Sports
Patrick Ewing Needs Another Moment of Glory at the Garden
After his Georgetown staff misplaced at Xavier on Saturday night time to set a Massive East Convention report for futility, a solemn Patrick Ewing walked by means of the handshake line and shook palms with Xavier Coach Travis Steele, his employees and the Musketeers gamers.
Ewing retreated to the guests’ locker room for his postgame information convention and as soon as once more answered questions on a loss — on this case the lads’s basketball program’s twentieth straight and twenty fourth of the season — and whether or not his gamers had been “nonetheless holding onto the rope” and “nonetheless within the struggle.”
“Yeah, they’re nonetheless within the struggle, , I imagine so,” Ewing stated. “We’re positively dissatisfied within the final result of our season. This isn’t nowhere the place I anticipated us to be, or the group as an entire anticipated us to be. However it’s what it’s.”
Ewing, the Naismith Corridor of Fame middle who was the face of the Knicks within the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s, has skilled his share of dramatic wins and losses, however he’s by no means endured such a protracted stretch of frustration and failure.
Georgetown (6-24) turned the primary staff in Massive East historical past — which started through the 1979-80 season — to complete a season 0-19 in convention play. Two different groups completed 0-18, most just lately DePaul through the 2008-9 season.
Approaching the tip of his fifth season, there are questions on Ewing’s future at Georgetown. Ewing, 59, has a 68-83 report and only one profitable season, in 2018-19. The Hoyas would be the No. 11 seed and face No. 6 Seton Corridor when the Massive East Event begins Wednesday at Madison Sq. Backyard, the positioning of a lot of Ewing’s best skilled moments.
On Friday, Ewing took to Twitter to say he had no plans to stop after this season.
“Any announcement about my future will come from me or Georgetown College,” he wrote.
He reiterated that sentiment after Saturday’s loss.
Lee Reed, Georgetown’s athletic director, gave Ewing a vote of confidence final week, saying the college was “dedicated to” Ewing and had “confidence that he can strengthen our program going ahead.”
“As a college with excessive requirements and expectations for each educational and athletic excellence, all of us share the frustration of a tough season,” Reed stated.
He added, “I want to thank all of our supporters and season-ticket holders for his or her ongoing dedication and specific my appreciation to the members of our staff for his or her laborious work.”
It was solely a 12 months in the past when a joyous and victorious Ewing strolled into the Georgetown locker room on the Backyard singing Drake lyrics.
After being picked to complete final within the convention’s preseason coaches ballot, the Hoyas had simply crushed Creighton within the Massive East match championship sport, incomes an computerized bid within the N.C.A.A. match — this system’s first berth because the 2014-15 season.
“Began from the underside, now we’re right here,” Ewing sang to his gamers, who quickly doused him with water and joined him in celebration.
It quickly turned a feel-good story across the faculty basketball world, with Iona Coach Rick Pitino, Ewing’s former coach with the Knicks within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, tweeting an image of the 2 of them and providing congratulations.
Now, Pitino has a unique message for Ewing amid his struggles.
“I really like Patrick, beloved teaching him, love him as an individual, love him as a participant, root for him on a regular basis,” Pitino stated. “I don’t know what to say concerning the situation apart from I’m a giant fan of Patrick.”
It wasn’t that way back that there was optimism for Georgetown’s long-suffering followers, who haven’t seen a championship since Ewing’s enjoying days.
Along with profitable the Massive East match final season, Ewing additionally pulled in a top-20 recruiting class, in line with 247Sports rankings, highlighted by the five-star wing Aminu Mohammed.
However the Hoyas misplaced their prime 4 scorers from final 12 months’s N.C.A.A. match staff, together with the massive man Qudus Wahab, who transferred to Maryland, the place he was averaging 7.9 factors and 5.7 rebounds by means of Sunday.
As a staff, Georgetown ranks final within the Massive East in discipline purpose share and factors allowed per sport and close to the underside in scoring.
“It’s simply powerful if you don’t have plenty of returning gamers that performed final 12 months,” stated Donald Carey, a graduate scholar guard who’s the staff’s second-leading scorer this 12 months after being its fifth-leading scorer final season.
He continued: “The chemistry wasn’t there precisely; the identical chemistry and momentum wasn’t there as a result of it was simply me and Dante that performed heavy minutes which might be returning,” referring to the sophomore level guard Dante Harris, who’s averaging 12.3 factors, 4.2 assists and a pair of.6 turnovers per sport.
Carey scored 17 factors when the Hoyas misplaced to Colorado within the first spherical of the 2021 N.C.A.A. match, however except Georgetown pulls off a miracle and wins the Massive East match, he received’t get to style March Insanity once more.
“It’s been powerful, it’s been powerful,” Carey stated. “Dropping is rarely simple, however the one approach to get out of it’s with forward-minded considering so that you simply have a look at the subsequent day, the subsequent sport, what can we do to get higher. What can we do to get a win?”
Wealthy Chvotkin, who’s in his forty eighth 12 months because the radio voice of Georgetown basketball and lined all 143 of Ewing’s faculty video games, stated he’s by no means seen something like this season.
“The underside line, it’s a really younger staff,” he stated in a cellphone interview. “It’s a piece in progress that they only have bother ending video games. All this stuff that they’ve been battling at sport’s finish have resulted in losses and so they simply battle to play 40 minutes. They play 32, they play 36 nicely and so they don’t end at sport’s finish.”
Ewing has additionally struggled with retaining gamers throughout his tenure, shedding 11 gamers to transfers as of June 2021. A few of these gamers are actually starring elsewhere. James Akinjo, who started his profession at Georgetown, is now on his third faculty cease and averaging 13.1 factors and 5.8 assists for Baylor, which received a share of the Massive 12 common season title with Kansas.
Earlier than the season started, Tre King, a 6-7 ahead who had spent three seasons at Jap Kentucky, left Georgetown with out ever enjoying a sport due to an off-court incident.
King averaged 14.9 factors and 6.2 rebounds per sport and earned All-Ohio Valley Convention first-team honors through the 2020-21 season. He possible would have been a key participant for Georgetown, however he transferred to Iowa State in December.
Ewing additionally misplaced the freshman guard Jordan Riley to shoulder surgical procedure through the season. The junior guard Wayne Bristol Jr., who transferred from Howard in January, was not eligible to play this semester.
“After all, it makes it tough,” Ewing stated. “Guys that you simply thought weren’t going to get plenty of minutes or had been going to have alternatives to develop, they weren’t given that chance. I needed to throw them into the hearth.”
The realm often known as the DMV— D.C., Maryland and Virginia — is thought for its high-level basketball expertise, from Adrian Dantley to Kevin Durant to Michael Beasley to present faculty gamers just like the Duke freshman guard Trevor Keels, a projected N.B.A. draft decide.
Harris, Mohammed (who was born in Nigeria) and Carey are among the many Georgetown gamers from the world, however the college hasn’t signed a D.C. Gatorade Participant of the Yr since Chris Wright in 2007.
Angelo Hernandez, a neighborhood grass-roots coach and a former highschool coach, believes the Hoyas must do a greater job getting in on native stars early.
“I don’t know what it’s, it simply appears like Georgetown can’t get out the funk of getting the youngsters from our space,” he stated in a cellphone interview. “I simply assume that they need to take a unique method and never be afraid to recruit these youngsters laborious. They recruit the youngsters from out of city laborious, however they don’t recruit the youngsters from right here laborious.”
As a dominant faculty huge man within the early Nineteen Eighties, Ewing dominated the Massive East together with the St. John’s star Chris Mullin. Ewing helped lead the Hoyas to 3 nationwide championship video games in his 4 seasons, guiding this system to the 1984 title underneath the Corridor of Fame coach John Thompson.
Like Ewing, Mullin returned to his alma mater to educate. He faltered in his four-year tenure, going 59-73 and 20-52 within the Massive East with one N.C.A.A. match look earlier than stepping down in 2019.
Ewing is now in an analogous place.
With the Massive East match set to start Wednesday, there’s all the time the hope that Georgetown might by some means make one other miraculous run, one which ends with Ewing singing Drake within the locker room as soon as once more.
“It’s a brand new season, something is feasible,” Ewing stated.
Added Carey: “The Massive East match is barely 4 video games, so if we win 4 video games, we’re again within the N.C.A.A. match.”
Josh Giddey capped a wild game-ending sequence with a half-court shot at the buzzer to give the Chicago Bulls a 119-117 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
The craziness began with the Bulls trailing 115-110. Patrick Williams hit a 3-pointer with 9.8 seconds left to narrow the deficit to two. A sloppy inbound pass from LeBron James was then stolen by Giddey. He got the ball to Coby White, whose 3 gave Chicago a one-point lead with 6.1 seconds left.
Following a timeout, Austin Reaves hit a driving layup to put the Lakers back on top by one with 3.3 seconds remaining. That merely set the stage for Giddey’s heroics.
After inbounding the ball, Giddey quickly got it back and swished a 3-pointer from just beyond the half-court line. He held his shooting hand aloft as the ball went through the net and the United Center crowd roared.
“As soon as it left my fingertips, it looked good,” Giddey said. “And that’s kind of why I held my follow-through the whole time. I had that feeling when it left. It looked straight. It felt good. It was a special night, obviously. A great comeback win. I’ll enjoy this one.”
Giddey finished with 25 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists for his fifth triple-double of the season. Chicago had trailed 91-75 entering the fourth quarter but staged a furious comeback thanks to 11 3-pointers.
Another look at the UNREAL final sequence that led to the thrilling Bulls victory 🤯
Williams 3. White 3. Reaves bucket…
Giddey #TissotBuzzerBeater! pic.twitter.com/hhOzJzRGoI
— NBA (@NBA) March 28, 2025
“The probability of us winning that game was probably very low,” White said. “But we defied the odds. It was a fun game to be a part of. That’s a game that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
For the Lakers, the loss was a sharp comedown from the previous night, when James tipped in a rebound at the buzzer to secure a 120-119 win over the Indiana Pacers.
As the regular season enters the final stretch, Los Angeles (44-29) now finds itself in a precarious position after failing to capitalize on the Memphis Grizzlies’ (44-29) loss earlier in the night to move into sole possession of fourth in the Western Conference.
The Bulls (33-40) have won 9 of their last 11 games and swept the season series with the Lakers, including a 146-115 victory in Los Angeles on March 22.
“We just kind of kept hanging in there. From Patrick’s 3 to Josh’s steal to Coby’s 3, then Reaves makes a layup and then Josh throws in a half-court shot,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “Like, that all took place in 12 seconds. So, yeah, you’re not going to normally see that very often.”
(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
The 2025 NCAA Women’s Tournament continued Friday with the first day of Sweet 16 action.
[Read more: 2025 Women’s March Madness Schedule: Dates, locations, channels, how to watch]
Duke started the day with a vintage defensive performance, as the second-seeded Blue Devils stifled third-seeded North Carolina. After that, No. 1 seed South Carolina continued its title defense as the Gamecocks came back to hold off upset-minded Maryland.
Third-seeded Louisiana State is also off to its third straight Elite Eight appearance after going through No. 2 seed North Carolina State to get there.
The top seed in the NCAA women’s tournament, UCLA, looked the part on Friday night. The Bruins had little trouble with No. 5 seed Ole Miss.
Here are all the biggest moments from Day 1 Sweet 16:
Lauren Betts was so dominant inside that she barely missed, scoring 31 points on 15-of-16 shooting to lead UCLA past Mississippi 76-62 on Friday night and sending the Bruins to the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
The 6-foot-7 Betts added 10 rebounds and three blocks for the No. 1 overall seed, which will face LSU on Sunday for a chance to advance to the Final Four.
Kiki Rice added 13 points and seven assists and was the only other player in double figures for the Bruins (32-2).
Tameiya Sadler scored 14 points for the fifth-seeded Rebels (22-10), who had reached the Elite Eight five times, but not since 2007.
Betts had a similar line — 30 points and 14 rebounds — in the Bruins’ second-round 84-67 victory over Richmond.
Betts’ layup put the Bruins ahead 19-10 in the opening quarter, but Ole Miss closed within 21-19 on KK Deans’ jumper.
Deans’ fast-break layup at the end of the first half got the Rebels within 30-29 at the break.
The Bruins opened the second half with an 8-0 run and went up 45-33 on Londynn Jones’ 3-pointer.
Gabriela Jaquez was all alone on a fast-break layup that put UCLA up 63-46 in the final quarter, and Ole Miss never threatened after that.
UCLA’s only two losses this season came against JuJu Watkins and Southern California before the Bruins got their revenge in the Big Ten Tournament final, beating USC 72-67.
Betts scored 16 of UCLA’s 30 first-half points, the second time this season that she’s scored more than half of the Bruins’ points in a half.
She has 93 blocks this season, averaging nearly three a game, and was named the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year.
LSU comes back to top NC State in thriller, moves on to another Elite Eight
Aneesah Morrow had 30 points and 19 rebounds, Kailyn Gilbert had a critical block that set up Mikaylah Williams’ go-ahead layup with 1:07 remaining, and No. 3 seed LSU rallied past second-seeded NC State 80-73 in a tense women’s NCAA Tournament regional semifinal on Friday.
The Wolfpack led 69-64 with 4:29 left before LSU began to surge, led by Williams, who scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. After Gilbert blocked a layup attempt by NC State’s Zoe Brooks, Williams converted on the other end to make it 74-73 — part of a game-closing 10-0 run for the Tigers (31-5).
LSU, which won the national title two years ago for coach Kim Mulkey, reached the Elite Eight for the third consecutive season and will face top-seeded UCLA.
Sa’Myah Smith had 21 points and 11 rebounds for LSU, and Williams finished with 17 points and eight boards.
Brooks led NC State (28-7) with 21 points. Coach Wes Moore’s Wolfpack fell short in their bid to reach a second straight Final Four.
The game featured seven lead changes and four ties, and LSU’s 21-10 advantage in the first quarter was the biggest lead for either team. Morrow had 10 points in the first period.
NC State surged back ahead to take a 40-36 halftime lead, and Morrow again dominated in the third quarter, scoring 11 of her team’s 21 points in the period to put LSU ahead 57-53.
NC State opened the fourth quarter with an 8-1 run. The Wolfpack held LSU without a field goal until Morrow made a layup with just over seven minutes to play.
Morrow, the nation’s top rebounder, had her 30th double-double of the season. Her effort on the boards helped the Tigers outrebound the Wolfpack 52-36, including an 18-10 advantage on the offensive glass.
The 6-foot-1 forward is one of two women in NCAA history with more than 100 double-doubles. She’s also the only player in the country with more than 600 points and 450 rebounds this season.
South Carolina survives scare from Maryland to advance to fifth straight Elite Eight
MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 23 points, including a go-ahead layup with 2:22 left, and Chloe Kitts added 15 points and 11 rebounds to help No. 1 seed South Carolina beat fourth-seeded Maryland 71-67 on Friday in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
The defending national champion Gamecocks went back-and-forth with the Terrapins all game before finally doing enough in the final few minutes to put it away.
South Carolina will face Duke in the Elite Eight on Sunday. The Blue Devils beat Atlantic Coast Conference rival North Carolina 47-38 earlier Friday.
Dawn Staley’s team trailed 60-59 with 3:25 left before holding Maryland without a point over the next three minutes. Fulwiley’s layup began the 7-0 run that gave the Gamecocks (33-3) just enough of a cushion.
Kitts added three free throws during the spurt and Fulwiley scored on a coast-to-coast drive.
The Gamecocks were up 66-60 with 25 seconds left when Saylor Poffenbarger ended Maryland’s scoring drought with a 3-pointer.
But the Terps couldn’t get closer as the Gamecocks made five of six free throws down the stretch, including two by Fulwiley with 10.9 seconds left that made it 71-65.
Kaylene Smikle scored 17 points to lead Maryland (25-8) before fouling out.
Neither team could get into an offensive flow in the first three quarters. South Carolina trailed 43-39 late in the third before closing out the period with a 13-7 run that was capped by a spectacular transition basket by Fulwiley, who went behind her back and then hit a pull-up shot.
The two teams had met once previously in the NCAA Tournament, an 86-75 win for South Carolina in the Elite Eight in 2023.
South Carolina avoided becoming the first defending champion to lose this early in the tournament since Louisville knocked off Brittney Griner and Baylor in 2013 in the Sweet 16.
Duke takes down rival UNC for a trip to the Elite Eight
Oluchi Okananwa recorded her third double-double of the season to lead ACC Tournament champion Duke past North Carolina 47-38 Friday and into the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Devils will make their 12th Elite Eight appearance in program history and will play either No. 1 seed and defending champion South Carolina or fourth-seeded Maryland, who were scheduled to play later Friday in Birmingham.
Okananwa scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half along with 10 rebounds off the bench for Duke, which got 26 points from its bench compared to North Carolina’s six. Ashlon Jackson finished with 10 points, and Toby Fournier, Duke’s leading scorer this season who missed the second round with an illness, was held to three points.
Fifth-year senior Alyssa Ustby had nine points on 3 of 10 shooting for the Tar Heels, who fell short in their attempt to advance to their first Elite 8 since 2014.
Neither team shot the ball well. Duke shot 31% after missing its first nine field goals. North Carolina went 28% from the field.
Part of it could have been because of familiarity. The teams played each other for the second time this season less than a month ago. North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart said this week that there’s an added level of comfort going against a team they just played.
But this was also two of the top defenses in the country going at it, forcing turnovers, errant shots and desperate heaves late in the shot clock at the start of the game.
It was the first ever meeting in the NCAA tournament between the two teams, who have played each other 111 times. North Carolina still holds a slight 56-55 edge.
Reporting by The Associated Press
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Another night that began with a ceremony for the Dodgers’ World Series championship culminated in a win.
And this time, not even one of the most important players from last year’s title-winning squad could crash the party.
Over a nearly 30-minute pregame ceremony Friday — one with so many Hollywood touches, it was emceed by actor Anthony Anderson and the voice of the Academy Awards, Randy Thomas — almost every member of the 2024 Dodgers was called to a makeshift infield stage to be presented with their intricately designed, 14-karat, diamond-bedazzled World Series rings.
Everyone, that is, except for Jack Flaherty.
Five months ago the L.A. native and childhood Dodgers fan played a key role on the championship team. He started Game 1 of both the National League Championship Series and the Fall Classic. He was one of the most emotional players during the downtown parade and Chavez Ravine celebration. And as he entered free agency, he made his hopes of staying with the organization abundantly clear.
“I love this city!” he yelled from a parade bus on the first day of November. “I never want to leave! I never want to leave!”
Leaving, however, was Flaherty’s only choice. He was squeezed out of the Dodgers’ winter plans following their signings of Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki. He ultimately re-signed in the same place he started last year, returning to the Detroit Tigers team that dealt him in a crucial deadline deal last summer.
And, in a serendipitous twist of scheduling coincidence, he returned to Dodger Stadium on Friday as the opposing starting pitcher, left to watch his old team’s ring ceremony while warming up in right field.
“He was the right person at the right time for our club,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game, cracking a sly grin. “Now, we can go beat him up today, and give him his ring tomorrow.”
In an 8-5 win over the Tigers, however, Flaherty became more of a backstory.
Despite holding the Dodgers hitless over four innings, and keeping them off the scoreboard until Freddie Freeman’s tying two-run homer in the sixth, Flaherty could only watch as his former team celebrated a walk-off win, a back-and-forth affair that ended on Mookie Betts’ three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning.
In the final three innings, the lead changed multiple times.
Betts initially broke a 2-2 tie with a solo home run in the eighth. Detroit’s Manuel Margot, also briefly a member of last year’s Dodgers team, then knotted the score again with an RBI single off Tanner Scott in the ninth.
In the top of the 10th, the Tigers appeared to take control when Dillon Dingler lined a two-run triple just beyond a diving effort from Michael Conforto in left.
But the Dodgers answered back once more. Conforto hit an RBI double. Will Smith came off the bench for a tying, pinch-hit single. Then, after Shohei Ohtani kept the rally going with a base hit to right, Betts went deep for the second time in as many at-bats, launching a blast deep to left to keep the Dodgers’ perfect start intact at 4-0.
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