Sports
UCLA opens its NCAA tournament title bid with dominant win over California Baptist
The adage goes, it doesn’t have to be pretty. But for the UCLA women’s basketball team, that’s not the philosophy. Coach Cori Close preaches thriving, not surviving, and that’s been evident in the Bruins’ lopsided victory margin all season.
That’s why leading by 10 points at halftime against a No. 16 seed was likely alarming. So much so that UCLA locked in for a 31-4 third quarter in one of its most dominant periods all season en route to a first-round NCAA tournament win.
UCLA (32-1) took down California Baptist 96-43 at Pauley Pavilion, advancing to Monday’s second-round contest against No. 8 seed Oklahoma State (24-9) for a spot in the Sweet 16.
Senior Lauren Betts earned a double-double with 22 points with 10 rebounds, while her sister, freshman Sienna Betts, had her first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
UCLA center Lauren Betts drives against California Baptist forward Grace Schmidt in the first half Saturday.
(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)
“I think in the locker room, it was made very clear to us that we needed to do a better job, and that was before the coaches came in,” said Angela Dugalic (10 points, 11 rebounds). “We took accountability of what we needed to fix, which was a lot of things, honestly.
“All my teammates, from seniors to [sophomore] Amanda [Muse] even said something. And Sienna.”
It was the Bruins’ 26th consecutive win, with the team’s most recent loss in November against fellow No. 1 seed Texas.
California Baptist (23-11) had the eighth-worst NET ranking of any NCAA tournament team, but the Lancers have a couple of areas where they excel. It was not enough to beat a No. 1 seed that just needed some time to shake off the rust, but it was enough to fend off a more lopsided score other No. 16 seeds endured across the nation.
“In my opinion, that’s the best team in the country,” Lancers coach Jarrod Olson said. “… For 20 minutes, we gave them all they could handle.”
A No. 16 seed has not upset a No. 1 seed in the women’s NCAA tournament since 1998.
The Bruins took the lead with 3:51 left in the first quarter as a part of a 10-0 run after starting the game one for five. While the Lancers clawed back to within five points, the gap only widened from there.
“We did need to come out more aggressive,” said Charlisse Leger-Walker (eight points, five rebounds, five assists). “I think we were having too many mental lapses in the scout and how we wanted to game plan. We kind of felt that momentum from the first half, and they were true to how the scout was for them, and hitting a lot of three-pointers, we were on the back foot a little bit.”
But, as California Baptist’s Chance Bucher (team-high 11 points) said after the game, the Bruins are a No. 1 seed for a reason.
UCLA’s size overwhelmed California Baptist, whose tallest player is 6-foot-3 Emma Johansson. Johansson, who entered Saturday second in the country with 2.86 blocks per game, picked up just one block and one rebound with four fouls. The Bruins’ 62-21 rebounding advantage came from the significant height gap across all positions. UCLA also nabbed a season-high 21 offensive boards.
“I’m really proud of that,” Sienna Betts said. “Offense is not always going to fall and not always going to be perfect, and it’s important to be able to rely on the little things and crash like that.”
UCLA guard Kiki Rice consults with coach Cori Close on a play against California Baptist at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
The Bruins finished with 54 points in the paint to the Lancers’ 14, along with 30 second-chance points compared to California Baptist’s eight.
The Lancers rely heavily on their three-point shot, with the eighth-most in the NCAA at 28.3 attempts per game. They went six for 30 (20%) from deep, which kept the deficit from getting out of hand early, but the Lancers couldn’t maintain their early strong shooting pace.
UCLA started the third quarter on a 15-0 run. The Lancers didn’t score until the 7:20 mark. The Bruins shot 10 for 16 from the field and their 31 points were tied for their second most in a quarter this season. They finished the game on a 21-2 run.
“Unfortunately,” Olson said, “Whatever Cori said to them at halftime, it kind of got them going in the second half, we had a hard time scoring.”
The million dollar question: what did Close say to get the Bruins back on track?
“It was spirited,” Close said. “It was spirited. It was unacceptable. It’s not the fact that we missed shots. Those are not the things that get me really fired up. It’s when we don’t execute the scouting report; when we are lackadaisical; when we don’t communicate; when we are not connected.”
California Baptist’s 25% shooting from the floor was the lowest field-goal percentage UCLA has allowed all season, but they shot 38% in the first half, including 37.5% from three-point range, which negated having fewer possessions.
“You have to respect everyone, no matter what number is in front of their names,” Gianna Kneepkens said. “It really doesn’t matter, because like if you lose, you’re done, the stakes are automatically higher no matter what.”
On Monday, the Bruins will face a Power Four conference foe coming off an impressive first-round performance. The Bruins are 1-1 all-time against Oklahoma State, having last met in a 71-59 win in 2018.
The Cowgirls, who have the 29th-best NET ranking, are led by forward Achol Akot, who paced Oklahoma State with 28 points in its first-round win over Princeton. They have the 14th-best offense in the nation, averaging 81.5 points per game.
That will be a much more engaging matchup for the Bruins’ interior players, who won’t get a half to get back into the game.
On Saturday, even as one of the most experienced teams in the nation, UCLA got an important reminder.
“It’s March Madness,” Kneepkens said. “That means anything can happen.”
Sports
Trump admin says SJSU now faces ‘impending enforcement’ for transgender volleyball scandal conflict
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FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s Department of Education said it has notified San Jose State University (SJSU) that it faces “impending enforcement action” for its “refusal to comply with Title IX.”
SJSU and the California State University (CSU) system filed a lawsuit earlier in March to challenge an Education Department investigation that determined the university violated Title IX in its handling of a biological male transgender volleyball player on a women’s team from 2022-24.
Now, the administration is cracking down against that resistance.
“We have provided SJSU with multiple opportunities to resolve its Title IX violations with common sense actions: separating male and female athletes based on their biological sex, keeping men out of women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, restoring rightfully-earned titles and accolades to female athletes, and apologizing to the women forced to forfeit competitions to protect themselves,” Kimberly Richey, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in an announcement.
“Yet, SJSU remains obstinate, choosing a radical ideology over safety, dignity, and fairness for its own students. With today’s action, the Department is putting the university on notice: comply with the law or risk losing its federal funding.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to SJSU and CSU for a response.
Brooke Slusser and Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans call a play against the Air Force Falcons on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
The conflict between Trump’s administration and the school stems back to the 2024 season, when a national controversy involving transgender player Blaire Fleming triggered an election-cycle media firestorm, all during Trump’s third White House campaign.
The Education Department’s investigation has claimed, “SJSU actively recruited and allowed a male to compete on the women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams and reportedly instructed members of the coaching staff not to tell the female players that the athlete was a male.”
The investigation added that “on multiple occasions, the male athlete spiked the ball so forcefully that it knocked females on the opposing team to the ground.”
One of the standout details of the investigation’s findings was that a female SJSU player “discovered that the male student had conspired to have a member of the opposing team spike her in the face during an upcoming match. SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected this female athlete to a Title IX complaint for reportedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete when discussing this incident in online videos and interviews.”
Former SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser has included those allegations in her ongoing lawsuit against representatives of SJSU and CSU.
UNIVERSITY LEADER ADMITS SCHOOLS ARE ‘NOT A POLITICAL PARTY’ IN WARNING TO ELITE CAMPUSES
After SJSU and CSU announced they were suing the Trump administration to challenge the findings, Slusser, and other former NCAA players, came forward about their alleged experience during the scandal, and how it affected them, in recent interviews with Fox News Digital.
Slusser, who shared an apartment with Fleming at SJSU without knowing the athlete’s birth sex, became the subject of viral debate after her interview reflecting on the experience sharing spaces with Fleming.
“You find out you’re just chilling in a bed with a man that you have no idea about… I [was] unknowingly sharing a bed at that time with a man,” Slusser said, also alleging SJSU volleyball coach Todd Kress encouraged her to live in the same apartment as the trans teammate when another group of players was also looking for a final tenant.
Former Utah State volleyball star Kaylie Ray told Fox News Digital that during matches against SJSU and Fleming in 2022 and ’23, before Fleming’s birth sex was known, she had teammates suffer finger injuries from the trans athlete’s spikes.
“I had teammates who had seriously jammed their fingers, luckily not broken, but a handful of girls who had sustained minor injuries from the male player,” Ray said, adding, “We knew that if the male athlete had a phenomenal game, there was nothing we could do to stop that person.”
Ray’s Utah State team became one of five teams to forfeit at least one game to SJSU in 2024, seemingly in protest of Fleming. She says the forfeit impacted her team’s hopes of winning their fourth straight Mountain West championship.
Meanwhile, the University of Wyoming forfeited two matches to SJSU in 2024. Former Cowgirls player Macey Boggs told Fox News Digital that the decisions to forfeit the games “permanently ruined” friendships among her teammates.
“There were some of the girls who I really enjoyed, and we got along great, and then this situation came up, some conflict came up, and ultimately we went in separate directions because of that… as soon as we played in our last game, we all went in separate directions… it was hard to maintain those relationships,” Boggs said.
SJSU was plagued by a separate Title IX violation in sports that it had to resolve with the Biden administration in 2021. The university ultimately came to a $1.6 million resolution with the Department of Justice in 2021.
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The DOJ found that SJSU failed for more than a decade to respond adequately to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, of female student-athletes by an athletic trainer then working at SJSU, beginning in 2009 when female student-athletes reported that the trainer subjected them to repeated, unwelcome sexual touching.
The department and SJSU entered into a comprehensive agreement to address the findings of the investigation, which began in June 2020 during Trump’s first term.
Now, Trump’s current administration is giving the school 10 more days to comply with a series of resolution agreements to resolve the volleyball situation, or face enforcement action, including referral to the DOJ and termination of SJSU’s federal funding.
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Sports
‘I’m back’: Tiger Woods to play in TGL championship match with Masters status still unclear
Some major Tiger Woods news broke Monday night.
It had nothing to do with the Masters — not directly anyway.
The 50-year-old golfing legend will be playing competitively for the first time in more than a year as his Jupiter Links team competes against Los Angeles in the second match of the best-of-three TGL finals Tuesday night in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
TGL is a high-tech, indoor golf league that uses simulators and real surfaces, founded by Woods, Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley in 2022. While a TGL match doesn’t present the same physical challenge as a PGA Tour event, the team event could serve as Woods’ first step toward playing at Augusta National on April 9-12.
Woods last played competitively March 4, 2025, in Jupiter’s final TGL match of that season. He missed all of the PGA season last year as he recovered from a 2024 back surgery and surgery in March 2025 for a ruptured Achilles tendon. Last fall, he underwent disk replacement surgery in his lower back.
A five-time Masters winner, most recently in 2019, Woods is listed as a 2026 invitee on the tournament website but has yet to confirm his participation.
Last month at the Genesis Invitational, a reporter asked Woods if the Masters was “off the table” for him this year. Woods answered simply, “No.”
In the opening match of the TGL finals Monday night, Jupiter lost 6-5, with Kevin Kisner narrowly missing a birdie chip from 20 feet that would have won the match. Woods was on hand as a team captain and supporter, roles he has served all season.
After the match, Woods told reporters he felt bad for his players — Tom Kim, Max Homa and Kisner — but expressed optimism that Jupiter could still come back and claim the title. If Jupiter wins Match 2, a third match will take place immediately afterward to determine the TGL champion.
“We have possibly two more matches,” Woods said. “We’re not out of this.”
Woods didn’t mention the possibility of placing himself in the next day’s lineup. After the news conference, however, TGL posted a graphic on X that showed what appears to be Woods’ torso and the words “He’s back,” along with the viewing information for Tuesday’s match.
Moments later, Jupiter Links posted a graphic on X that featured a photo of Woods and the quote, “I’m back.”
Woods will be replacing Kisner in the lineup for at least Match 2. It is unclear if Woods would take part in a possible third match.
Last week, after Jupiter clinched a spot in the finals, Woods told reporters he has been trying to play all season “but it just hasn’t worked out that way.” He added that the players had done well without him and implied that he didn’t foresee any changes ahead of the finals.
“I really don’t want to screw up the lineup,” Woods added. “I just want these guys to keep playing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sports
John Daly calls himself a ‘jacka–‘ after falling down desert hill during tournament
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Golf great John Daly shared a hilarious moment that may have been more serious after watching a video he posted on social media, calling himself a “jacka–” in the process.
Daly was in desert terrain at the La Paloma Country Club for the Cologuard Classic, when he was trying to hit a shot onto a green when he lost his footing.
As he tried to gain traction in the sand, Daly’s feet fell from under him, and he slid down a long desert hill. Multiple people got involved, voluntarily jumping down the hill to see if Daly was all right.
John Daly of the United States plays a tee shot on the first hole during the second round of the Cologuard Classic 2026 at La Paloma Country Club on March 21, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Daly left unscathed, but he did enjoy putting the theme music to the “Jackass” franchise over the video to share to the masses.
“Bellyfloppin’ in the desert,” Daly captioned the video, while shouting out his caddie, Joel Cooley, who sprang to action to see if his partner was doing fine at the bottom of the hill.
“On today’s episode of ‘jacka**’” was also seen on top of the video.
BROOKS KOEPKA RUNS TO COMFORT YOUNG GILR HIT BY GOLF CART DURING HIS VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP
While he doesn’t usually show off his bellyflopping, Daly remains a key figure in golf.
John Daly of the United States plays his second shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the Cologuard Classic 2026 at La Paloma Country Club on March 20, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
He spends most of his time on the course for the Champions Tour, which is former PGA Tour players 50 years and older. His most recent round came on Sunday, where he finished tied for 29th with a 6-under tournament in the Cologuard Classic.
Daly was just named the 2026 Ambassador of Golf Award honoree ahead of the Kaulig Companies Championship at the signature Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. The award recognizes those making an impact on the course as well as in their communities off the course.
“I’ve always loved this game and what it’s given me,” he said in a press release for the award. “Golf has taken me places I never imagined and introduced me to incredible people along the way. To be recognized with the Ambassador of Golf Award is truly an honor, and I’m proud to support the meaningful work being done here in Northeast Ohio.”
John Daly hits his tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the PNC Championship 2025 at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Dec. 21, 2025 in Orlando, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Daly’s impact on the sport is quite iconic, whether it’s his monstrous drives from the tee box, winning the 1991 PGA Championship as the ninth alternate in the field, or taking home The Open Championship in 1995 at St. Andrews, forever marking himself as a multi-time major winner.
His larger-than-life personality has always been on display, even today in silly moments like these on and off the course.
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