Sports
South Carolina, UCLA face off in national championship game
Apr 3, 2026; Phoenix, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins center Lauren Betts (51) shoots the ball against the Texas Longhorns during a semifinal of the Final Four of the women’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images PHOENIX — Perennial powers South Carolina and UCLA avenged recent setbacks in the semifinals of the NCAA women’s Final Four on Friday.
Each could do it again when they meet in the championship game Sunday afternoon.
UCLA (36-1) broke the Gamecocks’ 43-game winning streak in a 77-62 victory in their last meeting Nov. 24, 2024, when star center Lauren Betts had 11 points, 14 rebounds, and four blocks.
“It was one of those games at home where we were really clicking on both sides of the ball,” UCLA coach Cori Close said of the most recent meeting, the Bruins’ only win in the five-game series.
Two seasons prior, South Carolina (36-3) beat the Bruins twice, the second time 59-43 in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen on March 25, 2003.
“I’ve been on both sides of that,” Close said. “What I remember is, the team that rebounds the best and defends the best down the stretch won both those games. I don’t think it is probably going to be that different.”
South Carolina is playing for coach Dawn Staley’s fourth national championship, her third in five years, in their sixth straight Final Four.
UCLA coach Cori Close is going for her first. The Bruins have not won in the NCAA era, although they did win the 1978 title while competing in the precursor AIAW. The Bruins are in their second straight Final Four after losing to UConn in the semifinals a year ago.
South Carolina made the finals with a decisive-at-this-level 62-48 victory over tournament No. 1 seed and undefeated UConn, which had beaten the Gamecocks by 23 in the 2025 championship game.
The Gamecocks won the rematch with an aggressive, active defense that limited the Huskies to 31.1% shooting. It was punctuated by a late-game exchange between Staley and UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who issued an apology Saturday for how he “handled the end of the game.”
“For me, no distractions at this time,” Staley said in response. “Concentrating on winning the national championship. That’s it.”
Ta’Niya Latson had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, Agot Makeer scored 14 points, and two other Gamecocks scored in double figures against UConn.
Staley would be one of four coaches with four national championships.
“We’re going to be challenged because they are pretty methodical in how they want to cut you apart,” Staley said of UCLA. “They got bigs, they got shooters, they got a point guard that’s super smart.
“They’ve been together. They’re an experienced group that’s used to playing well with each other. They’re battle-tested. We got all of that that we’re up against.”
UCLA advanced with a 51-44 victory over Texas behind 6-foot-7 Betts’ 14th double-double, her blocked shot in the final 18 seconds, and a defense that held the Longhorns to 31% shooting. Texas handed the Bruins its only loss this season in Las Vegas on Nov. 26.
Betts, one of the five Bruins’ senior starters, is averaging 17.2 pointers and 8.7 rebounds.
“She brings about a great challenge,” Staley said. “A couple years ago you could kind of be real physical with her, she would kind of back down a little bit. Now she embraces it, right? Now she welcomes it.
“She can play off of it so well. You have to make a decision whether you’re going to double her, single-cover her, whether you’re going to triple her, then figure out how you’re going to scramble out of that and prioritize who because they can shoot the basketball.”
Kiki Rice (15.1 points), Gabriela Jaquez (13.3), and Gianna Kneepkens (12.8) provide complementary alternatives.
“Against a team like that, it’s going to be about our aggressiveness on both ends of the floor,” Betts said.
–Jack Magruder, Field Level Media
Sports
Mamadou Fofana scores first goal, as Revolution beat CF Montreal
Jul 25, 2025; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; New England Revolution defender Mamadou Fofana (2) passes the ball during the first half against the CF Montreal at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images Luca Langoni had a pair of goal contributions, keeper Matt Turner made five saves for the clean sheet, and the New England Revolution picked up a 3-0 victory over visiting CF Montreal on Saturday.
Langoni scored in the first half and set up Mamadou Fofana’s first MLS goal as New England (2-3-0, 6 points) remains undefeated at home.
Peyton Miller had the other goal for the Revolution, which improved to 10-6-2 all-time in Foxborough against Montreal.
Montreal (1-5-0, 3 points) has dropped three straight with the loss at New England. Keeper Thomas Gillier made two saves.
Leading 1-0, Fofana doubled the Revolution’s lead in the 77th minute, redirecting a through ball from Langoni past Gillier.
Then, in second half stoppage time, Miller chipped a strike up and over Gillier.
Montreal had a couple of glorious chances for the equalizer early in the second half.
Dawid Bugaj hit the crossbar with his strike from outside the area in the 58th minute, and Hennadii Synchuk forced Turner to make a save with a header off the rebound to keep Montreal off the board.
Langoni opened the scoring in the sixth minute, putting in the rebound off Dor Turgeman’s strike for his first goal of the season. Gillier made the initial save off Turgeman’s strike but was unable to corral the loose ball.
Montreal’s first good chance came six minutes later as Efrain Morales put his header from the center of the area over the woodwork.
Turgeman nearly gave the Revolution a 2-0 lead in the 16th minute but put his strike from the center box off the post.
Then, in the 33rd minute, the header from Montreal’s Brandan Craig was corralled by Turner.
Revolution head coach Marko Mitrovic was sent off with a red card in the 34th minute for coming out of the technical area to dispute the yellow card handed to Will Sands.
Saturday was the first of two meetings between Montreal and New England — the two sides will reconvene north of the border on Aug. 1.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Andy Pages remains hot in Dodgers’ win over Nationals
Apr 4, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) hits a two RBI double against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images Andy Pages slugged a three-run homer among his three hits, Freddie Freeman doubled twice and drove in four runs, and the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals 10-5 on Saturday.
Will Smith also had three hits and Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Alex Call each had two of the Dodgers’ 16 hits. Pages leads the majors in hits while batting .500 (15-for-30).
Los Angeles star shortstop Mookie Betts exited in the middle of the first inning of the game due to right lower back pain and was replaced by Miguel Rojas.
Tyler Glasnow (1-0) threw 101 pitches over six innings, giving up two runs on four hits with nine strikeouts and two walks.
CJ Abrams hit a two-run homer and Luis Garcia Jr. went 3-for-4 with an RBI for Washington, which lost its fourth straight and has been outscored 23-11 in the first two games of the weekend series.
The Dodgers put two runs on the board in the first inning. With two on and one out, Freeman delivered a two-run double against Jake Irvin (1-1).
Irvin ran into trouble again in the second inning, allowing three runs on three hits. Los Angeles loaded the bases with one out before Alex Freeland scored on Rojas’ sacrifice fly. Freeman followed with a two-run double to right field.
The Dodgers extended their lead to 6-0 in the third when Pages singled, stole second and scored on Call’s two-out single.
Washington pushed a run across with two outs in the third on Garcia’s RBI triple into the right-field corner.
Irvin was replaced by Brad Lord after giving up six runs on eight hits over four innings. He walked two and struck out four.
Will Smith and Max Muncy greeted Lord with back-to-back singles to begin the fifth inning, and Pages drove them home with a three-run homer. The 387-foot shot was Pages’ second in as many games and third of the season.
After Los Angeles tacked on another run in the seventh on Tucker’s two-out single, Abrams hit a two-run homer off Ben Casparius in the eighth. Washington added a run in the ninth on Jose Tena’s pinch-hit RBI single.
–Field Level Media
Sports
William Sawalich gets breakthrough victory at Rockingham
Mar 28, 2026; Martinsville, Virginia, USA; Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich (18) pit crew try to get their car back into the final laps of the race at Martinsville Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Grabbing the lead and control of the race after a restart on Lap 172, William Sawalich pulled away over the final 79 laps to win Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire at Rockingham Speedway.
The victory was the first in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the 19-year-old Sawalich, the youngest driver to win at the 0.94-mile track in any of NASCAR’s top three series.
Sawalich, who led 80 laps, crossed the finish line 0.863 seconds ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones to end the five-race winning streak of JR Motorsports and preserve the series record of six straight victories for JGR.
“It means everything,” said Sawalich, who gained three positions to 11th in the series standings. “Honestly, it was a tough year last year and a tough start to the year this year. Gosh, it feels good to get it done here at Rockingham in front of an awesome crowd.
“Our Supra was on rails today, obviously. Good in Stage 1 (fifth), Stage 2 (second) and obviously amazing in clean air. Lapped traffic took me out last year (in a 25th-place finish), so that was running through my head a little bit, but, man, I just studied the race last year, calmed down–and everything’s fine.”
With the win, Sawalich earned eligibility for the first Dash 4 Cash race next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. The top four finishers at Rockingham–Sawalich, Jones and third- and fourth-place finishers Justin Allgaier and Rajah Caruth–will compete for a $100,000 bonus in that event, with the top finisher among them claiming the prize.
Caruth, in fact, made a spectacular three-wide pass of both Sheldon Creed and Carson Kvapil with nine laps left to grab the last Dash 4 Cash position. Kvapil finished fifth and Creed sixth, followed by Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg and pole winner Corey Day.
For the first half of the race, Day appeared to have the dominant car. The 20-year-old led a race-high 118 of the 250 laps and swept the first two stages–the first stage wins of his career.
But Day lost five positions on a slow pit stop during the second stage break and never recovered. On Lap 174, he pitted out of sequence for a loose lug nut and charged from 24th over the final 70 laps to post his seventh straight top 10.
“We had a couple of bad pit stops,” Day said. “We got behind there, and it was hard to dig ourselves out of the hole.”
Jones was pleased with the progress his runner-up finish represents.
“I left Martinsville a little frustrated at myself last week (after finishing 18th),” Jones said. “We weren’t quite aggressive enough at times, so today, I was super adamant on being super aggressive. I am going to take all of the runs I can get. I’m going to put people in bad situations, if I can, and just move forward.
“I think we did a really good job of it. We kept fighting both sides of it with balance today. Sam (McAuley, crew chief) did a great job taking all of my feedback and making a car, I think, capable of winning. It was just a matter of trying to get some track position, and he (Sawalich) got such a big restart on that last restart (after the seventh caution on Lap 206) that it was hard to catch him.”
Allgaier had the consolation of leaving Rockingham with a lead of 126 points over second-place Jesse Love in the O’Reilly Auto Parts standings. Love hit the outside wall after a shove from Caruth, lost track position on a subsequent unscheduled pit stop on Lap 153 and finished 27th, two laps down.
–Field Level Media
Mamadou Fofana scores first goal, as Revolution beat CF Montreal
Andy Pages remains hot in Dodgers’ win over Nationals
