Monday’s Sports In Brief

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This article was published 14/02/2023 (1012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NFL

Fox was hoping the matchup of two top teams in the Super Bowl and a close game would lead to a record night.

Even though Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles came down to a field goal with 8 seconds remaining, Fox fell just short of its goal.

The Chiefs’ rally to defeat the Eagles 38-35 is on pace to become the third most-watched television show in history, with an estimated 113 million people watching, according to preliminary numbers released Monday.

Fox said the audience estimate includes the broadcasts on Fox and Fox Deportes as well as streaming on Fox and the NFL’s digital sites. The figures are via Nielsen’s Fast National data and Adobe Analytics.

The 2015 game between New England and Seattle on NBC holds the record at 114,442,000 viewers (not including streaming), followed by Super Bowl 51 in 2017 on Fox between Atlanta and New England (113,668,000).

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

NEW YORK (AP) — Alabama is the new No. 1, rising to the top spot in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for the first time in 20 years.

Alabama received 38 first-place votes from a 62-person media panel Monday, moving up two spots to leapfrog No. 2 Houston. The Cougars had 22 first-place votes to remain at No. 2 and Purdue, down to No. 3, still had two first-place votes.

UCLA and Kansas rounded out the top five.

Alabama is No. 1 for the first time since spending two weeks atop the poll midway through the 2002-03 season. It also is the first school to be No. 1 in the AP football and basketball polls in the same season since Ohio State in 2010-11.

No. 9 Baylor and No. 18 Creighton made the biggest moves of the week, each gaining five spots. No. 19 Iowa State had the biggest drop, losing eight places.

NEW YORK (AP) — South Carolina beat a top opponent to remain No. 1 in The Associated Press women’s college basketball poll released Monday and now has a showdown with another one looming this weekend.

The Gamecocks (23-0) topped then-No. 5 UConn 81-77 on Sunday to remain unbeaten and stay the unanimous choice atop the poll from the 28-member national media panel. After facing Auburn on Thursday, South Carolina will play No. 3 LSU on Sunday in a matchup of the last two unbeatens in Division I women’s college basketball.

Indiana is making its first appearance ever at No. 2. LSU remained at No. 3 after close wins over Tennessee, Georgia and Texas A&M. UConn moved up one spot to fourth and Iowa was fifth. The Cardinal fell to sixth with Utah, Maryland, Duke and Notre Dame rounding out the top 10.

NBA

DALLAS (AP) — Kyrie Irving scored 26 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter in his home debut for Dallas as he tried to rally the Mavericks from a 26-point deficit, but the Minnesota Timberwolves held on for a 124-121 victory.

Irving had the highest-scoring fourth quarter of his career. But he made a bad pass after stepping inside the 3-point line on the final possession when Dallas had a chance to tie the game. He had exchanged passes with All-Star teammate Luka Doncic, who finished with 33 points.

First-time All-Star guard Anthony Edwards scored 32 points and Rudy Gobert had 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who had their biggest lead at 89-63 midway through the third quarter.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard had 40 points, including eight 3-pointers, to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 127-115 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, missed his third straight game for the Lakers with a sore left ankle. He hasn’t played since breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record last Tuesday in a loss to Oklahoma City.

The Blazers led by as many as 27 and made a season-best 23 3-pointers, including a franchise-record 17 in the first half.

Anthony Davis had 19 points and 20 rebounds for the Lakers, who have lost four of five.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson scored 40 points, Josh Hart added a season-high 27 in his second game with his new team and the New York Knicks snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Brooklyn Nets with a 124-106 victory.

Julius Randle had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, who beat the Nets for the first time in three years. Brooklyn never lost to the Knicks when Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving played, but they’re both gone now and perhaps so will be the Nets’ ownership of New York’s basketball rivalry.

More importantly for the seventh-place Knicks, they pulled within two games of the Nets for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The top six teams are guaranteed playoff spots.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored 28 points for the Nets.

BASEBALL

NEW YORK (AP) — Starting extra innings with a runner on second base during the regular season was made a permanent rules change by Major League Baseball after three seasons of use during the coronavirus pandemic.

Known by some as the “Ghost Runner” and by others as the “Manfred Man” after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, the rule was unanimously adopted by the sport’s 11-person competition committee.

Use of position players as pitchers also was tightened by the committee. They will be limited to extra innings, when a player’s team is losing by eight or more runs or is winning by 10 or more runs in the ninth inning. Last year, a position player could pitch only in extra innings or if his team was losing or winning by six or more runs.

There were 216 extra-inning games last year, down from 233 in 2021. The longest last year was Cleveland’s 7-6, 15-inning win over Minnesota in the second game of a doubleheader on Sept. 17. That was one inning shy of the longest in the three seasons of the rule, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 16-inning win at San Diego on Aug. 25, 2021.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ted Lerner, the billionaire real estate developer whose family bought the Washington Nationals in 2006, has died, the team announced Monday. He was 97.

A Nationals spokesperson said Lerner died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Lerner’s group purchased the Nationals from Major League Baseball in 2006 for $450 million after the team was moved to the U.S. capital from Montreal. He was managing principal owner until ceding that role to son Mark in 2018.

Under the Lerners’ ownership, the Nationals went from one of baseball’s worst teams in their first several seasons in Washington to World Series champions in 2019. The Lerners also are credited with revitalizing the city’s Navy Yard area since Nationals Park opened in 2008.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes will miss next month’s World Baseball Classic due to a strained right hamstring but hasn’t ruled out being ready for the start of the regular season.

Cortes said the injury is low grade two strain and there is no timeframe. He will not pitch for at least a couple weeks. Cortes first felt a tweak a week ago while running sprints at home.

Cortes went 12-4 with a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts during an All-Star season last year.

Colorado left-hander Kyle Freeland replaced Cortes on the United States roster.