In Brief: Ward shines as No. 6 Houston rolls

Football: Greg Ward Jr. threw for a career-high 389 yards and accounted for five touchdowns in just more than three quarters to help sixth-ranked Houston beat Connecticut 42-14 on Thursday night in Houston.

There was a scary moment for Ward early in the second quarter when he took a hard hit in the midsection by Junior Joseph on a flea-flicker and had to leave the game.

But he missed just one play before returning and showed no ill effects from the blow, leading the Cougars (5-0, 2-0 American) on three more touchdown drives in the half to leave Houston up 28-7 at halftime.

Ward had touchdown runs of 30 and 10 yards and threw scoring passes of 3, 15 and 4 yards.

Williams charged: Alabama linebacker Tim Williams has been charged with carrying a pistol without a permit.

Campus police arrested Williams on the misdemeanor charge at about 1 a.m. in his vehicle.

Court documents show that officers smelled marijuana coming from Williams’ parked car, and found a bag containing the drug and a Glock 41 pistol under the driver’s seat.

Artis scheduled for trial: A North Carolina football player charged with misdemeanor sexual battery and assault on a fellow student is scheduled for trial in December.

During a brief court hearing, attorneys reserved the weeks of Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 for the case against Allen Artis, a junior reserve linebacker suspended indefinitely from the team.

Jutanugarn leads at Reignwood Classic

Golf: Ariya Jutanugarn birdied the final four holes for an 8-under 65 and a one-stroke lead over Brooke Henderson in the Reignwood LPGA Classic in Beijing.

In position to take player of the year lead from idle Lydia Ko with a ninth-place finish or better, Jutanugarn had 10 birdies and two bogeys at Reignwood Pine Valley in the first events of the Asian Swing.

Canada beats Europe to win World Cup

Hockey: Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal with 43.1 seconds left and Canada beat Team Europe 2-1 to win the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.

The Canadians won the best-of-three finals 2-0.

Patrice Bergeron tied it with a power-play goal in the third, and Marchand won it with a shot from the slot.

Stewart wins WNBA rookie of the year

miscellany: Seattle’s Breanna Stewart is the WNBA rookie of the year.

Stewart received 38 of the 39 votes from a national media panel. San Antonio’s Moriah Jefferson got the other vote. Halep overpowers Keys: Fourth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania advanced to the semifinals of China’s Wuhan Open with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Madison Keys of the United States.

Halep beat the eighth-seeded Keys with powerful groundstrokes to set