Sports
No. 14 Mississippi State bids to keep guard up vs. No. 20 Missouri
Jan 29, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs guard Josh Hubbard (12) drives to the basket against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the second half at Humphrey Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Imagn Images No. 14 Mississippi State has suffered two close losses at home this season against top-tier Southeastern Conference teams.
But the league will provide the Bulldogs (16-5, 4-4) many more opportunities to win at home, such as Saturday afternoon against No. 20 Missouri in Starkville, Miss.
The Bulldogs will try to respond positively to their 88-84 home loss to No. 4 Alabama on Wednesday. As with their 95-90 defeat to then-No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 11, they let a potential hallmark victory slip away.
“At this point, I would just say we are not a Top 10 team,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. “I don’t like saying or admitting that because I like this team. I am confident and believe in this group. We have to stay the course.”
The Bulldogs already have a strong case for an NCAA Tournament bid, given their victories at Memphis and Vanderbilt and at home against Pitt and Ole Miss.
Now Mississippi State is in a stretch of facing four ranked teams in a span of five games. Missouri (16-4, 5-2) has two Top 10 victories this season, over Kansas at home and at Florida, in addition to wins over conference foes Vanderbilt and Ole Miss at home.
The challenges just keep coming in the SEC.
“We just have to stay the course,” Mississippi State guard Claudell Harris Jr. said. “Just keep our head in the right space and remember we are still that team who has beat ranked teams. SEC play is a gauntlet, and you will have your ups and downs, but at the end of the day, you just have to keep fighting. We will get back.”
The Bulldogs are led by guard Josh Hubbard, who averages 17.3 points and 3.0 assists per game. He scored 38 points against Alabama.
KeShawn Murphy (10.8), Harris (10.6) and Riley Kugel (10.2) also are averaging in double figures in scoring.
Missouri, meanwhile, rebounded from a 61-53 loss at Texas on Jan. 21 by beating then-No. 16 Ole Miss 83-75 at home last Saturday.
After bogging down offensively against the Longhorns, the Tigers re-established their ball movement vs. the Rebels. Missouri coach Dennis Gates wants his team attacking the basket in its half-court offense and earning free throws.
Against Ole Miss, the Tigers did a better job of passing the ball out to 3-point line after drawing double-teams in the lane.
“I felt like there was a lot of times where someone drove in there, they played off two feet, they drew two (defenders), kick, kick, and we were getting open looks when we were attacking the paint,” said Missouri guard Caleb Grill, who scored 22 against the Rebels.
Missouri has been a much-improved defensive team this season, which has helped them overcome stretches of cold shooting.
“Our mindset was to not let the defensive side of the ball be dictated on if we were making or missing shots or not,” said Tigers guard Tamar Bates, who scored 26 points against Ole Miss. “Because we came in with a mindset to get stops and play defense, and to stop the man in front of us, and to help the helper if somebody gets beat, that in turn gave us energy and gave the ball energy and just helped us make shots.”
Bates leads the balanced Missouri offense with an average of 13.5 points per game. Mark Mitchell (13.1), Grill (12.7) and Anthony Robinson II (10.2) also are averaging in double digits.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Angels' bullpen gets redemption in combined shutout of Athletics
Jun 20, 2026; West Sacramento, California, USA; Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Walbert Urena (57) throws a pitch against the Athletics during the first inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel delivered consecutive two-run doubles in a four-run sixth inning to help the Los Angeles Angels record an easy 7-0 victory over the Athletics on Saturday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Denzer Guzman homered and Jo Adell and Donovan Walton had three apiece hits as the Angels ended a streak of five consecutive losses against the Athletics. Tyler Heineman added two hits for Los Angeles, which won for just the second time in the past seven contests.
Los Angeles blew a seven-run lead in Friday’s 12-11, 10-inning loss to the A’s and once again led by seven on Saturday. This time, the bullpen came through as Samy Natera Jr. (one hit and two strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings), Ryan Zeferjan (three strikeouts in 1 2/3 frames) and Kirby Yates (two strikeouts in one inning) combined to fan seven and allow just one hit over four scoreless innings.
Walbert Urena (5-5) gave up four hits over five scoreless innings. He struck out six and walked none.
J.T. Ginn (5-4) of the Athletics was charged with four runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out five and walked three.
Ginn famously took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Angels on May 18 in Anaheim. He lost the no-hitter to Adam Frazier’s single and then the game on Neto’s two-run walk-off homer.
Zack Gelof of the A’s sat out one night after being hit in the head with a pitch. Gelof owns a career-best 23-game hitting streak, the top active run in the majors.
Adell led off the second inning with a double and Wade Meckler followed with a walk. One out later, Walton hit an RBI single to right and Jose Siri followed with a sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0.
The Angels knocked Ginn out of the game in the sixth behind one-out singles by Walton and Siri. Scott Barlow entered and allowed a bloop single to Heineman to load the bases.
Neto then stroked a two-run double inside the third-base line and Schanuel followed with a two-run double inside the first-base line to make it 6-0.
Guzman homered to left in the seventh, his second blast in as many games.
The Athletics loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh but didn’t get the big hit they needed as Shea Langeliers grounded out to second.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Byron Buxton slam in 10-run fifth propels Twins to rout of Diamondbacks
Jun 20, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton (25) hits a grand slam against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fifth inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images Byron Buxton’s grand slam highlighted a 10-run fifth inning for the Minnesota Twins, allowing them to coast to a 16-8 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night in Phoenix.
Brooks Lee had four hits, three runs scored and two RBIs, Victor Caratini had three hits, three RBIs and three runs scored, Ryan Kreidler had three hits and four RBIs, and Luke Keaschall also had three hits and scored three times for Minnesota, which has won five of six.
Twins starter Taj Bradley (6-3) allowed two runs and three hits over five innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Jorge Barrosa homered and doubled, Pavin Smith had two hits and an RBI, Tommy Troy had two hits and a run scored, and Ildemaro Vargas delivered a three-run double for Arizona, which had won four of five.
Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen (3-6) surrendered career highs of nine runs and 12 hits over four innings. The 2023 NL All Star struck out two and walked two.
Lee’s two-run single in the first gave the Twins an early 2-0 lead.
Gallen retired eight in a row before back-to-back soft-hit singles and a swinging bunt by Keaschall loaded the bases for Kreidler, who rolled a grounder up the middle that second baseman Ketel Marte could only knock down, extending the lead to 3-0.
Trevor Larnach followed with the fifth straight single for the Twins, driving in a pair of runs for a 5-0 lead.
After Gallen got the second out, Kody Clemens dropped a single into left-center field to score Kreidler and make it 6-0.
Lee began the 10-run fifth with a triple into the right-field corner. He scored when Caratini doubled into the right-center field gap to make it 7-0.
A single by Keaschall put runners on the corners, still with no outs, and ended Gallen’s night.
The Twins continued to pad their lead against Yilber Diaz, loading the bases for Buxton, who went the other way for a grand slam over the right-field fence, extending the lead to 12-0.
A two-run single from Caratine and a two-run triple from Kreidler capped off the massive inning,
Barrosa went deep with a runner aboard in the fifth to cut it to 16-2. The D-Backs plated another run when the first four batters of the seventh walked and then scored three on Vargas’ double to make it 16-6.
Smith cut it to 16-7 with a two-out RBI single later in the inning, and Arizona tacked on another run in the eighth on a run-scoring groundout to make it 16-8.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Japan shut out Tunisia, which will not advance from group stage
June 20, 2026; Monterrey, Mexico; Japan’s Ayase Ueda scores their second goal. Mandatory Credit: Eloisa Sanchez-Reuters via Imagn Images Ayase Ueda scored twice and had an assist to help Japan to a 4-0 Group F victory on Saturday night in Monterrey, Mexico, to eliminate Tunisia and spoil the debut of their coach Herve Renard.
Tunisia (0-2-0, 0 points) were eliminated while Japan and Netherlands each have four points (1-0-1) and a plus-4 goal differential.
Sweden (1-1-0) have three points heading into the final group matches on Thursday when Japan plays Sweden and Netherlands faces Tunisia.
Daichi Kamada opened the scoring in the 4th minute, the fastest goal ever for the Japanese in a World Cup match. The previous mark was Shinji Kagawa’s score against Colombia in the sixth minute of their 2018 match.
Ueda made it 2-0 in the 31st minute, Junya Ito scored in the 69th and Ueda’s header in the 83rd made Japan the first Asian team to score four goals in the World Cup.
This was the 1,000th World Cup match since the inaugural tournament in Uruguay in 1930.
Tunisia were embarrassed after their 5-1 loss to Sweden in the opener on June 14, resulting in the firing of Sabri Lamouchi. Renard coached Saudia Arabia in the 2022 World Cup when they upset eventual champion Argentina 2-1 in their opener.
The change didn’t help.
Kamada, scoring in a second straight match, made a run toward the near post when Keito Nakamura from the left side sent a cross from the end line that Kamada was able to redirect for his 14th goal in 51 matches.
Renard made several changes with the most obvious being the return of veteran goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen after Lamouchi made the questionable decision to start the inexperienced Mouhib Chamakh, who played poorly against Sweden.
Dahmen was in goal for the 2022 World Cup, including a 0-0 tie with Denmark.
He made a spectacular save in the 10th minute on Saturday to keep it a one-goal deficit when he got his left arm on the ball and prevented it from going completely over the goal line by inches on a shot by Takehiro Tomiyasu.
But Dahmen could do nothing on the brilliant strike from the edge of the box by Ueda, who dribbled toward the goal as Montassar Talbi backed off. Ueda’s strike went between the defender’s legs and tucked into the lower left corner.
Ito took a pass in stride from Ueda, held off Mohamed Amine, and slipped a shot past Dahmen for the 3-0 lead.
Japan goalie Zion Suzuki did not have to make a save as Tunisia totaled two shots and none on target.
–Field Level Media
