The Sports Report: UConn defends its national championship

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

Connecticut delivered another dominant performance Monday night, smothering Purdue for a 75-60 victory to become the first team since 2007 to capture back-to-back national championships.

Tristen Newton scored 20 points for the Huskies, who won their 12th straight March Madness game — not a single one of them decided by fewer than 13 points.

UConn was efficient on offense but won this with defense. The Huskies (37-3) limited the country’s second-best three-point shooting team to a mere seven shots behind the arc — Purdue only made one — while happily allowing 7-foot-4 AP Player of the Year Zach Edey to go for 37 points on 25 shot attempts.

UConn won its sixth overall title and joined the 2006-07 Florida Gators and the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils as just the third team to repeat since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and ’70s.

“Can’t even wrap your mind around it,” coach Dan Hurley said. “You just know how hard this tournament is.”

Purdue made it this far a year after becoming just the second No. 1 seed in the history of March Madness to fall in the first round. But the Boilermakers (34-5) left the same way they came — still looking for the program’s first NCAA title.

In what was supposed to be a free-for-all in this new age of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals, UConn has figured out how to dominate.

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Box score

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: After two straight days out of the starting lineup, then two straight strikeouts to start his game Monday night, James Outman’s season-opening slump appeared to reach a nadir entering the seventh inning at Target Field.

Then, with one hanging slider and one cathartic swing, the Dodgers’ second-year center fielder finally found a reprieve.

In the team’s 4-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, it was Outman’s solo blast that put the Dodgers in front for good, a towering 353-foot blast that sailed just high enough to clear the towering wall in the right-field corner.

It didn’t mean Outman had the biggest night offensively, not after Shohei Ohtani recorded his fifth-straight multihit game by doubling twice early and homering for the third time this season later in the seventh inning.

But, following a troubling four-for-34 start, Outman’s contribution might have been the most important development — not only to the final score, but also the trajectory of what has been a slumping second season for him.

The Dodgers also got a strong start from left-hander James Paxton, who gave up two runs in a six-inning, three-hit, four-strikeout performance.

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With run of multihit games, Shohei Ohtani’s offense is coming around for the Dodgers

Dodgers box score

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ANGELS

Mike Trout hit his fifth homer and added an RBI triple, and Tyler Anderson pitched seven scoreless innings of four-hit ball in the Angels’ 7-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.

Taylor Ward had three hits and drove in three runs for the Angels, who have won six of eight since getting blown out in their first two games of the season. Anthony Rendon also had three hits and scored three runs.

Trout continued his strong start with a triple in the first inning off Zach Eflin (1-2), followed by a 423-foot homer in the third. He added a two-out single in the eighth, but didn’t get another chance to hit for the cycle for only the second time in his career.

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Angels box score

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MLB standings

LAKERS

From Steve Henson: Should Anthony Davis wear goggles?

The ayes — and eyes — have it.

The Lakers star left a pivotal home game after getting poked in the left eye for the second time in less than a month Sunday in a 127-117 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Davis exited an eventual loss to the Golden State Warriors in the first quarter after he took a shot to the same eye March 16.

Wearing protective goggles long has been a sensible decision for many NBA players — especially big men prone to battling opponents in close quarters, elbows and fingers flying.

James Worthy, a Lakers Hall of Famer and goggles wearer after suffering a scratched cornea in 1985, was direct with his advice as a Spectrum SportsNet analyst after Sunday’s game.

“A.D., get some goggles, man,” he said. “I’m a little concerned about him getting hit in that same socket. A lot of things can happen, headaches.”

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NBA scores

NBA standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: It has been nearly a decade since the Rams selected a player in the first round of the NFL draft.

Consider: Sean McVay has coached the Rams for seven seasons, twice guiding them to the Super Bowl, without once opening camp with a newly minted first-round pick.

That could change on April 25.

For the first time since 2016, general manager Les Snead is poised to choose a player among the first 32 picks in the NFL draft.

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CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: As the reimagining of the Chargers continues, one of the ideas of the team’s new regime is to get more from Justin Herbert by asking less from Justin Herbert.

Since his NFL debut in September 2020, the quarterback and his powerful right arm have driven the Chargers offensively.

First-year head coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff are now bent on providing Herbert with a running game that would give the Chargers their most complete offense in years.

“Not everyone needs to function like Peyton Manning did to win football games,” said Andy Bischoff, Harbaugh’s run-game coordinator and tight ends coach. “Can [Herbert] do that? I mean, the guy’s brilliant. ... This is a guy with rare intelligence.”

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Why Jim Harbaugh jumped at chance to live ‘The Rockford Files’ RV beach life

SOCCER

From Kevin Baxter: Felicia Rangel-Samponaro never learned the little girl’s name, but she remembers everything else about her.

Each time Rangel-Samponaro crossed the U.S. border to work with migrant children on the Mexican side, the 10-year-old would greet her with a hug and a smile, enthusiasm Rangel-Samponaro rewarded with books.

But that didn’t last.

“It wasn’t even a month before I watched her go from smiling and ‘Hi Felicia!’ to she stopped bathing, she stopped washing her hair,” Rangel-Samponaro said.

Eventually she stopped coming all together.

You see what happens to a child, Rangel-Samponaro said, and you never forget.

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NHL

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NHL standings

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1912 — First exhibition baseball game at Fenway Park.

1946 — The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 6-3 to win the Stanley Cup in five games.

1947 — Leo Durocher, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is suspended for one year by Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler for “conduct detrimental to baseball.” Durocher is linked to gambling interests.

1950 — Jimmy Demaret wins his third Masters, by two strokes over Jim Ferrier.

1959 — 13th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics sweep Minnesota Lakers.

1960 — The Boston Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks 122-103 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals for their third NBA title in the last four years. Frank Ramsey leads the Celtics with 24 points and Bill Russell scores 22 points and grabs 35 rebounds.

1962 — Arnold Palmer wins a three-way playoff, beating Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald in the Masters.

1966 — Anaheim Stadium opens.

1972 — 36th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Jack Nicklaus leads wire-to-wire to win the 4th of his 6 Masters titles.

1978 — Gary Player shoots a final-round 64 to win his third Masters, edging Hubert Green, Rod Funseth and defending champion Tom Watson by a shot.

1978 — Denver’s David Thompson, battling San Antonio’s George Gervin for the NBA season scoring title, scores 73 points against the Detroit Pistons. It’s the third-highest output ever in an NBA game. Gervin, not to be outdone, later scores 63 against the New Orleans Jazz. It’s just enough to give Gervin the scoring crown, 27.22 points per game to Thompson’s 27.15, the tightest one-two finish ever.

1981 — Fernando Valenzuela’s first start.

1987 — For third time, Wayne Gretzky, scores 7 points (1 goal, 6 assists) in a Stanley Cup game and passes Jean Béliveau as all time playoff scoring champ.

1989 — Britain’s Nick Faldo makes a 25-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Masters. Runner-up Scott Hoch missed a 2-foot putt for par on the first hole of the playoff that would have given him the title.

1995 — 59th Masters: Ben Crenshaw wins his 2nd Masters title.

2000 — Fiji native Vijay Singh meets every challenge to win the Masters, closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.

2005 — The United States beats Canada 3-1 in a penalty shootout after a scoreless regulation and 20-minute overtime to win the Women’s World Hockey Championship. The win ends the defending champions’ run of eight straight titles.

2006 — 70th Masters: Phil Mickelson wins his 2nd green jacket.

2013 — 32nd NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Louisville, 93-60.

2017 — Sergio Garcia overcomes a two-shot deficit with six holes to play and beats Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff at the Masters for his first major after nearly two decades of heartache. No one ever played more majors as a pro — 70 — before winning a major for the first time.

2017 — Russell Westbrook breaks Oscar Robertson’s 56-year-old record with his 42nd triple-double of the season.

2021 — San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove no-hits the Texas Rangers.

Compiled by the Associated Press