LDN - Sports

Stenhouse earns 1st win at Talladega

[May 08, 2017] TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got past Kyle Busch in overtime in the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, then held his position to claim his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and snap a 101-race victory drought for car owner Jack Roush.

Jamie McMurray finished second, Busch was third, Aric Almirola was fourth, and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five.

The race ran relatively clean with two cautions at the end of the first two stages and three more yellow flags for single-car incidents until a 16-car wreck with 20 laps remaining. AJ Allmendinger made contact with Chase Elliott, sending Elliott airborne and Allmendinger onto his roof. All drivers involved walked away uninjured.

Finishing sixth through 10th, respectively, were Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard and David Ragan.

GOLF

The Wells Fargo Championship appeared to be headed for a playoff until Brian Harman seized the title with a birdie-birdie finish in Wilmington, N.C.

Harman drained a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a closing 4-under-par 68, giving him a dramatic one-shot victory over Dustin Johnson and Pat Perez at Eagle Point Golf Club.

Harman finished 72 holes at 10-under 278.

The top-ranked Johnson was denied an opportunity to win his fourth consecutive title on the PGA Tour because of Harman's heroics. Playing for the first time since a slip down some stairs resulted in a back injury that knocked Johnson out of the Masters last month, he posted back-to-back 67s after barely making the cut on Friday.

--Sei Young Kim of South Korea held off Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand for a 1-up victory in the Lorena Ochoa Match Play tournament in Mexico City.

The win gave Kim her sixth career title on the LPGA Tour and the first this season.

The 24-year-old Kim never trailed in the championship match at Club de Golf Mexico. She bolted to a 3-up lead on the first three holes. Jutanugarn won the 10th hole to cut into the lead before Kim restored her three-hole advantage with a birdie on the 12th hole.

Mi Jung Hur took third place, winning her competitive match against Michelle Wie with a birdie on the 22nd hole.

--Having gone 13 years without a victory, John Daly could be excused for wondering if he would ever again win a tournament.

Daly, 51, ended the drought when he won the Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands, Texas, for his first career PGA Tour Champions title.

Daly finished at 14-under 202 for a one-stroke victory. He shot a 3-under 69 over the final 18 holes to pocket $322,500. Kenny Perry (69) and Tommy Armour III (67) tied for second. Kevin Sutherland (67) took fourth at 205, and Jay Haas (67) came in fifth at 206.

Daly won two majors -- the 1991 PGA and 1995 British Open -- but his PGA Tour career unraveled as his personal life spiraled out of control.

HORSE RACING

Always Dreaming, coming off an impressive win at the Kentucky Derby, will get an early start on preparations for the May 20 Preakness Stakes.

The colt is expected to arrive at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Tuesday morning, hoping to avoid some early struggles that he had adjusting to Churchill Downs when he arrived in Kentucky.

Always Dreaming ran through a soggy track to win the Kentucky Derby by 2 3/4 lengths on Saturday, giving trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez their second victories in the race but their first together.

Always Dreaming opened a clear lead in the stretch and finished the 1 1/4 miles in 2 minutes, 3.59 seconds. Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee is "definitely a possibility" to run in the Preakness, trainer Steve Asmussen said.

NFL

The Cincinnati Bengals signed first-round wide receiver John Ross to his rookie four-year contract, the team announced.

Ross, the ninth overall pick out of Washington, joined fourth-round defensive end Carl Lawson as the first two of the team's 11 draft picks to sign.

Drafted players get four-year deals with a team option for a fifth season. The Bengals broke their rookie minicamp following a Sunday morning practice.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Ross, who ran a 40-yard dash in a record 4.22 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine in March, won't return to Cincinnati until after his June 10 graduation per league rules.

NBA

Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry was declared out for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals with the Cleveland Cavaliers due to a sprained left ankle.

Lowry injured the ankle early in the second half of Game 2 in Cleveland but, after sitting out briefly, was able to play eight more minutes before he was removed for the rest of the game.

Lowry tried to play in Game 3 on Friday night but, although he was in uniform, he remained on the bench for the entire game. Cleveland swept the series with a 109-102 victory in Game 4.

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NASCAR Cup Series driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17) makes a pit stop during the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

--Mike D'Antoni of the Houston Rockets and Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat are the co-recipients of the inaugural Michael H. Goldberg NBCA Coach of the Year Award, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced Sunday.

The award is named for the longtime executive director of the NBCA who died earlier this year. It recognizes NBA head coaches who help guide their players to a higher level of performance on the court and shows outstanding service and dedication to the community off the court.

Under D'Antoni, the Rockets finished the 2016-2017 regular season with 55 wins -- the third-best overall record in the NBA. Spoelstra's Heat finished this season with 41 wins and a tie for eighth place in the Eastern Conference, missing the playoffs on a tie-breaker with the Chicago Bulls.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Indiana guard James Blackmon Jr. has decided to hire an agent and remain in the NBA Draft, according to published reports Sunday.

Blackmon averaged 17 points and 4.8 rebounds last season but skipping his senior season rates as a gamble. He isn't listed in the latest 60-player mock draft by nbadraft.net.

Blackmon joins two teammates, forward OG Anunoby and center Thomas Bryant, in signing with agents per the June draft. Hoosiers guard Robert Johnson also entered the draft but hasn't signed with an agent and has until May 24 to withdraw his name.

Blackmon scored 1,235 career points in three seasons at Indiana. He played in just 13 games as a sophomore due to a knee injury.

TENNIS

Marin Cilic ended a five-year drought on clay-court surfaces by soaring past top-seeded Milos Raonic 7-6 (3), 6-3 to win the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open in Turkey.

The second-seeded Cilic of Croatia needed two hours, one minute to fight off the Canadian. The result was his 17th career tour-level title but his first on clay since winning in his homeland in Umag in 2012.

Cilic saved all seven break points he faced and delivered nine aces. The victory will vault Cilic to World No. 7 when Monday's rankings are released.

--Alexander Zverev was beaming after winning a tournament on his home soil. The 20-year-old German recorded a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Argentine qualifier Guido Pella to win the BMW Open by FMU in Munich.

It is the third overall career title for Zverev, who delivered eight aces in dispatching Pella. He is the sixth different German to win the event since 1974.

Zverev, who won 10 of the final 13 games will improve to a career-high world No. 17 when the rankings are revealed Monday.

--Top-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta won a clay-court title for the first time in his career when he knocked off Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the final of the Estoril Open in Portugal.

It is the third overall career title for the 25-year-old Spaniard, who didn't lose a set all week long.

Carreno Busta rolled through the opening set and held a 5-2 lead in the second before the third-seeded Muller staged a comeback. But he extinguished Muller's charge in the tiebreak and closed out the victory in one hour, 22 minutes.

--Third-seeded Simona Halep of Romania started her Madrid Open title defense by easing past Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-1, 6-2. Halep hit 19 winners to just 10 unforced errors in her 57-minute match. Up next for Halep is Italian Roberta Vinci.

Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland beat fifth-seeded and reigning French Open champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-1, 6-3. In other matches, top-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany beat Timea Babos of Hungary 6-4, 6-2, and Russian Maria Sharapova beat Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova and fourth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia both advanced with three-set wins.

--David Goffin of Belgium beat Russian Karen Khachanov 6-2, 7-6(8) and Italian Fabio Fognini beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-4, 6-4 in the round of 64 at the Madrid Open.

In qualifying, Adrian Mannarino of France beat Columbian Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 7-6(2); Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin beat Croatian Borna Coric 7-6(2), 6-3; Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 6-3; Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France beat Italian Andreas Seppi 7-6(3), 7-6(5); Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan beat American Jared Donaldson 7-6(3), 6-4; Russian Andrey Kuznetsov beat Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-2, 7-6(0); and American Ernesto Escobedo beat Nicola Kuhn of Spain 6-3, 6-2.

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