Jamiya Neal had a career-high 24 points to lead Creighton to a 68-63 win over the No. 14 UConn men in Storrs, snapping the Huskies’ 28-game home winning streak. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 points and Steven Ashworth scored 12 for the Bluejays (12-6, 5-2 Big East). Hassan Diarra and Solo Ball each had 15 points for UConn (13-5, 5-2), which lost another winnable game while star freshman Liam McNeeley works his way back from a high-ankle sprain. Four consecutive points from Southborough native Alex Karaban capped a 12-2 run early in the second half to put the Huskies up, 43-41, but Creighton answered with a pair of dunks. UConn regained the lead on a pair of Samson Johnson free throws with 3:27 to go, but Kalkbrenner scored the next 3 points and Creighton hit four consecutive free throws to ice the game. UConn hosts Butler on Tuesday in Hartford.
No. 1 Auburn men survive
Tahaad Pettiford hit 5 of 7 shots from 3-point range, scoring 24 off the bench to help No. 1 Auburn escape No. 23 Georgia with a 70-68 win. Auburn (17-1, 5-0 SEC), which has won 10 in a row and a second straight game without star Johni Broome, was helped by host Georgia (14-4, 2-3) going just 9 of 20 from the line . . . Javon Small scored 12 of his 27 points in the final two minutes to lead West Virginia to a 64-57 home win over No. 2 Iowa State, ending the Cyclones’ national-best 12-game winning streak. Amani Hansberry added 12 points for the Mountaineers (13-4, 4-2 Big 12), who beat a ranked team for the fourth time this season. West Virginia fans stormed the court and joined the players in singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads’’ on a day in which the school celebrated the life of NBA great Jerry West, who died last June at age 86. Curtis Jones scored 18 points to lead Iowa State (15-2, 5-1), which committed 14 turnovers and attempted just seven free throws . . . Grant Nelson had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 4 Alabama (15-3, 4-1 SEC) beat host and No. 8 Kentucky (14-4, 3-2), 102-97, in a matchup of two of the nation’s top offensive teams . . . Chandler Piggé had 17 points and 11 rebounds as Harvard men Brown, 80-67, in Providence. The Crimson (6-9, 1-1 Ivy) went on a 15-2 second-half run to blow open a 6-point game and put away the Bears (8-7, 0-2) . . . Freshman Max Green had 24 points and six rebounds, but Holy Cross (10-9, 2-4 Patriot) made just 5 of 11 free throws in a 74-65 home loss to American . . . Jalen Rucker had 23 points as Army built a 21-point halftime lead and won its fourth straight, 68-62, over Boston University despite Ben Roy’s 17 for the Terriers (9-10, 3-3).
SOCCER
Retiring Naeher honored
Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, the Connecticut native who retired from the US national team late last year after winning gold at the Paris Olympics, was named the 2024 US Soccer Female Player of the Year. She allowed 11 goals in 2024, finishing with a 13-1-3 record, and joins Hope Solo (2009) as the only goalkeepers to win the annual award. Naeher won FIFA’s world goalkeeper award last month.
SKIING
Goggia, again, in Italy
Sofia Goggia solidified her status as the favorite for another downhill gold by winning for the fourth time on the course for next year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics in Italy. Goggia finished a comfortable 0.42 seconds ahead of Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway and 0.55 ahead of Italian teammate Federica Brignone. Lindsey Vonn, back in Cortina with a titanium knee after nearly six years of retirement, finished 1.68 behind Goggia in 20th. The 40-year-old crashed in downhill training Thursday, coming away with a sore backside and a broken boot . . . Swiss superstar Marco Odermatt edged teammate Franjo von Allmen by 0.37 seconds in the classic Lauberhorn race at Wengen, Switzerland — the longest and quirkiest men’s World Cup downhill course.
miscellany
Miller injures wrist
Hornets guard Brandon Miller, the team’s second-leading scorer at 21 points per game, will be sidelined indefinitely because of a torn ligament in his right wrist. The No. 2 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft was injured Wednesday, then held out of Charlotte’s Friday victory over Chicago with what the team initially called a “wrist sprain.’’ . . . Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard is calling for a ban of the controversial carbon monoxide rebreathing method used by athletes to measure their performances. Speaking to Le Monde newspaper, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider said his team makes a proper use of the method, but that some riders misuse it to optimize altitude training . . . One-time US Olympic gymnast and two-time world championship medalist Yul Moldauer says he was suspended 16 months by the US Anti-Doping Agency after he missed three drug tests within a 12-month period . . . Jake Burger said he will wear No. 21 with the Texas Rangers in honor of his daughter, Penelope, who was born in October with Down syndrome — clinically named trisomy 21 . . . FIU softball coach Mike Larabee stepped aside after being diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a form of blood cancer that affects bone marrow. Larabee, who was going into his fourth year, is expected to miss the entire season, which starts Feb. 6.
