The Sports Report: Bruins rally to badly needed win

Howdy, I’m your host, Austin Knoblauch, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who’s probably perfecting his 40 time for the NFL scouting combine. Let’s get right to the news.

From Ben Bolch: By halftime Monday night, UCLA did not look ready for March. More like a team in need of a season reboot.

In a showing as dreary as the cold, wet weather outside Alaska Airlines Arena, the Bruins couldn’t make a shot and their usually sturdy defense was not offering much resistance.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin, center, talks to his team during a time out in the second half against Washington on Monday.

(Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)

The dual disappointment left UCLA in need of a comeback against Washington to avoid another bad road loss and fueling further doubt about whether the Bruins could make it to the NCAA tournament’s second weekend, much less another trip to the Final Four.

It was then that an old friend reemerged to provide a reminder of what this team can do.

Looking as spry as he has all season, Jaime Jaquez Jr. blistered the Huskies with a variety of moves. He scored on layups, turnaround jumpers, putbacks and a three-pointer while powering the No.17 Bruins to a badly needed 77-66 victory.

Those ankles that have hindered Jaquez for most of the season didn’t seem to bother him on the way to a career-high 30 points while making 11 of 17 shots. Jules Bernard added 12 points for the Bruins (22-6, 14-5 Pac-12 Conference), who outscored the Huskies 52-37 in the second half while shooting 59.3%.

“He’s a beast,” Washington coach Mike Hopkins said after the game while walking past reporters gathered around Jaquez in a hallway, patting Jaquez on the shoulder.

What did the career high mean to Jaquez?

“Nothing, really,” said Jaquez, who made 11 of 17 shots and grabbed nine rebounds, with a chuckle. “I mean, I got to 30 points. It’s pretty cool. We’ve got a long road ahead of us, and I’m just trying to help the team win.”

BASEBALL

MLB team owners (clockwise from top left): Mark Walter (Dodgers), Arte Moreno (Angels), Hal Steinbrenner (Yankees), John Henry (Red Sox), Jerry Reinsdorf (White Sox) and Tom Ricketts (Cubs).

(Getty Images)

From Mike DiGiovanna: MLB players you know: their names, their faces, their salaries, their portrayal by the league’s owners — and a fair number of fans during labor disputes and work stoppages — as a collection of ingrate millionaires. The owners, in all likelihood, you are less familiar with beyond their collective billionaire status.

Indeed, roughly three-quarters of the game’s primary owners have net worths north of 10 figures, including two with net worths north of 11 figures, and all but two of them have seen their franchise values appreciate since their purchases, often extraordinarily.

Below is a list of the men who locked out the players on Dec. 2 and have brought baseball to the brink of canceling regular-season games in 2022 with their hardline tactics in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. Read the rest here.

DODGERS

Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer delivers against the Colorado Rockies on April 2, 2021.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

From Bill Shaikin: The woman who accused Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault implemented “a plan to seek rough sex so she could later seek to profit,” attorneys for Bauer have alleged in a court filing.

Bauer has asked the Pasadena Police Department to provide the woman’s cellphone records, a request the woman’s attorney has decried as “a way to continue harassing and disturbing” the woman six months after she was denied a restraining order against him.

The woman’s attorney has asked the court to throw out the subpoena Bauer issued to the Pasadena police and requested $10,000 in sanctions against him and his attorneys. A hearing is set April 4.

In a reply filed last week and made public Monday, Bauer’s attorneys said the phone records were necessary to support a request that the woman pay attorney fees for “misusing a proceeding designed to protect real victims of domestic violence to gain publicity.”

LAKERS

Lakers center DeAndre Jordan tries to drive past Sacramento Kings center Richaun Holmes during a game on Nov. 30.

(Randall Benton / Associated Press)

From Dan Woike: The Lakers intend to sign veteran guard D.J. Augustin, waiving center DeAndre Jordan to clear the necessary roster spot, a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly told the The Times.

Augustin, 34, last played for Houston, which waived him Feb. 10. He averaged 5.4 points and 2.2 assists in 34 games with the Rockets.

In his career with 10 teams, Augustin has been a proven long-range shooter, making 38% from three-point range. The Lakers, in a miserable slump from the perimeter, valued the shooting over Jordan’s size coming off their bench.

COLLEGE SPORTS

Ukrainian tennis player Yuliia Zhytelna has found support from Russian Cal State Northridge doubles partner Ekaterina Repina during a very stressful time.

(Kaitlyn Lavo / Cal State Northridge)

From Kevin Baxter: When the first Russian bombs began falling on Kyiv last Thursday, Yuliia Zhytelna learned about it not from her parents, Volodymyr and Natalia, who were asleep in the Ukrainian capital, but from a news bulletin in the Sacramento hotel lobby where she was doing homework.

“I actually couldn’t speak,” she said. “I just started crying because I couldn’t imagine my country, my peaceful country, in a war. I’m shaking now because I remember that feeling.”

So the Cal State Northridge tennis player turned to one person she knew could dry those tears and stop that shaking. She turned to Ekaterina Repina, her roommate and doubles partner.

She turned to a Russian.

“That’s Kat,” Zhytelna said. “She was supporting me so much. I was crying on her shoulder. She was with me.”

It seems a strange pairing now, putting a Ukrainian and a Russian together in the same hotel room, much less on the same side of a tennis court. But until last week — or at least before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 — it seemed natural. The two countries had more in common than they did apart.

“My mom’s Russian,” Zhytelna said. “And she gave birth to five Ukrainians. I have never had problems with Russians. I have Russian friends.”

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: Two years ago, the Chargers’ decision was so obvious they didn’t even have to make it; the Miami Dolphins made it for them.

Last year, their decision was just as obvious — once they knew their choice was, in fact, there for the taking.

Forecasting Justin Herbert and Rashawn Slater as first picks for the Chargers in the last two drafts was relatively easy.

But, with the arrival of the 2022 NFL scouting combine, predicting what the team will do with the No. 17 overall selection at the end of April remains tricky.

A quarterback and offensive tackle were glaring needs in 2020 and 2021, respectively, with the Chargers drafting high enough both years to reasonably map out what would happen.

When Miami took Tua Tagovailoa at No. 5, Herbert was an automatic call at No. 6. With Slater still available at No. 13, the Chargers selecting anyone else would have been stunning.

Now, however, their first pick doesn’t come until the second half of Round 1, and there is no consensus yet on what position the Chargers might target.

USC BASKETBALL

USC guard Isaiah White dribbles during the second half against Oregon State on Jan. 13 at the Galen Center.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

From Ryan Kartje: Xavier White was born in September, on the doorstep of his father’s final college basketball season, and three weeks earlier than his parents planned. So by the time USC opened its training camp 13 days later, Isaiah White was already well past exhausted.

Xavier wasn’t sleeping well. So naturally, neither was Isaiah. Every two hours, he and his wife, Jazmine, were jolted awake by their son’s crying. His wails sometimes woke up their 1-year-old daughter, Amari, too, leaving the whole family bleary-eyed when morning finally arrived.

For White, it was a particularly tiring adjustment. His boundless energy on both ends of the court was what first endeared the former Utah Valley forward to USC in the summer of 2020, not long after Amari was born. Last March, that effort made White an essential part of USC’s Elite Eight run, as he came alive at a critical juncture of the Trojans’ season, scoring a combined 35 in tournament wins over Kansas and Oregon.

But by October, with two young children in tow, his energy was pretty much sapped. Some days, White struggled just to keep his eyes open during film study.

TENNIS

From Helene Elliott: Ukraine-born tennis player Elina Monfils said Monday she won’t play her scheduled round-of-32 match against Russian Anastasia Potapova at a tournament in Monterrey, Mexico, unless the organizations that govern the men’s and women’s tennis tours and oversee international tennis follow the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee to accept Russian or Belarussian players “only as neutral athletes without displaying any national symbols, colors, flags or anthems.”

Monfils, known as Elina Svitolina until her marriage last year to fellow tennis pro Gael Monfils, was the No. 1 seed at the tournament and was to have played on Tuesday. She ranks 15th in the world.

“I do not blame any of the Russian athletes. They are not responsible for the invasion of our motherland,” she said via social media. “Moreover, I wish to pay tribute to all the players, especially Russians and Belarussians, who bravely stated their position against the war. Their support is essential.” She added an image of an upraised fist pointing toward the name of the country, in Ukraine’s colors of blue and yellow.

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1919 — Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens sets a Stanley Cup Playoff record by scoring five goals in a 6-3 win against the visiting Ottawa Senators. The record is matched four times.

1934 — Primo Carnera retains his world heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Tommy Laughren in Miami.

1948 — Top-ranked NYU, the nation’s only unbeaten basketball team, is upset by Notre Dame 64-59 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. In a game with 17 lead changes, the Fighting Irish hold Dolph Schayes to nine points and Kevin O’Shea scores 18 for Notre Dame.

1955 — Allen Fieldhouse, home of the Kansas Jayhawks, hosts its first basketball game and the Jayhawks beat rival Kansas State 77-66.

1969 — Tuesdee Testa becomes the first female jockey to win a race at a major American Thoroughbred track when she rides Buz On to victory in the third race with at Santa Anita Park.

1973 — Robyn Smith becomes the first woman jockey to win a stakes race when she rides North Sea to victory in the Paumonok Handicap at Aqueduct Race Track in New York.

1981 — Calvin Murphy of the Houston Rockets misses a free throw in San Antonio, ending his NBA record consecutive free throw streak at 78.

1983 — Tamara McKinney becomes the first American woman skier to win the overall World Cup championship.

1987 — The Boston Celtics becomes the first NBA franchise to post 2,000 victories when they beat the Detroit Pistons 112-102.

1988 — Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers becomes the NHL’s all-time assist leader, breaking the longtime mark of Gordie Howe. In his ninth season, Gretzky picked up assist No. 1,050 in a game against the Los Angeles Kings.

1991 — Pat Day becomes the sixth jockey in history to earn $100 million in purses when he rides Wild Sierra to a second-place finish in the first race at Oaklawn Park.

1996 — Atlanta’s Lenny Wilkens becomes the first NBA coach to reach 1,000 career victories as the Hawks beat Cleveland 74-68.

2000 — With 26-year-old rookie Dean Barker at Black Magic’s helm, New Zealand sails into America’s Cup history, becoming the first country other than the United States to defend the oldest trophy in sports.

2001 — Jackie Stiles of Southwest Missouri State becomes the NCAA career scoring leader in women’s basketball, running her career total to 3,133 points with 30 in Southwest Missouri State’s 94-59 victory over Creighton.

2014 — Jaromir Jagr becomes the seventh player to score 700 NHL goals during New Jersey Devils’ 6-1 victory over the New York Islanders.

2015 — Kiley McKinnon and Mac Bohonnon give the United States its first ever World Cup title double in aerials skiing. McKinnon becomes the first U.S. woman to win the World Cup since Nikki Stone in 1998, while Bohonnon was the first American men’s winner since Jeret “Speedy” Peterson in 2005.

And finally

Dylan Hernández, Bill Shaikin, Helene Elliott and Jack Harris talked about the MLB lockout and what comes next during a Twitter Spaces chat on Monday. You can listen to it here.