Sports
No. 25 St. John's looks to continue roll against Butler
Jan 24, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino is mobbed by his team after defeating the Xavier Musketeers at the Cintas Center. The win is the 900th of Pitino’s career. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images Players doused Rick Pitino in water and wore T-shirts commemorating their coach reaching 900 wins on Saturday after St. John’s pulled off a second straight double-digit comeback.
The rally and milestone led to a return to the Top 25 poll. The 25th-ranked Red Storm seek a seventh straight win when they host Butler on Wednesday night in New York.
St. John’s (15-5, 8-1 Big East) is playing its first game as a ranked team since it held the No. 22 slot and took a 78-66 loss to Kentucky on Dec. 20. The Red Storm hit a low point on Jan. 3 when they squandered a 13-point lead and shot 28.2% in their 77-71 home loss to Providence.
The streak began with an 84-70 win at Butler on Jan. 6. Blowouts over Creighton and Marquette followed before a seven-point win at Villanova. On Jan. 20, the Red Storm erased a 15-point deficit to earn a physical 65-60 home win over Seton Hall, but their latest win was played more at their pace.
Pitino became the fourth Division I coach with 900 career wins and is three behind Roy Williams after St. John’s overcame a 16-point deficit for an 88-83 win over Xavier, coached by his son Richard.
The Red Storm ended the game on a 33-13 run.
“I’ve said this all along to you guys all year long, how enjoyable they are,” Pitino said. “But tonight was the icing on the cake, because a lot of teams would break, down 12, down 10, and they never broke, they just stayed with it.”
While Dylan Darling did not lead St. John’s in scoring, the reserve guard scored all 11 of his points with three 3-pointers and a layup when the Red Storm went from trailing by five to holding a two-point lead.
Bryce Hopkins led the Red Storm with 18 points while Dillon Mitchell continued his production since entering the starting lineup with 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Ian Jackson finished with 16 and Zuby Ejiofor notched 13 and 11 boards for his first double-double of the winning streak and fourth overall.
Including two games in the Big East tournament, Butler (13-7, 4-5) has lost seven straight to the Red Storm since Feb. 7, 2023.
The Bulldogs were outscored 42-28 in the second half of the previous meeting and followed it up with an 89-75 setback at Xavier on Jan. 14 that gave them a four-game losing streak and prompted a players-only meeting.
Since then, Butler is on a three-game winning streak after earning an 87-76 home win over Marquette on Friday night.
Finley Bizjack has led the Bulldogs in scoring in each game during the hot streak and in five of the past six games. He scored 28 against Marquette as the Bulldogs improved to 8-1 when he gets at least 20.
“We just got tired of losing,” Bizjack said. “We’re too good of a team. We’re all too talented. We all like each other way too much to be going through a stretch like that. It’s uncharacteristic for us, so getting back to what we do and being ourselves is super important.”
Michael Ajayi had 14 points and nine boards in the first meeting with St. John’s and has at least eight rebounds in every game this season to become the Big East’s top rebounder (11.5).
–Field Level Media
Sports
New French duo Fournier Beaudry, Cizeron lead after short dance
Feb 6, 2026; Milan, Italy; Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France compete in ice dance rhythm dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-Imagn Images MILAN — Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France continued one of figure skating’s most compelling revivals on Monday night, winning the rhythm dance at the Milan Cortina Olympics in only their fifth international event.
The duo, who teamed up last March, kept up their breakneck speed to the top of the ice dance world by scoring 90.18 points — their best ever — for their sleek fashion-runway-meets-ice-dance take on Madonna’s “Vogue.”
In a showdown that felt like the sharpening of a rivalry, they edged triple world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, who delivered a high-octane rhythm dance powered by rock and roll swagger for 89.72 points.
Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were third with 86.18.
The free dance is on Wednesday.
Cizeron had said last week that his partnership with Fournier Beaudry is “bonus time” for both skaters after they had believed their respective careers were over.
Cizeron’s former partner Gabriella Papadakis retired after the Beijing Olympics, while Fournier Beaudry’s partner Nikolaj Sorensen received a six-year suspension in 2024 for sexual maltreatment, although the suspension has been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.
After teaming up last spring, Fournier Beaudry, a Canadian, received her French citizenship in November to pave her way to the Olympics. They made an immediate impact on international ice, winning both their Grand Prix assignments before being edged by Chock and Bates at the Final in December.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
Sports
Knicks look to keep rolling vs. struggling Pacers
Feb 8, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) reacts after a play against the Boston Celtics in the second half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images The last time the New York Knicks played a home game against the Indiana Pacers, both teams were on the verge of the NBA Finals.
More than nine months later, the Pacers are much further away from championship contention than the Knicks — even if New York’s ceiling remains uncertain despite a recent surge.
The Knicks will look to continue their solid play Tuesday night, when they host the Pacers in the second clash of the season between the longtime rivals.
Both teams were off Monday after playing road matinees on Super Bowl Sunday, when the Knicks cruised past the Boston Celtics 111-89 and the Pacers fell to the Toronto Raptors, 122-104.
The win was the ninth in the last 10 games for the Knicks, who moved into a tie with the Celtics for second place in the Eastern Conference, five games behind the Detroit Pistons before the Pistons’ game Monday night against the Charlotte Hornets.
It also continued a trend of dominant victories for New York. Seven of New York’s last nine wins have been by double digits, including five by at least 20 points and three by 30 points or more.
But the lone loss in the current stretch was a 118-80 loss to the Pistons on Friday night. Starters Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby sat out for the Knicks, as did new backup guard Jose Alvarado, who was acquired from the New Orleans Pelicans last Thursday.
Yet the Knicks had a full starting lineup in Detroit on Jan. 5, when the Pistons rolled to a 121-90 victory. The first loss to Detroit was one of the low points of a lengthy skid for New York, which went 2-9 from Dec. 31 through Jan. 19 while falling to the lottery-bound Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks.
“Our group is resilient,” said Knicks head coach Mike Brown, who was hired after Tom Thibodeau was dismissed following a six-game loss to the Pacers in last season’s Eastern Conference finals — New York’s first trip to the conference finals since 2000.
“Sometimes things like (Friday) happen in Detroit. None of us like it. None of us want to go through it. Give Detroit a lot of credit, but we know it’s not who we are. We’ve played a lot better than that. We will.”
The Pacers’ hopes for the 2025-26 season likely ended in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last June 22, when star guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles in the first quarter of a 103-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Indiana, which was seeking its first NBA title, has fallen to last place in the Eastern Conference without Halliburton, who will miss the season. The Pacers are 13-40 and on pace for the worst record in franchise history.
The loss Sunday may have been a particularly costly defeat for the Pacers, who have dropped four straight following a 7-5 stretch from Jan. 8-31. Second-year guard/forward Johnny Furphy suffered a right knee injury while landing awkwardly following a dunk in the third quarter. He was helped off the court before he took a wheelchair to the locker room.
MRI testing Monday reportedly revealed a torn ACL for the Australian native, who had recently shown considerable promise for the organization while starting 21 of his 35 regular-season appearances in his second season in the league.
The Pacers were already without Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown, who have yet to play since they were acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. Zubac, who was on paternity leave at the time of the trade, is playing through a left ankle injury suffered in December.
“It’s kind of yo-yo’d a little bit,” Carlisle said of Zubac’s injury before Friday’s 105-99 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. “My understanding from talking to him is that there’s still something there that’s not quite right. We’re not going to put him out there until he’s really ready.”
As eager as Zubac may be to get on the court, Carlisle said they’ll take their time with his return.
“He’s a guy that has played 94 or 95% of his games through his career and I’m presuming that’s because he’s always raring to go through things,” Carlisle said. “That’s not going to be an option here.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Ski Jumping: Germany’s Raimund soars to gold, Slovenia’s Prevc falls short
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Ski Jumping – Men’s Normal Hill Individual – Final Round – Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium, Predazzo, Italy – February 9, 2026. Philipp Raimund of Germany reacts after his run in the Final Round. PREDAZZO, Italy — Germany’s Philipp Raimund won the gold medal in the men’s normal hill ski jumping event as he soared ahead of Poland’s Kacper Tomasiak at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Monday.
The Pole had to settle for silver, while Japan’s Ren Nikaido and Switzerland’s Gregor Deschwanden shared bronze. Favorite Domen Prevc of Slovenia only managed sixth place.
Raimund claimed the title with a final jump of 106.5 meters as he reached 274.1 points, 3.4 points ahead of Tomasiak, while Nikaido and Deschwanden finished 8.1 points back.
The 25-year-old Raimund fired an early warning on a dark but clear night in the Italian Alps, soaring 102 meters in the first round to earn the final jump of the competition and then handled the pressure to fly to his first Olympic gold.
“I know there’s a lot of pressure from the media and outside but my coach, the whole staff, my girlfriend … they were taking all that off my shoulders so I could just concentrate on myself. I want to say thank you to everybody,” he said.
“I’m extremely proud of myself that I could do two amazing jumps and stand on top at the end.”
The 19-year-old Tomasiak was delighted with second place.
“It is a dream coming true. I wasn’t really expecting that at my first Olympics. I’m a little surprised, but very happy. I jumped really good,” he said.
Gold medal favorite Prevc endured a shaky start, finishing only eighth in the opening round after a 100-metre jump, with the World Cup leader looking disappointed as he realized he had landed too short to mount an early challenge for gold.
His 105-metre second-round jump bumped him briefly into first place but he ended up out of the medals.
“Already the small (normal) hill is difficult for me and there was a bit of back wind but, honestly, after yesterday’s training I did not expect too much,” he told Reuters.
Prevc added that he had approached the competition with the mindset that he would be satisfied with a top-10 finish.
“It’s on one hand success for me, but on the other hand I of course came here to win medals and, yeah, it’s a little bit (of a) salty feeling,” Prevc said.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
