop his average to 21 per game.
“Our activity was great,” Byington said. “Our defense was really locked in today, and (Mississippi State has) some talented offensive players. The SEC’s leading scorer in the league, he’s tough to guard. Our guys’ approach to the game was really good.”
Kentucky’s Lowe (season-ending shoulder injury) and Williams (broken foot) are out, and Quaintance (knee) likely won’t be available for Wednesday’s game. But Vanderbilt’s Collins, who averaged 7.8 points, 20.9 minutes and 2.4 steals over nine games, might play after missing the last nine games with a meniscus injury.
Collins, Tanner (17.4 ppg, 2.4 spg) and Miles (16.6 ppg, 2.8 spg) are disruptive defenders who can get the Commodores easy buckets in transition off turnovers.
That presents a challenge for Kentucky and point guard Denzel Aberdeen, who’s turned it over just seven times compared to 16 assists over the five-game winning streak.
The Wildcats weren’t a good defensive team earlier in the year, but they have gotten there thanks to slowing tempo (18.4 seconds per defensive possession for the 341st slowest nationally, per KenPom) and a 16.6% defensive turnover rate in league games.
Vanderbilt is elite at protecting the ball (11.0% turnover rate in SEC games) but has struggled against bigger teams. That makes Kentucky’s 7-foot Malachi Moreno, 6-11 Andrija Jelavic and 6-10 Brandon Garrison, who combined to play more than 58 minutes vs. Ole Miss, players to watch.
Should Kentucky slow the pace to a half-court game, Vanderbilt’s Tyler Nickel (14.7 ppg, 46.3% on 3s) is a player to watch along with Tanner (40.2%).
The Wildcats aren’t a good outside-shooting team, but Oweh (33.3% on 3-pointers), Collin Chandler (40.4%) and Aberdeen (36.8%) have had some success from distance.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Nationals turn back Athletics for series victory
Jul 19, 2026; West Sacramento, California, USA; Washington Nationals third baseman Curtis Mead (45) grounds out resulting in an RBI during the third inning against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Scott Marshall-Imagn Images Foster Griffin’s seven innings of one-run ball and home runs by CJ Abrams and Dylan Crews led the visiting Washington Nationals to a 5-2 win over the Athletics on Sunday afternoon in West Sacramento, Calif.
Griffin (11-2), who picked up his third win in as many starts, only struck out two but induced 12 groundball outs. Two of those grounders resulted in double plays as Griffin limited the damage from the eight hits he allowed.
Abrams’ and Crews’ back-to-back long balls were the big hits in a three-run fifth that added to an early Washington lead. Curtis Mead and Harry Ford had the other RBIs for the Nationals.
Shea Langeliers went 2-for-4 with a double while Alika Williams hit a pair of two-baggers out of the No. 9 spot for the A’s, who out-hit Washington 11-7 in a losing effort.
Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson each had an RBI for the Athletics. First baseman Tommy White was 0-for-2 with a walk after doubling in his MLB debut on Saturday.
Jacob Lopez (4-4) took the loss, giving up two runs in 4 1/3 innings.
The teams traded runs in the third to open the scoring. Nasim Nunez walked to lead off the inning and then stole second and third base before coming home to score on Mead’s RBI groundout.
Soderstrom then leveled it for the A’s in the bottom of the frame with a two-out RBI single, scoring Williams after the first of his two doubles.
Washington regained the lead in the fourth on an RBI double by Ford and they added on with Abrams’ two-run shot and Crews’ solo homer off reliever Elvis Alvarado an inning later.
Jonah Heim and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer hit two-out singles off Tom Cosgrove in the eighth to mount a late-game rally for the Athletics, but Clayton Beeter stepped in to force pinch hitter Carlos Cortes to ground out to first for the third out.
Wilson hit an RBI single in the ninth off Beeter, who recorded the final four outs to earn his eighth save of the season.
Washington took two games in each team’s first series out of the All-Star break. The Nationals won the opener 23-4 on Friday and the A’s took Saturday’s game 15-1.
–Field Level Media
Sports
PARIVISION claims top prize for Dota at Esports World Cup
Nov 5, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA; Fans do the wave between games of the League of Legends World Championships between T1 and DRX at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images PARIVISION picked up 1,000 Esports World Cup club points by taking down BetBoom Team 3-1 in the grand final of the Dota competition on Sunday in Paris.
They also collected a tidy $750,000 of the $2 million prize pool for their victory. BetBoom settled for 750 club points and a $340,000 share of the pot.
In the third-place match, Team Yandex defeated Vici Gaming 2-0 to earn $200,000 and 500 club points.
PARIVISION, who won their six-team group in the opening stage of the tournament, sailed through the playoff bracket to match up with BetBoom Team, who won their first two playoff matches by 2-0 scores.
BetBoom opened the grand final with a 48-minute win on green, but PARIVISION grinded out a 62-minute win on green to level it. That was enough to control the momentum, as they won the next two maps in 41 minutes on red and 37 minutes on green, clinching the championship.
PARIVISION’s Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko of Russia earned tournament MVP honors, which came with a $25,000 bonus. Noticed averaged a 3.8-2.3-12.3 kills-deaths-assists ratio in the grand final, while countryman Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov led PARIVISION with 38 total kills.
Yandex won in 35 minutes on red before steamrolling Vici in 19 minutes on red to clinch the best-of-three third-place match. Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov of Russia averaged a 9.0-1.5-11.5 K-D-A for Yandex.
The Dota 2 event at the Esports World Cup was the final championship of the ESL Pro Tour, now in its fourth season.
The format consisted of three phases: a group stage of 24 teams that competed in a round robin, a survival phase formatted into a single-elimination bracket that saw four teams advance, then a final, single-elimination playoff stage that ran Thursday through Sunday.
The four group winners advanced directly to the playoffs. Teams finishing second through fourth in their groups went to the survival stage, a two-round bracket that decided the other four teams to make the playoff field of eight.
All matches in Phase 1 were two games, while the matches in Phases 2 and 3 were best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.
Dota 2 Esports World Cup payouts (prize money, EWC club points)
1. $750,000, 1,000 — PARIVISION
2. $340,000, 750 — BetBoom Team
3. $200,000, 500 — Team Yandex
4. $120,000, 300 — Vici Gaming
5-8. $70,000, 200 — Team Spirit, Rune Eaters, Nigma Galaxy, Team Falcons
9-12. $40,000, 0 — LGD Gaming, 1w, Team Liquid, Aurora Gaming
13-16. $20,000, 0 — MOUZ, Xtreme Gaming, Virtus.pro, PlayTime
17-20. $10,000, 0 — GamerLegion, Level UP, REKONIX, OG
21-24. $7,500, 0 — Poor Rangers, L1 Team, Team Nemesis, Inner Circle x Insanity
–Field Level Media
Sports
Luke Raley comes through in pinch, helps Mariners beat Giants
Jul 19, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco Giants designated hitter Bryce Eldridge (8) runs the bases after hitting a home run against the Seattle Mariners during the first inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images Pinch hitter Luke Raley hit a tiebreaking home run and Cole Young added a two-run shot as the Seattle Mariners got back to the .500 mark with a 6-3 victory against the visiting San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon.
Right-hander Logan Gilbert (8-6) pitched six quality innings for the Mariners, who took two of three games in the interleague series coming out of the All-Star break.
Gilbert allowed three runs on four hits, walked just one and struck out 10.
Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier and Andres Munoz combined for three scoreless innings of one-hit relief, with six strikeouts. Munoz worked the ninth for his 17th save of the season.
With the score tied at 3, Raley hit a blast to right-center off Giants reliever Adrian Houser (2-7) with one out in the bottom of the sixth.
Julio Rodriguez led off the seventh by grounding a single to left and Young took Houser deep to right for the final margin.
The Giants got on the scoreboard in the first inning. With one out, Eldridge went deep to right-center. Casey Schmitt grounded a single to left, stole second, and scored on Heliot Ramos’ two-out single to right to make it 2-0.
The Mariners tied it in the fourth with a pair of unearned runs off Robbie Ray. Randy Arozarena reached on third baseman Schmitt’s two-base throwing error and took third when Cal Raleigh filed out to the warning track in right-center. Josh Naylor grounded a run-scoring single to left and stole second. With two outs, Weston Wilson grounded an RBI single to center. A single by Colt Emerson and a walk to J.P. Crawford loaded the bases before Ray got out of the jam by getting Rodriguez to fly out to right.
The Giants regained the lead in the fifth after Willy Adames drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on Grant McCray’s sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Luis Arraez – who had struck out twice, the first time that’s happened in a game this season – slapped a double down the left-field line to make it 3-2.
The Mariners tied it in the bottom of the inning, knocking out Ray in the process. Young and Arozarena led off with singles to right, with Young taking third on the latter. Reliever Sam Hentges replaced Ray and got Raleigh to ground into a double play, with Young scoring on the play.
Ray, who pitched for the Mariners in 2022-23, went four-plus innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on seven hits. The lefty walked two and fanned six.
–Field Level Media
Nationals turn back Athletics for series victory
PARIVISION claims top prize for Dota at Esports World Cup
