Archives for March 2021

Bologna fights back from 2 goals down to beat Crotone 3-2

MILAN (AP) — Bottom club Crotone let slip a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at home to Bologna in Serie A on Saturday.

Substitute Andreas Skov Olsen scored the winner for Bologna six minutes from time. Crotone had looked set for a precious win after goals from Junior Messias and Nwankwo Simy put it 2-0 up at halftime. But midtable Bologna leveled with two goals in eight second-half minutes.

Crotone remained eight points from safety.

Cagliari almost fought back from two goals down but had a late goal ruled out for offside in a 2-1 defeat at fellow struggler Spezia. The match between Serie A leader Inter Milan and Sassuolo was postponed because of coronavirus cases in the Nerazzurri camp.

Crotone took the lead in the 32nd minute as Messias’ free kick went past everyone and into the bottom corner.

Simy doubled Crotone’s lead eight minutes later when he drilled a penalty into the bottom right corner after Bologna defender Adama Soumaoro had bundled over Samuel Di Carmine as they tussled for a corner kick.

Bologna coach Siniša Mihajlović rang the changes at halftime, bringing on Skov Olsen and Jerdy Schouten, and the visitors upped the pressure.

Soumaoro made up for giving away the penalty by reducing the deficit in the 62nd and Schouten curled a long-range strike into the top right corner shortly after for the equalizer.

Bologna completed the extraordinary comeback late on when Alex Cordaz could only parry Rodrigo Palacio’s strike and Skov Olsen slid in to slot home the rebound.

Emmanuel Rivière thought he had scored a stoppage-time equalizer for Crotone but it wad ruled out for offside.

COMEBACK THWARTED

Spezia earned a potentially crucial win against Cagliari in a direct fight to avoid relegation.

Spezia moved seven points clear of the relegation zone and 18th-place Cagliari.

Roberto Piccoli fired Spezia in front four minutes into the second half after Cagliari defender Ragnar Klavan completely miskicked a clearance.

Giovanni Simeone should have leveled but he ballooned his shot over an empty goal from close range and Giulio Maggiore appeared to have won the match when he scored a chaotic second for Spezia 10 minutes from time.

Gastón Pereiro pulled one back for Cagliari three minutes later and the visitors thought they had snatched a valuable point in stoppage time but João Pedro’s goal was ruled out for offside.

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

NASCAR returns to its roots with 1st of 2 visits to Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — NASCAR is returning to its roots.

Even as the good ol’ boys attempt to break with the uglier parts of their history — most notably, the Confederate flag — the sport has embraced a more traditional footprint with its 2021 schedule.

That includes Atlanta Motor Speedway, which on Sunday is hosting the first of two Cup races.

NASCAR will return to the track in July — the first time since 2010 that the 1.54-mile tri-oval has staged a pair of events.

The drivers are certainly pleased to be making a couple of visits to one of their favorite stops, a treacherous, high-speed layout that produces some of the best racing on the Cup circuit.

“Atlanta has always been a track I enjoyed,” said Martin Truex, coming off a victory in last week’s race in Phoenix. “It’s a very fun racetrack, being able to run all over the track, just the tire wear and all those things, are things I enjoy behind the wheel.”

Nearly two decades ago, NASCAR began an effort to expand its fan base by staging more races beyond the seven states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida — that had long dominated the schedule.

But with attendance dipping at many tracks and big TV ratings harder to come by from an increasingly fragmented audience, the governing body decided to shake things up by turning to its past.

The coronavirus pandemic muddled the effort in 2020, but this year’s schedule includes 19 races in those seven traditional states — the most since 2003.

Atlanta has returned to having two Cup dates. So has South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway, which was limited to one race from 2005-19. Nashville is back on the schedule for the first time since 1984.

To accommodate the changes, NASCAR dumped Chicago and Kentucky. Dover gave up one of its two races. The first race scheduled in California in February was moved because of COVID-19 restrictions, but NASCAR still has a June stop in Sonoma on the schedule.

Reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott is thrilled to have two chances to win at what he considers his home track.

“It’s always going to be a special place for me,” he said. “I spent lot of time racing Legends cars and things like that down there. For sure, I would love to go have a good run.”

If it doesn’t work out this time, he’ll get another chance in July.

Yep, Atlanta is a two-race track again.

“I’m looking forward to racing there twice this year,” Truex said.

Some things to watch for in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500:

HARVICK ANNIVERSARY

Atlanta means a lot to Kevin Harvick.

Twenty years ago, he won his first Cup race at the track only three weeks after the death of Dale Earnhardt.

Harvick replaced Earnhardt on the Richard Childress team and took the checkered flag in just his third Cup start.

He didn’t realize the magnitude of the moment at the time. He does now.

“Knowing now what it meant to the sport, and just that moment in general of being able to carry on, was so important,” Harvick said.

After a 16-year drought in Atlanta, he has won two of the last three Cup races at the track, including last year’s pandemic-delayed event.

WHO’S NEXT?

The first five races of 2021 have produced five different winners, including first-timers Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell.

The surprising group also includes William Byron, who claimed just his second career victory, and Kyle Larson, coming back from a season in which he was lost his job and was suspended for making a racial slur in an online race.

“Certainly it’s not bad having different people win,” Elliott said. “I feel like it’s a good thing from a fan’s perspective.”

SLIP SLIDIN’ AWAY

The Atlanta has gone 24 years since its last repaving, which makes it extremely rough on tires and much more challenging for drivers on long runs between pit stops.

“The pace falloff is massive with every lap,” Elliott said “Every lap, you’re pretty much losing time. If you can run two laps the same in the first 10 to 15 laps of a run, you’re doing really well.

“That’s what makes the race track so challenging. You’re trying to find some consistency, you’re trying to get in a rhythm and not beat up your tires. That’s a hard thing to do when you’re trying to go really fast and set a good pace at the same time.”

FANS IN THE STANDS

A year ago, Atlanta was the first Cup race to be halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

NASCAR was shuttered for more than two months, finally returning to Atlanta on June 7 after a massive reconfiguration of the schedule.

This year’s race won’t be totally normal, but it will include one big change from 2020: fans in the stands.

Atlanta will welcome about 20,000 spectators, selling out its grandstand tickets as well as having socially distanced camping in the infield.

ODDS AND ENDS

Harvick and series points leader Denny Hamlin are co-favorites Sunday at 9-2. Larson is a 5-1 pick, followed by Truex (11-2) and Elliott (13-2). … The weather is always a bit tricky when the Cup series races at Atlanta in March, but the forecast Sunday called for a partly sunny sky with temperatures climbing near the mid-60s Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). … Georgian Jeff Foxworthy will perform his comedy act before the race. … Truex was the first active Cup champion to win a race this season. … Harvick and Kurt Busch have the most Atlanta Cup wins in the field, with three apiece. But Busch hasn’t won at the track since 2010.

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This story has been corrected to show that NASCAR is not on hold in California until at least 2022. The first race has been moved, but a June stop in Sonoma remains on the schedule.

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Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963. His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/paulnewberry

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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Thousands protest against Israel’s Netanyahu ahead of vote

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, calling for the longtime prime minister’s ouster in a final show of force ahead of this week’s parliamentary elections.

The weekly protests against Netanyahu have taken place for nine months. But they have lost strength in recent months in part due to cold winter weather and after early elections were declared in December. Saturday’s night’s gathering in central Jerusalem was the largest protest in months.

The grassroots protest movement believes Netanyahu cannot serve as prime minister while he is on trial for multiple corruption charges. Many also object to his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Netanyahu is counting on his highly successful vaccination campaign to propel him to victory. Some three-quarters of the country’s adult population has been vaccinated in under three months, and the economy has reopened in recent weeks. But over 6,000 Israelis have died from COVID-19, the economy has been hard hit by repeated lockdowns, and unemployment remains in double digits. Many of the protesters have lost their jobs or seen their businesses suffer due to repeated lockdowns.

“It’s in our hands,” read a sign on a giant Israeli flag. “We are saving the country. We are fighting corruption, we are the hope,” said another banner.

Opinion polls have forecast a tight race on Tuesday, with Netanyahu and his religious and nationalist allies struggling to secure a majority of seats in the 120-member Knesset, or parliament.

If the polls are correct, Israel could be facing weeks of horse-trading and even the possibility of an unprecedented fifth consecutive election in just over two years.

NCAA women’s basketball tournament ‘wide-open a year as any’

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — This year’s women’s NCAA Tournament may be one of the most-wide open in years, with nearly a dozen teams having a good chance to win the championship.

The uncertainty seems apropos after a pandemic-stressed season of stops, pauses and cancellations.

The top seeds Stanford, South Carolina, N.C. State and UConn are definitely the favorites to win the title on April 4 at the Alamodome. The four No. 2s also are among the favorites to win it all with Louisville, Maryland, Baylor and Texas A&M all title contenders.

“This is as wide-open a year as any. Last year maybe it was Oregon or people might say South Carolina,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “Past years there’s been Baylor with Brittney Griner or Connecticut with Maya Moore but I think this year is wide open. There are a lot of different teams that could win this tournament. I think it will be very exciting and great for TV.”

History is on the side of the top teams. A one or two seed has won every women’s tournament title since 1997, including the last eight by a No. 1.

Texas A&M coach Gary Blair, who led the Aggies to the 2011 national championship, said his advice is always to play the game with “no fear”.

“That’s how you advance in the NCAAs. If you come in thinking that this team is No. 1 or No. 2, you have no chance,” said Blair, whose Aggies are a two-seed. “But if you come in with a no-fear attitude, Cinderellas happen all the time.

“I’ve been a lower-seeded team at Arkansas. I’m still the lowest-seeded team that ever made the Final Four when I was at Arkansas as a No 9 seed. We had the opportunity out at Stanford to see a No 16 beat a No 1 … That’s always been a great teaching lesson to me.”

Even if that trend doesn’t change, there are more teams capable of pulling off upsets and at least reaching the Final Four especially since there were fewer regular season games and practices than there would be during normal year.

The talent also seems to be more spread out now.

A look at the AP All-America team and for the first time ever there were 15 different schools represented on it. Throughout the season, the No. 1 team in the poll changed four times— the second most all-time. N.C. State and Stanford both lost games to unranked teams this season.

Also, with all the NCAA Tournament being played on neutral courts there’s a better chance that there will be more upsets as lower-seeded teams won’t have to win on a higher-seeded squad’s homecourt to advance to the Sweet 16.

Any team that will make a deep run will have to deal with the mental aspect as well. A school that wins the national championship will have spent nearly three weeks in San Antonio cooped up in their hotel.

Stanford, the overall No. 1 seed, might be in the best position to overcome that. The Cardinal spent nine weeks away from home because of the virus. If they can, VanDerveer could win her first national championship since 1992.

“I think it helps,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “We’re used to testing every day and used to eating in our rooms. It has prepared us for this. We’ve been her done this, we can handle it.”

VanDerveer tells her players their middle name has to be “flexible.”

Some other things to watch for in the tournament:

FRESH FACES:

There are a lot of talented freshmen and sophomores who are making their debuts in the NCAAs. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark led the nation in scoring at 26.7 points per game and Paige Bueckers of UConn became the third freshman to ever earn first-team All-America honors.

South Carolina sophomore Aliyah Boston, also an All-American, will be playing in her first NCAA Tournament after last season’s was wiped out by the pandemic.

FIRST TIMERS:

Four teams will be making their NCAA Tournament debuts, although they will all have a tough task to make it a long stay. Bradley, High Point. Stony Brook and Utah Valley. As an 11-seed Bradley has the best chance to make it out of the first round as the other three teams would need to pull off monumental upsets as 15 and 16 seeds.

MISSING THEIR LEADER:

UConn, which has made the Final Four every tournament since 2008, will be missing coach Geno Auriemma for the first two games because he contracted the coronaviru s last week. Auriemma should be back for the Sweet 16.

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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/College-basketball and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25

Police contacted after Ohio State’s Liddell receives threats

Ohio State officials have reached out to police about threatening and insulting social media messages sophomore E.J. Liddell received following the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament loss on Friday.

Ohio State associate athletic director for communications Dan Wallenberg told The Associated Press he contacted police on Saturday morning about the threats Liddell received after the second-seeded Buckeyes were upset by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts 75-72 in overtime.

Liddell, who had 23 points and 14 rebounds in the game, revealed on his Twitter feed he received threatening messages. He posted images of the messages, including one that said “I hope you die I really do.” Other messages included racist insults.

“Honestly, what did I do to deserve this?” Liddell posted on Twitter. “I’m human.”

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said the language used against Liddell “is appalling and will not be tolerated.”

“To the few of you who have chosen to inappropriately rail against our players on social media, stop,” Smith said. “Hate and derision have no place in Buckeye Nation or in civil society. If you cross the line and threaten our players, you will be hearing from the authorities. That I promise you.

“I have nothing but love and respect for E.J. He epitomizes all that we hope for in our student-athletes.”

Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann also defended Liddell.

“Recent social media comments to E.J. Liddell, while not from or representative of Ohio State fans, are vile, dangerous and reflect the worst of humanity,” Holtmann posted on Twitter. “E.J. is an outstanding young man who had a tremendous sophomore season and he was instrumental in our team’s success. We will take all the necessary actions to address this immediately.”

Liddell said by revealing the threats and insults he was not “saying anything negative about Ohio State fans.”

“I love you all dearly and I’ve felt nothing but appreciated since the first day I stepped on campus,” he said.

Liddell said he was confused to be targeted by the messages.

“Comments don’t get to me but I just wanna know why,” he said. “I’ve never done anything to anyone in my life to be approached like this.”

STATE RIVALRY

The loyalties of some Illinois residents may be torn by Sunday’s second-round Midwest Regional game between top seed Illinois and eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago. That’s no problem for Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 101-year-old chaplain for Loyola. Even so, the beloved centenarian hoops fan threw some shade at the NCAA selection committee for pairing state rivals so early.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say how come two schools from Illinois are meeting each other so soon and they have not so good feelings about it,” she said in a Zoom interview, adding she doesn’t often see state rivals from North Carolina or Florida in similar matchups.

Sister Jean taught at Chicago’s Mundelein College when Loyola beat Illinois in the 1963 NCAA Tournament. She said she was already a college basketball fan and watched on an 11-inch television when Loyola beat Cincinnati for the NCAA championship.

She said she remembers Loyola students walked down the street “yelling ‘We won! We won! We won!’ and came in the Mundelein residence hall and all the girls joined in.”

After the coronavirus pandemic kept fans away this season, Sister Jean said it meant more to attend Friday’s 71-60 win over Georgia Tech. She said she communicates by email and delivers pregame prayers by phone.

“I’m missing the guys all the time,” she said, adding “everybody was gone from campus” only a few days after the pandemic outbreak one year ago.

“It was very shocking to have all that happen,” she said.

ACC YOU LATER

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s down year hit rock bottom with fourth-seeded Virginia’s 62-58 loss to 13th-seed Ohio in the West Region, giving the league a woeful 2-5 record in the first round.

ACC Tournament champion Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Clemson and North Carolina lost Friday. Virginia’s upset loss on Saturday night eliminated the league’s regular-season champion.

The Cavaliers were the last team to arrive in Indianapolis because of a positive COVID-19 test that forced them to withdraw from the ACC Tournament semifinals and quarantine.

Eleventh-seeded Syracuse was the league’s only winner Friday, beating San Diego State in the Midwest Region. Fourth-seeded Florida State held off UNC Greensboro 64-54 in Saturday’s first round of the East Region.

Duke missed the tournament for the first time since 1995.

The league claimed three of the past five NCAA titles: Duke (2015), UNC (2017) and Virginia (2019). The ACC, which claimed a top seed in 26 of 29 tournaments, had no team seeded higher than fourth this year for the first time since seeding began in 1979.

Orange coach Jim Boeheim said the biggest difference was the lack of a headlining team. He noted Georgia Tech didn’t have ACC player of the year Moses Wright in its loss to Loyola Chicago.

“We weren’t quite as good at the top,” Boeheim said Saturday. “Obviously Carolina and Duke weren’t as good as they’ve been. Virginia was good, but they struggled during the middle of the year. We didn’t really have a top-10, top-15, top-16, top-20 team really at the end of the day. We had a lot of good teams.”

BRACKET BUSTERS

Any fan holding an unblemished NCAA Tournament bracket has reason to brag. Friday’s first-round upsets already have blown up most brackets.

ESPN says after 16 games, there were 108 perfect brackets remaining from the 14.7 million entered before the tournament.

Ohio State’s loss was the biggest shock. ESPN says more than 95% of brackets — 13,992,289 — listed the Buckeyes beating Oral Roberts.

GATORS’ APPLEBY HEALING

Florida coach Mike White said guard Tyree Appleby “seems fine, seems normal” after suffering a head laceration on Friday and will be a game-time decision against Oral Roberts on Sunday.

Appleby was hit by an inadvertent elbow early in the second half while playing defense against Virginia Tech. He wobbled to the locker room and returned to the bench area in overtime to see the No. 7 seed Gators pull out a 75-70 victory.

White offered no update on suspended forward Omar Payne, who sat out the game because of an “in-house situation.” Payne was ejected from the SEC Tournament quarterfinals early in the second half for a flagrant-2 foul against Tennessee’s John Fulkerson, who suffered a concussion and facial fracture and did not play in Tennessee’s opening-round loss to Oregon State.

White declined to say if Payne’s suspension was related to elbowing Fulkerson.

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AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard, Will Graves, Mark Long and Mitch Stacy contributed to this report.

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More AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and updated bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket

Archives for March 2021

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