
Andrej Jakimovski hit a layup with 8 seconds left, and Colorado upset No. 2 UConn 73-72 in the consolation bracket of the Maui Invitational on Tuesday in Lahaina, Hawaii. Colorado (5-1) rallied from down 11 in the first half to get the win over the two-time defending national champions Huskies. Jakimovski finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Julian Hammond III and Elijah Malone each scored 16 for the Buffaloes, who advanced to the fifth-place game in Maui on Wednesday. Down 72-71, Jakimovski drove the right side of the lane and made a scoop shot as he was falling down. UConn called timeout to set up the final play but Hassan Diarra missed a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left. Liam McNeeley led UConn with 20 points, Solo Ball scored 16 and Diarra finished with 11. The Huskies (4-2) lost two straight for the first time since dropping three in a row from Jan. 11-18, 2023. Colorado trailed by eight at halftime and Diarra hit two 3-pointers early in the second half that made it 46-37. The Buffaloes scored the next 11 points to take a 48-46 lead, their first of the game. Hammond bookended that run with a pair of triples. UConn went back in front 55-52 on Tarris Reed Jr.'s driving layup but Malone's bucket with 8:34 left tied it at 59. McNeeley's hook shot gave the Huskies a 63-60 lead before Jakimovski drained a 3-pointer to tie it again with 5:16 left. Ball hit a 3-pointer and a layup to give UConn a five-point lead but Colorado got within 70-69 on two free throws by Malone with 2:04 left. A putback from Jaylin Stewart made it a three-point game with 1:29 remaining. Malone answered with a layup, Javon Ruffin blocked Diarra's shot and Colorado got an offensive rebound with 24 seconds left to set up the winning basket. McNeeley made his first four shots from deep and had 16 points by intermission to lead the Huskies. Colorado had opportunities to make it a close game by halftime but went just 12-for-19 from the foul line and trailed 40-32. UConn attempted only four free throws in the first half and had five players with two or more fouls, including Reed, who had three. --Field Level Media
A melee broke out at midfield of Ohio Stadium after Michigan upset No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday. After the Wolverines' fourth straight win in the series, players converged at the block "O" to plant its flag. The Ohio State players were in the south end zone singing their alma mater in front of the student section. When the Buckeyes saw the Wolverines' flag, they rushed toward the 50-yard line. Social media posts showed Michigan offensive lineman Raheem Anderson carrying the flag on a long pole to midfield, where the Wolverines were met by dozens of Ohio State players and fights broke out. Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer was seen ripping the flag off the pole and taking the flag as he scuffled with several people trying to recover the flag. A statement from the Ohio State Police Department read: "Following the game, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in breaking up an on-field altercation. During the scuffle, multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray. OSUPD is the lead agency for games and will continue to investigate." Michigan running back Kalel Mullings on FOX said: "For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game. It's bad for the sport, bad for college football. At the end of the day, some people got to learn how to lose, man. "You can't be fighting and stuff just because you lost the game. We had 60 minutes and four quarters to do all that fighting. Now people want to talk and fight. That's wrong. It's bad for the game. Classless, in my opinion. People got to be better." Once order was restored, officers cordoned the 50-yard line, using bicycles as barriers. Ohio State coach Ryan Day in his postgame press conference said he wasn't sure what happened. "I don't know all the details of it. But I know that these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys weren't going to let that happen," he said. "I'll find out exactly what happened, but this is our field and certainly we're embarrassed at the fact we lost the game, but there's some prideful guys on our team that weren't just going to let that happen." The Big Ten has not yet released a statement on the incident. --Field Level Media
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Darnold delivers for Vikings with career-high 347 yards and 5 TDs to beat Falcons, Cousins 42-21Darnold delivers for Vikings with career-high 347 yards and 5 TDs to beat Falcons, Cousins 42-21MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Joseph Pinion had 22 points and eight rebounds, Dyondre Dominguez added 19 points and Arkansas State built a double-digit first-half lead to beat No. 16 Memphis 85-72 on Sunday. Pinion was 7 of 13 from the floor and 5 of 11 from outside the arc, giving the Red Wolves their second straight win and their first over a ranked team since 1991. Taryn Todd finished with 17 points for Arkansas State (7-3). PJ Haggerty led Memphis (7-2) with 29 points, and Dain Dainja finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Arkansas State held a double-digit lead for most of the game and led 68-57 with 8 minutes left. That was enough for the Red Wolves to defeat the Tigers, snapping a seven-game losing streak to Memphis. Arkansas State: The Red Wolves certainly got the nationally ranked Tigers' attention in the first half after they shot 7 of 18 from 3-point range and built an 18-point lead. The lead got to single digits a couple of times in the second half, but Arkansas State answered the pressure. Memphis: The Tigers suffered through a miserable first half, shooting under 20% late in the half. They turned up their defensive pressure, which cut into the lead, but Memphis never made a serious threat. Memphis got within 60-53 with 11 minutes left, but Arkansas State went on a 12-6 run that included 3-pointers from Pinion, Todd and Kobe Julien to stretch the Red Wolves' lead to 75-60 with 6:29 left in the game. Arkansas State's last win over a ranked team was when it defeated then-No. 21 New Orleans 76-65 in 1991. Arkansas State hosts UT-Arlington on Thursday, and Memphis travels to Clemson on Saturday. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Chain Breaker Law Firm Extends Reach To The UK Market With Cblfinmotion Ltd.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has fallen after a stunning territorial advance by opposition groups over the past few days. On Sunday morning, state television announced the “triumph of the great Syrian revolution and the fall of the criminal Assad regime.” Assad decided to step down and left the country, Russia’s foreign ministry later said in a statement. The toppling of the longtime ruler is sending shock waves through the Middle East and will be a major blow to Russia and Iran, his main foreign backers. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which has led the push to oust Assad and his government, entered Damascus on Saturday evening and captured the key city of Homs — about 100 miles north of the capital — around the same time. Other areas of the country, including in the north near the Turkish border and in the south, have been captured by different groups. Videos and broadcast footage showed Syrians in Damascus and elsewhere celebrating the downfall of the widely despised regime. There were also signs of jubilation in Turkey, which hosts millions of Syrian refugees. HTS’s leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, called on all of the Syrian government’s forces in the capital to stand down. Al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, said Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali will remain in his role until there’s an official handover. Al-Jalali, speaking to Al Arabiya television, said he didn’t know where Assad was. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict, said he took a flight from Damascus and left the country. U.S. officials currently believe Assad is in Moscow, according to a person familiar with the matter. The 59-year-old, who took over from his father Hafez in 2000, made a last-ditch attempt to remain in power, including indirect diplomatic overtures to the U.S. and President-elect Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. In a sign of how weak his military position was, he ordered his army to fall back on Damascus, essentially ceding much of the country, including Homs, to the insurgents. Syria was reclassified as a low-income country by the World Bank in 2018, with its gross domestic product collapsing by more than half between 2010 and 2020. Its exports chiefly comprise products such as olive oil, nuts and phosphates, according to the CIA World Factbook. It also produces and traffics narcotics, the U.S. State Department says. Trump took to social media to say that the U.S. should “have nothing to do with” the developments in Syria. “This is not our fight,” he said. “Let it play out. Do not get involved!” President Joe Biden’s administration, in power until next month, showed little inclination to intervene and has said the U.S. has nothing to do with HTS’s rebellion. The U.S. and Israel, which borders Syria, are watching warily. Assad was no ally of theirs, and Washington has severely sanctioned the Syrian government. But HTS is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other Western countries. On Sunday morning, Israel said it had deployed forces in a buffer zone near Syria to protect communities in the Golan Heights. The Israeli military added it’s not involved with what’s happening in Syria. “It should be remembered that these rebels aren’t lovers of Zion,” Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told Israel’s Channel 14. “It’s true that everyone is today welcoming the weakening of Iran — something that is certainly very significant from a regional perspective. But there is also concern that parties aligned with terrorist organizations” will use Assad’s weapons against Israel. HTS, a Sunni group, broke away from al-Qaida in 2016 and has tried to portray itself since then as more moderate. Al-Sharaa, in an interview with CNN on Dec. 5, said non-Muslims and other minorities would be safe in Syrian areas overseen by HTS. The leader, in his early 40s, attributed the success of opposition forces to greater discipline and unity. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a statement warned “the country must not now fall into the hands of other radicals — whatever guise.” France called on its partners “to do their utmost to help the Syrians find the path to reconciliation and reconstruction through an inclusive political solution.” Syria’s political situation is likely to remain fluid as various groups try to bolster their positions, according to risk consulting firm RANE. “The collapse will likely trigger a contested political process among competing rebel factions to create a provisional government,” said Freddy Khoueiry, RANE’s global security analyst. “This will likely be a slow process prone to violence as foreign actors try to shape the postwar balance of power, making an unstable and fragmented Syria the most likely outcome in the near term.” Assad lost large swaths of the northwest of the country in late November as opposition fighters made a sudden advance out of Idlib province. They first captured Aleppo, one of the biggest cities in Syria, and then advanced on Hama. The rapid collapse of Syria’s government has taken Russia, Iran and the U.S. by surprise. In 2015, Russia and Iran came to Assad’s aid and helped turn the tide in Syria’s war — which began four years earlier — in his favor. This time both Tehran and Moscow, which has a naval base at the Syrian port of Tartus, have been stretched by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Iran tried to drum up support for Assad among Arab states. It also said it would send Iranian troops to Syria if he requested it, but was ultimately unwilling or unable to. Moreover, Tehran’s most powerful proxy militia group, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, has been hugely degraded since September by war with Israel. Its fighters were crucial to helping Assad stay in power from early in the civil war. The Syrian conflict has left between 300,000 to 500,000 people dead and displaced more than 10 million, with many of them fleeing abroad, according to United Nations agencies and Syrian organizations.