Arizona bests Duke to claim Tip-Off title
College basketball: Nick Johnson scored all but two of his 15 points in the second half and No. 4 Arizona beat No. 6 Duke 72-66 on Friday night in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The game was expected to be a matchup of two of the best freshmen in the country and, although Aaron Gordon of Arizona (7-0) and Jabari Parker of Duke (6-2) didn’t spend a lot of time covering each other, they were both key factors in the outcome.
Gordon, a 6-foot-9 forward, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds and came up big late with a dunk on an alley-oop pass and then assisted on a dunk less than a minute later to give the Wildcats a 61-51 lead with 3:59 to play.
Parker, who had 19 points for his first game under 20 points this season, struggled against Arizona’s physical defense and was 7 of 21 from the field. He came into the game shooting 60 percent from the field.
Earlier, Kasembe Abif scored 15 points for Drexel, including four free throws in the third overtime, as the Dragons (4-2) beat Alabama (3-3) 85-83 in the third-place game.
• Villanova stuns Kansas: Ryan Arcidiacono’s 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left put Villanova on top for good, and the Wildcats upset No. 2 Kansas 63-59 in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Darrun Hilliard and Dylan Ennis each scored 14 for Villanova (6-0), which meets Iowa in tonight’s title game. Frank Mason scored 12 for Kansas (5-1). His three-point play with 34.2 seconds left gave Kansas its first lead in more than 25 minutes.
Arcidiacono made the only field goal for the Wildcats in the final 7 minutes.
• Moser, Oregon trounce Pacific: Mike Moser scored 19 points and No. 14 Oregon beat Pacific 85-62 at Eugene.
Johnathan Loyd had 13 assists, tied with four others for the second-most in Ducks history.
The 14th-ranked Ducks (5-0) scored 20 straight points after halftime to break open a close game. Pacific (4-1) led 36-29 after the break, but then went nearly 7 minutes without scoring. T.J. Wallace and Trevin Harris had 14 points each for the Tigers.
Arizona State upsets North Carolina in OT
Women’s basketball: Adrianne Thomas scored 23 points as Arizona State outscored No. 11 North Carolina 17-4 in overtime, for a 94-81 upset win at Cancun, Mexico.
Arizona State (5-1) opened the OT with a 9-2 run. After North Carolina’s second basket, Deja Mann hit a 3-pointer to start the final 8-0 run.
In regulation, North Carolina (5-2) was ahead 72-67 with 1:01 left, but the Tar Heels missed 3 of 4 free throws in the final 15 seconds.
Westbrook 3-pointer beats Warriors in OT
NBA: Russell Westbrook’s corner 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left in overtime sent the host Oklahoma City Thunder to a 113-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Westbrook scored a season-high 34 points on 10-of-25 shooting, Kevin Durant added 25 and the Thunder (11-3) won their sixth consecutive game overall.
Stephen Curry scored 32 for Golden State (9-8) and Harrison Barnes had a career-high 26 points.
• Horford hits winner, Hawks rally past Mavs: Al Horford made the go-ahead shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Atlanta Hawks rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half for an 88-87 victory over the visiting Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavericks (10-7) were up 70-55 when point guard Jose Calderon went out late in the third quarter with a sprained right ankle. Horford finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks (9-8).
Burns nets hat trick in Sharks’ victory
NHL: Brent Burns got his first NHL hat trick and the Sharks ended a five-game home losing streak to St. Louis with a 6-3 victory over the Blues at San Jose.
Joe Thornton, Tomas Hertl and Tommy Wingels also scored for the Sharks (39 points), who won their fourth straight and kept even with Anaheim atop the Pacific Division.
Brian Elliott took the loss for St. Louis (39 points), his first in eight games, after giving up four goals on 12 shots.
• Blackhawks win in 11th round of shootout: Ben Smith scored in the 11th round of a wild shootout and the Chicago Blackhawks (42 points) finally beat the host Dallas Stars (27 points) 2-1 for their fifth straight victory.
Chicago’s Patrick Sharp and Dallas’ Rich Peverley had the only goals through the first 10 rounds of the tiebreaker. Each scored in regulation, too.
• Kunitz leads Penguins win: Chris Kunitz scored two goals and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 21 shots, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins (35 points) to a 3-0 victory at the Tampa Bay Lightning (33 points).
Norway’s Svindal fastest in training
Skiing: Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway was fastest in the final training run for a World Cup downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta.
Svindal’s time was 1 minute, 24.33 seconds.
Today’s race is the first men’s downhill of the World Cup season.
• Gut checks in with win: Lara Gut of Switzerland won her second World Cup event of the season, taking the season-opening downhill at Beaver Creek, Colo.
Gut finished in 1 minute, 41.26 seconds to beat Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein by 0.47 seconds.
Holcomb-Langton win World Cup opener
Miscellany: Steven Holcomb and Steve Langton of the United States finished first in the season-opening two-man World Cup bobsled race of the Olympic season at Calgary, Alberta.
Holcomb and Langton finished two runs in 1 minute, 49.22 seconds. They were 0.16 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Beat Hefti and Alex Baumann, and 0.20 seconds better than Canada’s Chris Spring and Jesse Lumsden. All three U.S. sleds placed in the top 10.
• Scott holds lead at Australian Open: Adam Scott held a two-shot advantage over Rory McIlroy as the tournament’s star players moved to the top of the Australian Open leaderboard at Royal Sydney.
Scott shot 2-under-par 70 for a two-round total of 12-under 132. McIlroy avoided the storms that arrived later in the day and had a 65.