BASKETBALL
Gabe York scored 36 and Justin Anderson added 32 to lead the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to a 133-119 win over the Maine Celtics in a G League game Wednesday in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Maine played without four key players: Mfiondu Kabengele and JD Davison are with the parent Boston Celtics, Luka Samanic is in health and safety protocol and Denzel Valentine has a finger injury.
Marial Shayok led the Celtics with 30 points. Kamar Baldwin set career highs with 28 points and 11 rebounds to go along with six assists, Eric Demers scored a career-high 20 points on 6-for-9 shooting from 3-point range and Scottie Lindsey had 18 points.
SKIING
MEN’S WORLD CUP: Loic Meillard beat his teammate Gino Caviezel to lead a Swiss 1-2 finish at a floodlit World Cup giant slalom at Schladming, Austria.
The pair stepped in to give the Swiss ski team a victory despite the absence of its standout performer, Marco Odermatt, who had won four of the five giant slaloms this season but sat out the race to rest a sore knee.
Both skiers held their positions from the first run, as Meillard beat Caviezel by 0.59 seconds.
Marco Schwarz posted the fastest second-run time and the Austrian improved from 14th to third position, 0.81 off the pace.
GOLF
PGA: Jon Rahm struggled to a 1-over 73 at Torrey Pines South, which has become one of his favorite courses, and Sam Ryder, Aaron Rai and Brent Grant all shot 8-under 64 on the more forgiving North Course to tie for the first-round lead at the Farmers Insurance Open at San Diego.
Rahm, ranked No. 3 in the world and trying for his third win in as many starts, made a double bogey on the par-4 seventh hole and was continually left frustrated on the South Course. He earned his first PGA Tour victory in 2017 at the municipal courses on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean and then won the U.S. Open on the South Course in 2021.
Rahm, who is trying for his 10th career tour win, was tied for 116th with 11 others, including playing partner Tony Finau and Justin Rose.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Spectators will not be allowed to attend the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday because of what organizers have described as “severe weather conditions” forecast at Emirates Golf Club.
The European tour said the decision had been made “with the safety of all in mind.”
BASEBALL
MAJORS: Left-hander Jeffrey Springs became the first of the 33 players who exchanged proposed arbitration salaries with their teams to reach a deal, agreeing to a $31 million, four-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays that could be worth $65.75 million over five seasons.
The 30-year old was among seven Rays who swapped arbitration figures with the team on Jan. 13. He began last season in the bullpen, transitioned to the starting rotation in May and finished 9-5 with a 2.46 ERA in 33 appearances, including 25 starts. He is 14-6 with a 2.70 ERA in 76 outings – 51 of them in relief – since he was acquired from Boston in February 2021.
SOCCER
MLS: Heather Davis has been hired as chief executive officer to lead Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers and the National Women’s Soccer League’s Thorns amid the fallout from a series of scandals.
Davis, 46, served as CEO on an interim basis after club owner Merritt Paulson stepped away last fall. She is among five women in charge of team operations in MLS.
The club has been criticized following alleged misconduct by former Thorns coach Paul Riley. Missteps were detailed in a pair of investigations into coach abuse by the NWSL and the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The Timbers also were questioned over the re-signing of former player Andy Polo after an alleged domestic violence incident.
The club’s general manager and president of business operations were fired in October, and Paulson removed himself from an active role with the teams. The NWSL imposed a fine of $1 million on the club. Paulson announced in December that he is selling the Thorns.
OLYMPICS
PARIS: The IOC made clear it wants Russians to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics as neutral athletes, in defiance of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call to exclude them entirely.
Citing a “unifying mission” during a time of war, the International Olympic Committee said no athlete should face discrimination based only on the passport they held.
Russia was not directly condemned in the statement though athletes who have been “actively supporting the war in Ukraine” face being excluded from the Paris Olympics that open in 18 months’ time, the IOC said.
TENNIS
WIMBLEDON: The men’s doubles format at Wimbledon has been changed to best-of-three sets to bring it in line with the other three Grand Slam tournaments.
The All England Club announced the switch from best-of-five sets and said the reduction could attract more players to enter the doubles competition at Wimbledon.
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