PHILADELPHIA (AP) — On this Feb. 14, love Hurts. Although now retired center Jason Kelce famously sang, “No one likes us, we don’t care!” after the team’s first Super Bowl win in 2018, raucous fans may put that humble brag in doubt Friday as they swarm the team’s parade route from the Avenue of the Arts downtown to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They’ll be shrieking for record-setting running back Saquon Barkley, buzzing over wide receiver A.J. Brown and going crazy for Cooper DeJean, the rookie defensive back who ran an interception into the end zone on his 22nd birthday. The Eagles, though underdogs, dominated the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, shutting them out in the first half before finishing with an easy 40-22 win. At least in Philadelphia, where swooning Eagles fans will be cheering on the Super Bowl champions and MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts across the City of Brotherly Love.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — JuJu Watkins broke out of a scoring slump with 38 points, helping sixth-ranked Southern California topple No. 1 UCLA 71-60 and further delivering on her goal of restoring the program to its earlier glory. Some of those Trojans stars from the early 1980s — including Hall of Famers Cheryl Miller and Tina Thompson — joined a raucous crowd as USC rallied for the program’s first win over a top-ranked team since 1983 on Thursday night. “Gonna be one of those nights,” DJ Mal-Ski told the soldout crowd of 10,258 during pregame warmups. It surely was. After her sister Mali sang the national anthem, Watkins scored eight points in five minutes to start the game when the Trojans put the Bruins in an early hole. “JuJu got hot off the bounce and she got in a rhythm,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. Watkins had all of USC’s points in the second quarter when they were outscored 20-14. She stopped the Bruins’ 10-0 run with a 3-pointer that kept the Trojans ahead 38-35 at the half.
LIEVIN, France (AP) — Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen set a world record in the indoor mile Thursday, beating Yared Nuguse’s mark set just five days earlier at the Millrose Games. The two-time Olympic champion also set the world indoor 1,500 meter record at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophée EDF in northern France. Ingebrigtsen crossed the finish line in 3 minutes, 45.14 seconds, improving on Nuguse’s 3:46.63 in New York. Along the way, he hit 1,500 meters in 3:29.63, taking almost a second off the mark he set on the same track in 2022. “It feels amazing,” the 24-year-old Ingebrigtsen said in World Athletics’ announcement of the records. “This is what happens in Lievin. I’m a very happy man. You have to be focused for the whole race. It’s tough, but it’s worth it.” Both records are subject to ratification.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Denny McCarthy ended a miserable day in a most brilliant manner Thursday at the Genesis Invitational, closing birdie-eagle for a 4-under 68 on a Torrey Pines course that more than lived up to its reputation as a beast. McCarthy had a one-shot lead over Seamus Power and Patrick Rodgers. Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player who is starting to find his groove after a late start, missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and was in the group at 70. The best preparation for McCarthy and a few others was the pro-am. It was cold and wet for that, too, and he knew what to expect. “I came out with the attitude that I was just going to have fun and try to embrace it as much as I could,” McCarthy said, who is still trying to win for the first time on the PGA Tour. McCarthy was coming off a bogey on the par-3 16th when he holed a 25-foot birdie putt, and then switched to a 3-wood for his second shot on the par-5 closing hole to a back right pin. The ball rolled up to 7 feet for his eagle putt.
THURSDAY SCORES
NCAA WOMEN TOP 25
No. 6 USC 71, No. 1 UCLA 60
No. 2 Notre Dame 88, Pittsburgh 57
No. 3 Texas 67, No. 8 Kentucky 49
No. 4 South Carolina 101, Florida 63
No. 9 Ohio State 87, Minnesota 84
No. 10 NC State 76, Miami 74
No. 12 North Carolina 67, Virginia Tech 62
No. 13 Duke 72, Wake Forest 47
No. 15 Tennessee 99, Auburn 61
Nebraska 91, No. 17 Maryland 71
Clemson 68, No. 19 Georgia Tech 61
Louisville 83, No. 23 Florida State 69