KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Milan Momcilovic had 18 points and Keshon Gilbert scored 16 as No. 7 Iowa State used a big second-half to rout No. 1 Houston 69-41 in the Big 12 Tournament final. The Cyclones won their sixth championship in six appearances in the title game. Iowa State came out of the locker room on an 18-3 run to turn a seven-point lead at halftime into a blowout. The Cyclones wound up outscoring the regular-season Big 12 champs 39-18 in the second half. Jamal Shead had 10 points on 3-for-17 shooting to lead Houston, which had likely already wrapped up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament next week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donovan Clingan had 22 points and a career-best 16 rebounds, Jaylin Stewart gave No. 2 UConn an unexpected boost with three second-half 3-pointers during a decisive surge and the Huskies beat No. 10 Marquette 73-57 to win the Big East Tournament championship. Tournament MVP Tristen Newton added 13 points and 10 assists as the top-seeded Huskies won their eighth title, matching Georgetown for the most in conference history. It was their first since 2011, when Kemba Walker led UConn to five wins in five days — and then a national title. Kam Jones led the third-seeded Golden Eagles, the defending tournament champions, with 13 points and eight rebounds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — North Carolina State is heading back to the NCAA Tournament after beating fourth-ranked North Carolina 84-76 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title game. DJ Horne scored 29 points and big man DJ Burns had 20 including the first 3-pointer of his college career to pull off the upset. ACC player of the year RJ Davis had a game-high 30 in defeat for the Tar Heels. UNC had already likely secured an NCAA No. 1 seed by making it to the final. N.C. State snatching an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament means trouble for other teams who are on the at-large bubble.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conference tournament season took an even more chaotic turn — and that’s bad news for at least a couple teams on the bubble. North Carolina State’s thrilling five-wins-in-five-days march through the ACC Tournament pushed one borderline team out of the NCAA Tournament. The Wolfpack were a classic bid thief, snatching their league’s automatic bid as the conference’s No. 10 seed. And the night wasn’t over yet. Shortly after N.C. State’s confetti-filled celebration in Washington began, Oregon beat Colorado 75-68 to win the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas. That meant another bubble team would be bumped.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers a 2025 sixth-round draft pick that could potentially become a fourth-rounder this year in return. The move is a strong signal the Bears will draft a QB — perhaps USC’s Caleb Williams — with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Fields figures to back up Russell Wilson, who signed a one-year deal with Pittsburgh on Friday.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Shohei Ohtani may be the most-beloved Japanese athlete in South Korea, a historic rival of his home country. Since his recent arrival in South Korea for the Major League Baseball opener, the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar has been the focus of keen, special attention here. Such reactions are nothing new for the two-way baseball sensation. But a Japanese receiving such treatment in South Korea is extremely unusual, because of historical grievances stemming from Japan’s past colonization of Korea. Many of his fans in South Korea say they like him because he has good manners as well as due to his baseball excellence.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Xander Schauffele started the day with a four-shot deficit. He had to settle for a one-shot lead over U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark at The Players Championship. Schauffele delivered another bogey-free round and shot 65. Clark was still tied until hitting some 20 yards short of the island on the par-3 17th and escaping with bogey. He shot 70. Right behind them is British Open champion Brian Harman. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is among six players within five shots of the lead on a TPC Sawgrass course where anything can happen. No one has ever won back-to-back in The Players.
SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) — Lara Gut-Behrami has secured the women’s World Cup overall and giant slalom titles after finishing 10th in the GS at the World Cup finals. Federica Brignone was her only remaining challenger in both classifications and the Italian did win the race but that was not enough to overtake Gut-Behrami in the standings. Gut-Behrami previously won the big globe in 2016. Mikaela Shiffrin has won it five times since but the American dropped out of the race this season after sustaining a knee injury. Shiffrin ended her season with a win in Saturday's slalom.
UNDATED (AP) — As March Madness gets underway, more people than ever now can legally bet on sports. North Carolina became the latest state to allow online sports betting last week. A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of sports betting. That's up from just one state, Nevada, where people could legally wager on games before a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for expansion. The American Gaming Association estimates $2.7 billion will be bet on the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments through legal sports betting operators.
SATURDAY SCORES
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Milwaukee 5 Texas 1
Final Chicago Cubs 7 Kansas City 6
Final Arizona 5 Texas 4
Final Chicago Cubs 4 L.A. Angels 3
Final San Francisco 6 Cleveland 0
Final Detroit 6 Pittsburgh 4
Final San Francisco 11 Chicago White Sox 7
Final Seattle 11 Cincinnati 7
Final Milwaukee 11 Oakland 4
Final Colorado 11 Oakland 9
Final N.Y. Mets 6 Houston 1
Final L.A. Dodgers 14 Kiwoom Heroes 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Baltimore 5 Boston 4
Final Minnesota 6 Tampa Bay 5
Final N.Y. Yankees 10 Toronto 9
Final Seattle 8 Chicago White Sox 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final St. Louis 8 Washington 5
Final Pittsburgh 4 Atlanta 2
Final Philadelphia 3 Miami 3
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final Houston 117 Cleveland 103
Final New Orleans 126 Portland 107
Final Indiana 121 Brooklyn 100
Final Philadelphia 109 Charlotte 98
Final Chicago 127 Washington 98
Final Oklahoma City 118 Memphis 112
Final Golden State 128 L.A. Lakers 121
Final Minnesota 119 Utah 100
Final New York 98 Sacramento 91
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Final Detroit 4 Buffalo 1
Final OT Ottawa 4 N-Y Islanders 3
Final N-Y Rangers 7 Pittsburgh 4
Final Arizona 4 New Jersey 1
Final Tampa Bay 5 Florida 3
Final Columbus 4 San Jose 2
Final Calgary 5 Montreal 2
Final Boston 6 Philadelphia 5
Final SO Carolina 5 Toronto 4
Final Dallas 4 Los Angeles 1
Final SO St. Louis 3 Minnesota 2
Final Washington 2 Vancouver 1
Final Nashville 4 Seattle 1