The Sports Report: Bruins barely escape the first round

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Ben Bolch: The first stop on the road back to the Final Four was looking like a dead end.

Outhustled and outplayed by a quicker and more fearless team, UCLA stared directly at a quick exit in the NCAA tournament.

Tyger Campbell stared back and didn’t blink.

With his team trailing by eight points and less than eight minutes to play, the gritty point guard scored eight of his team’s final 10 points, pushing the fourth-seeded Bruins to a 57-53 comeback victory over 13th-seeded Akron in a first-round game at the Moda Center.

After his team could finally exhale, Campbell shook his fists in triumph. He was then mobbed by his teammates after UCLA persevered thanks mostly to their smallest player’s heroics, the Bruins closing the game on an 18-6 run.

The Bruins (26-7) will play fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s in the second round Saturday after the Gaels whipped Indiana by 29 points in an earlier game.

Campbell’s biggest shot came at the end of the shot clock when he drilled a three-pointer from NBA range to push UCLA into a 55-51 lead with 1:16 left, earning a hand slap from Jaime Jaquez Jr. and a chest bump from Peyton Watson on the way to the timeout huddle.

After the Zips pulled to within 55-53 and eventually got the ball back, UCLA’s Cody Riley shook off a poor showing to block a shot with his left hand with 4.3 seconds left. Bruins guard Johnny Juzang grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made two free throws to secure the victory.

Campbell finished with 10 of his 16 points in the second half. Jaquez added 15 points and Jules Bernard added 10 for the Bruins, who won despite making just 35.2% of their shots. Campbell’s three-pointer from the corner pulled UCLA within 51-50 and after Bernard drew an offensive foul, flexing in celebration, Campbell gave the Bruins a 52-51 lead with a midrange jumper.

In its illustrious history, UCLA had only lost once previously to a 13th-seeded team, suffering that unfortunate fate in 1996 against Princeton during the season after the Bruins’ most recent national championship.

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Tear up that contract that’s less than a year old. Mick Cronin now has something much better.

Only hours before his team’s NCAA tournament opener, the UCLA basketball coach was rewarded Thursday with a new six-year contract that’s expected to make him the highest-paid coach in the Pac-12 Conference.

The new deal, which runs through the 2027-28 season, replaces the two-year extension he had signed after guiding the Bruins to the Final Four last year. The previous contract was slated to pay him $3.7 million per year.

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Plaschke: UCLA finds mojo just in time before ugly tradition repeating itself

‘Alabama, goodnight’: The story of Luke Ratliff, a college hoops superfan gone too soon

NCAA tournament surprises: St. Peter’s over Kentucky and more Madness

NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT

From Ryan Kartje: Andy Enfield knows you’ve probably overlooked USC.

Don’t worry, he’s used to it by now. After nearly a decade spent trying to reawaken a catatonic college basketball program, the coach understands you might have been asleep for most of the Trojans’ tip times. Maybe, for one reason or another, you’ve neglected to notice how far USC has climbed since he took over — the Elite Eight run last season, the record wins this season, a top recruiting class incoming. Or maybe, in spite of all that, you just don’t believe in him or USC hoops.

Either way, Enfield has a stat for you.

The coach knows, to those unaware of USC’s surprising string of success, that his regular references of the Trojans’ statistical standing makes for compelling context to the program’s rise. So Enfield has committed many of his favorite stats to memory, filing them away for whenever the moment might call for a reminder. Which, in his mind, tends to be quite often.

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From Ryan Kartje: No one at Cal State Fullerton was talking about legacies or last rides around this time last month.

The Titans were just a collection of transfers and disparate parts then, still trying to find their way. They’d just been embarrassed on national TV during a rudderless road loss to Hawaii, and their season stood at a mid-February crossroads. That’s when Dedrique Taylor challenged his team to take a long look in the mirror.

Many were seniors, entering the final stretch of their college careers. Now, he said, was the time to figure out what mark they planned to leave. Were they contenders, he asked, or pretenders?

It was that question, posed from the visiting locker room in Honolulu, that would help spark a sensational, unexpected run through the Big West tournament, earning Fullerton its fourth NCAA tournament bid and a date Friday at 4:10 p.m. with second-seeded Duke and its legendary coach, Mike Krzyzewski, whose legacy has been the biggest story in college basketball this season.

Results and schedule

First Round
Thursday’s results

West
No. 1 Gonzaga 93, No. 16 Georgia State 72
No. 4 Arkansas 75, No. 13 Vermont 71
No. 12 New Mexico State 70, No. 5 Connecticut 63
No. 9 Memphis 64, No. 8 Boise St. 53

East
No. 1 Baylor 85, No. 16 Norfolk State 49
No. 15 Saint Peter’s 85, No. 2 Kentucky 79 (OT)
No. 4 UCLA 57, No. 13 Akron 53
No. 5 Saint Mary’s 82, No. 12 Indiana 53
No. 7 Murray State 92, No. 10 San Francisco 87 (OT)
No. 8 North Carolina 95, No. 9 Marquette 63

Midwest
No. 1 Kansas 83. No. 16 Texas Southern 56
No. 4 Providence 66, No. 13 South Dakota St. 57
No. 12 Richmond 67, No. 5 Iowa 63
No. 9 Creighton 72, No. 8 San Diego St. 69 (OT)

South
No. 3 Tennessee 88, No. 14 Longwood 56
No. 11 Michigan 75, No. 6 Colorado St. 63

Friday

West
No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 14 Montana State, 10:45 a.m., TNT
No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 11 Notre Dame, 1:15 p.m., TNT
No. 2 Duke vs. No. 15 CS Fullerton, 4:10 p.m., CBS
No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 10 Davidson, 6:40 p.m., CBS

East
No. 3 Purdue vs. No. 14 Yale, 11 a.m., TBS
No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Virginia Tech, 1:30 p.m., TBS

Midwest
No. 2 Auburn vs. No. 15 Jacksonville State, 9:40 a.m., truTV
No. 7 USC vs. No. 10 Miami, 12:10 p.m., truTV
No. 6 LSU vs. No. 11 Iowa State. 4:20 p.m., TBS
No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 14 Colgate, 6:50 p.m., TBS

South
No. 7 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Loyola of Chicago, 9:15 a.m., CBS
No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 15 Delaware, 11:45 a.m., CBS
No. 4 Illinois vs. No. 13 Chattanooga, 3:50 p.m., TNT
No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 16 Wright State, 4:27 p.m., truTV
No. 5 Houston vs. No. 12 Alabama Birmingham, 6:20 p.m., TNT
No. 8 Seton Hall vs. No. 9 Texas Christian, 6:57 p.m., truTV

Second round
Saturday

West
No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 9 Memphis, 6:40 p.m., TBS
No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 12 New Mexico State, 5:40 p.m., TNT

East
No. 1 Baylor vs. No. 8 North Carolina, 9:10 a.m., CBS
No. 7 Murray State vs. No. 15 Saint Peter’s , 4:45 p.m., CBS
No. 4 UCLA vs. No. 5 Saint Mary’s, 4:10 p.m., TBS

Midwest
No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 9 Creighton, 11:40 a.m., CBS
No. 4 Providence vs. No. 12 Richmond, 3:10 p.m., TNT

South
No. 3 Tennessee vs. No. 11 Michigan, 2:15 p.m., CBS

NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT

Schedule and results

First Four
Thursday’s results
No. 16 Longwood 74, No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s 70
No. 11 Missouri St. 61, No. 11 Florida St. 50

First round
Today

Spokane Region
No. 5 Virginia Tech vs. No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast, 11:30 a.m. ESPNU
No. 4 Maryland vs. No. 13 Delaware, 2 p.m., ESPNU
No. 7 Utah vs. No. 10 Arkansas, 2:30 p.m., ESPNews
No. 8 Kansas vs. No. 9 Georgia Tech, 4:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 2 Texas vs. No. 15 Fairfield, 5 p.m., ESPN2
No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 16 Montana State, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Wichita Region
No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 South Dakota. 10:30 a.m., ESPN2
No. 8 Nebraska vs. No. 9 Gonzaga, 12:30 p.m., ESPNews
No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 15 Hawaii, 1 p.m., ESPN2
No. 1 Louisville vs. No. 16 Albany, 3 p.m., ESPN2

Greensboro Region
No. 8 Miami vs. No. 9 South Florida, 8:30 a.m., ESPN2
No. 7 Colorado vs. No. 10 Creighton, 10:30 a.m. ESPNews
No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 16 Howard, 11 a.m., ESPN
No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 15 Illinois State, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 6 Georgia vs. No. 11 Dayton, 4:30 p.m., ESPNews
No. 3 Iowa State vs. UT Arlington, 7 p.m., ESPNU

Saturday

Spokane Region
No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 11 Missouri St., 11:30 a.m., ESPNU
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 14 Jackson State, 2 p.m., ESPNU

Wichita Region
No. 6 BYU vs. No. 11 Villanova, 10 a.m., ESPNews
No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 13 Buffalo, Noon, ABC
No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 14 American, 12:30 p.m., ESPN2
No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 Belmont, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2

Greensboro Region
No. 5 North Carolina vs. No. 12 Stephen F. Austin, 4:30 p.m., ESPNews
No. 4 Arizona vs. No. 13 UNLV, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Bridgeport Region
No. 8 Washington State vs. No. 9 Kansas State, 8:30 a.m., ESPN2
No. 2 Connecticut vs. No. 15 Mercer, 10 a.m., ABC
No. 3 Indiana vs. No. 14 Charlotte, 10:30 a.m., ESPN2
No. 1 North Carolina State vs. No. 16 Longwood, 11 a.m., ESPN
No. 7 Central Florida vs. No. 10 Florida, 12:30 p.m., ESPNews
No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 11 Princeton, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Massachusetts, 4:30 p.m., ESPN2
No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 13 IUPUI, 7 p.m., ESPNU

DODGERS

From Jorge Castillo: Trevor Bauer will not begin the season with the Dodgers.

Major League Baseball and the players union agreed Thursday to extend Bauer’s administrative leave through April 16. Bauer had been placed on paid administrative leave March 11 through Sunday after finishing the 2021 season on leave.

The Dodgers open the season April 8 against the Colorado Rockies. Bauer will miss at least the first eight games of the team’s season. The league and union can agree to extend the leave again before then.

Bauer, 31, was cleared last month of criminal charges stemming from a San Diego woman accusing him of sexual assault, but MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has the power to suspend him. Manfred could also delegate the discipline to the Dodgers.

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DODGERS POLL

We want to hear from you. Do you think Trevor Bauer should pitch again for the Dodgers? Click here to vote.

ANGELS

From Mike DiGiovanna: The Angels made two significant moves to bolster their bullpen Thursday, agreeing to terms with Ryan Tepera on a two-year, $14-million deal and Archie Bradley on a one-year, $3.75-million deal, according to two people familiar with the signings but not authorized to speak publicly about them.

The deals with the veteran right-handers, which are pending physicals, will add much-needed depth to a relief corps that is anchored by closer Raisel Iglesias and veteran left-hander Aaron Loup.

Tepera, 34, has a 12-14 career record and 3.48 ERA with 12 saves in seven big league seasons, his first five with the Toronto Blue Jays. Bradley, 29, has a 30-28 career record and 3.89 ERA with 30 saves in seven big league seasons, his first six with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

KINGS

Anze Kopitar scored on the power play, Cal Petersen made 29 saves and the Kings beat the San Jose Sharks 3-0 on Thursday night.

Phillip Danault and Adrian Kempe each scored a goal, Sean Durzi had two assists, and the Kings avoided being swept in the four-game season series against the Sharks.

James Reimer allowed two goals on 26 shots, and the Sharks had their four-game point streak snapped. San Jose was called for a season-high six penalties.

Kopitar ended a 10-game goal drought when he scored on a wrist shot through traffic at 6:57 of the second period. It was just his second goal in the last 18 games, and it was apparent the frustration had been building for the normally measured Kings captain after he tried to break his stick after missing a short-handed chance against Colorado on Tuesday and threw a water bottle down the tunnel when the Avalanche scored on the power play at the other end in a 3-0 loss.

RAMS

From Gary Klein: The Rams, with two receivers from last season’s Super Bowl championship team rehabilitating from major knee injuries, agreed to terms Thursday with receiver Allen Robinson, the team announced.

Terms were not revealed, but the three-year deal includes $30 million in guarantees, according to ESPN.

Robinson, 28, played the last four seasons with the Chicago Bears after playing his first four with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2020, he caught 102 passes, six for touchdowns. Last season, he caught 38 passes, one for a touchdown.

Robinson joins a Rams receiving corps that includes Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Van Jefferson, Ben Skowronek and Tutu Atwell. Odell Beckham Jr. is an unrestricted free agent.

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: Having had one of the worst run defenses in the NFL last season, the Chargers added what they believe will be 624 pounds of improvement this week.

Tackles Sebastian Joseph-Day and Austin Johnson agreed to free-agent contracts, both deals announced Wednesday when the new league year opened.

On Thursday, Joseph-Day met with the Chargers media for the first time.

Click here for highlights from the day at the team’s Costa Mesa headquarters.

WNBA

A Moscow court has extended the arrest of WNBA star Brittney Griner until May 19, according to the Russian state news agency Tass.

Griner was detained at a Moscow airport in February after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges. They were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

“The court granted the request of the investigation and extended the period of detention of the U.S. citizen Griner until May 19,” the court said, according to Tass.

SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: The U.S. national team, already missing its best player in midfielder Weston McKennie, may have lost another Thursday when outside back Sergiño Dest sustained an apparent leg injury just a week before the first of three crucial qualifiers that will determine if the Americans return to the World Cup this fall in Qatar.

McKennie broke a foot earlier this month playing for his club team in Italy while Dest limped off the field in the 56th minute of Barcelona’s Europa League win over Galatasaray.

Coach Gregg Berhalter said there is no replacing McKennie.

“He’s been so important to this group that we’re not going to plug a guy in and get a like for like,” he said. “But that’s OK. We’ve won games before without him. And we’ll do it again.”

The coach also has a plan in place should Dest prove to be unavailable.

“It’s not great news. Initial diagnosis it seems to be a hamstring injury,” Berhalter said. “We may need to replace him and we’ve already identified candidates.”

L.A. MARATHON STREET CLOSURES

The 37th annual L.A. Marathon will take place Sunday and include roughly 15,000 runners from around the country — and the world — covering a 26.2-mile course that spans some of L.A.’s most iconic neighborhoods.

Click here for a list of streets that will be closed.

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1945 — Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a season during a 4-2 triumph over the Boston Bruins in the final game of the season.

1950 — CCNY beats Bradley 69-61 for the NIT championship.

1953 — Don Schlundt scores 30 points to lead Indiana to a 69-68 victory over Kansas for the NCAA basketball championship.

1990 — Jeff Fryer’s 41 points leads Loyola Marymount to a 149-115 victory over defending national champion Michigan in the highest-scoring game in NCAA tournament history.

1993 — Santa Clara beats Arizona 64-61 to become the second 15th-seeded team to win a first-round game in the NCAA tournament.

2001 — Indiana’s Reggie Miller becomes the first player in NBA history to accumulate 2,000 3-pointers after hitting four in a 101-95 win over Sacramento.

2008 — The Houston Rockets’ 22-game winning streak comes to an end. Kevin Garnett scores 22 points and Paul Pierce adds 20 as the Celtics beat the Rockets 94-74, stopping Houston’s remarkable run.

2009 — New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur breaks Patrick Roy’s NHL record for career wins by a goaltender. Brodeur records his 552nd win in a 3-2 decision over the Chicago Blackhawks.

2013 — LeBron James and the Miami Heat escape Boston with their 23rd win in a row, the second longest win streak in NBA history. James scores 37 points and makes the go-ahead basket with 10.5 seconds left in Miami’s 105-103 victory.

2015 — Lindsey Vonn wins the World Cup downhill title for the seventh time, winning the last race in the discipline at the World Cup finals in Meribel, France.

2016 — Middle Tennessee State sends a big shock through the men’s NCAA tournament, topping second-seeded Michigan State 90-81 in the first round. Middle Tennessee never trails the Spartans (29-6) in one of the biggest upsets since the tournament began seeding teams in 1985.

2016 — Thomas Walkup scores 33 points and 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin takes down West Virginia’s full-court pressure with some of its own in-your-face defense, pulling off a 70-56 first-round upset of the third-seeded Mountaineers in the NCAA Tournament.

2017 — Kalani Brown scores 21 points and top-seeded Baylor overwhelms much smaller Texas Southern 119-30, the most lopsided women’s NCAA tournament game. The 89-point margin breaks the previous record 74-point win by Tennessee over North Carolina A&T (111-37) in 1994. Baylor’s 119 points are the most scored in regulation of a women’s NCAA Tournament game, surpassing the previous record 116.

2017 — Texas A&M pulls off the biggest comeback in women’s NCAA tournament history, rallying from a 21-point deficit for a 63-61 victory over Penn to close out the first round of the NCAAs. The fifth-seeded Aggies finish the game on a 25-1 run to beat the 12th-seeded Quakers.

2018 — Tennessee loses for the first time at home in women’s NCAA tournament history. Marie Gulich has 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead sixth-seed Oregon State to a 66-59 win. The third-seeded Lady Vols had been 57-0 at home, with most of those victories coming under late Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.

Supplied by the Associated Press

And finally

Loyola Marymount upsets defending champion Michigan in 1990. Watch and listen here.