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Sykes leads Washington against Connecticut after 29-point game

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

Washington Mystics (10-7, 6-5 Eastern Conference) at Connecticut Sun (13-5, 6-3 Eastern Conference)Uncasville, Connecticut; Sunday, 3 p.m. EDTFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK WNBA LINE: Sun -4.5; over/under is 160.5BOTTOM LINE: Washington visits the Connecticut Sun after Brittney Sykes scored 29 points in the Mystics’ 96-88 win over the Indiana Fever.The Sun have gone 6-3 against Eastern Conference teams. Connecticut ranks second in the Eastern Conference with 21.4 assists per game led by Alyssa Thomas averaging 8.1.The Mystics are 6-5 in conference games. Washington is 4-2 in games decided by at least 10 points.The teams play for the third time this season. In the last matchup on May 23 the Sun won 88-81 led by 22 points from Thomas, while Elena Delle Donne scored 27 points for the Mystics.TOP PERFORMERS: Thomas is shooting 45.0% and averaging 14.5 points for the Sun. DeWanna Bonner is averaging 20.0 points over the last 10 games for Connecticut.Sykes is averaging 12.2 points, 5.1 rebounds...

Las Vegas plays Minnesota after Wilson’s 21-point game

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

Las Vegas Aces (16-2, 8-1 Western Conference) at Minnesota Lynx (9-9, 7-4 Western Conference)Minneapolis; Sunday, 7 p.m. EDTFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK WNBA LINE: Aces -11.5; over/under is 172.5BOTTOM LINE: Las Vegas takes on the Minnesota Lynx after A’ja Wilson scored 21 points in the Aces’ 80-78 loss to the Dallas Wings.The Lynx’s record in Western Conference play is 7-4. Minnesota is seventh in the WNBA with 7.9 offensive rebounds per game led by Jessica Shepard averaging 2.8 offensive boards.The Aces are 8-1 against Western Conference opponents. Las Vegas ranks second in the WNBA allowing 78.4 points while holding opponents to 41.8% shooting.The teams square off for the third time this season. The Aces won 93-62 in the last meeting on June 19. Jackie Young led the Aces with 24 points, and Napheesa Collier led the Lynx with 18 points.TOP PERFORMERS: Collier is shooting 47.8% and averaging 22.0 points for the Lynx. Kayla McBride is averaging 12.1 points over the last 10 g...

Gray leads Atlanta against Chicago after 21-point game

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

Atlanta Dream (9-8, 6-5 Eastern Conference) at Chicago Sky (8-10, 3-8 Eastern Conference)Chicago; Sunday, 8 p.m. EDTFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK WNBA LINE: Sky -1.5; over/under is 166.5BOTTOM LINE: Atlanta visits the Chicago Sky after Allisha Gray scored 21 points in the Dream’s 82-68 win against the Chicago Sky.The Sky have gone 3-8 against Eastern Conference opponents. Chicago ranks fourth in the WNBA with 8.2 offensive rebounds per game led by Elizabeth Williams averaging 2.0 offensive boards.The Dream are 6-5 in Eastern Conference play. Atlanta is sixth in the Eastern Conference giving up 87.6 points while holding opponents to 43.3% shooting.The teams square off for the third time this season. The Dream won the last meeting 82-68 on July 8. Gray scored 21 points to help lead the Dream to the victory.TOP PERFORMERS: Marina Mabrey is averaging 15.8 points and 3.6 assists for the Sky. Kahleah Copper is averaging 13.4 points over the last 10 games for Chicago.Rhyne Howard is averaging 1...

Orioles’ Ryan Mountcastle feels like ‘a normal human’ after monthlong absence with vertigo

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

Whenever Ryan Mountcastle’s heart rate went up, he began to feel light-headed, dizzy and nauseated. The feelings increased whenever the first baseman stepped in the batter’s box for the Orioles. Hitting, already a difficult task, felt impossible.Having missed a month after experiencing vertigo, Mountcastle rejoined the Orioles on Sunday for the final game before the All-Star break, activated off the injured list with left-hander Bruce Zimmermann optioned to Norfolk. Mountcastle, 26, last played for Baltimore on June 8, but he believes he was already dealing with symptoms then. In his final two games, both in Milwaukee, Mountcastle went hitless in eight at-bats with five strikeouts.“After the last game, I was like, ‘I think there’s something wrong,’” he said Sunday in the visitors’ clubhouse at Minneapolis’ Target Field. “This feels like the longest I’ve ever gone without playing, and it wasn’t fun at all. Just h...

Red Sox notebook: Houck has unique memento to remember injury, a 3D-printed model of his own skull

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

Tanner Houck is back in the Red Sox clubhouse, and three weeks after being hit in the face by a line drive he’s feeling back to his old self and will soon begin working his way back to the mound.But while his facial fracture will heal, Houck will always carry the experience with him. He’ll also have a vivid reminder to display on his shelf too.Houck got a unique memento from the doctors after undergoing surgery — a 3D-printed model of his own skull, facial fracture and all. The print was created from a scan and was used by the doctors to examine his injury and help perform the surgery, and afterwards Houck got to bring it home. It’s now displayed in his locker.“It’s amazing what medical technology can do,” Houck said.Houck suffered the injury on June 16 when he was struck by a 89.7 mph line drive off the bat of Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka. He said he remembers being hit and everything that happened afterwards, and he recalled initially checkin...

Canada’s Christine Sinclair leads squad into her sixth FIFA Women’s World Cup

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

Christine Sinclair has scored in five FIFA Women’s World Cups during her career. As impressive as that is, she will be looking to make it six when the 2023 tournament kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.The 40-year-old Sinclair was one of 23 women named on Sunday by head coach Bev Priestman to Canada’s roster for the event, which Sinclair first played at in 2003. That was 323 caps and 190 goals ago for the native of Burnaby, B.C.Sinclair will be joined on the 23-player squad by veterans and household names Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence, and Sophie Schmidt, who represent a combined 469 national team games between them.Missing from the group is veteran midfielder Desiree Scott, who could not recover from knee surgery in time to make the squad. Janine Beckie had already been ruled out due to a torn ACL she suffered in March. Defender Jade Rose, a rising star at just 20, was forced to withdraw from the pre-tournament camp due to injury.Midfielder Marie-Yas...

Florida prosecutors are laying out their case against a plastic surgeon facing the death penalty

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida prosecutors seeking the death penalty for a plastic surgeon accused of killing a lawyer and dumping his body in the Everglades have laid out their case in new court filings.Authorities say Dr. Tomasz Kosowski killed attorney Steven Cozzi in the bathroom of Cozzi’s law office moments after both participated in a March 21 conference call about a lengthy, acrimonious legal battle over medical billing. Prosecutors said in court documents that Kosowski took the call from a Toyota pickup truck outside the office and that he had supplies to commit the killing, including trash bags, a syringe containing a paralyzing drug and a wagon to haul the corpse out.Although Cozzi’s body has never been found, investigators used cellphone records and surveillance video to track Kosowski to a remote area west of Miami on the Tamiami Trail, also known as U.S. Highway 41. That’s where they believe Kosowski tossed the body into a Dumpster that was event...

Election tensions rise in Zimbabwe after police bar opposition party from holding a rally

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

BINDURA, Zimbabwe (AP) — Opposition party supporters in Zimbabwe chanted and sang freedom songs outside a courthouse Sunday following a decision to ban them from holding a rally six weeks before elections.The court in the town of Bindura upheld Friday’s police order that the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party could not hold the rally to officially launch its election campaign because the venue was unsuitable. The CCC had appealed in court against the order.The decision increased tensions in the southern African nation, which has a history of violent and disputed elections.The CCC immediately criticized the move as more evidence of a push by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling ZANU-PF party to silence the opposition using the police and the courts.Mnangagwa, 80, replaced long-ruling autocrat Robert Mugabe in a coup in 2017. He promised a new era of freedom and prosperity for Zimbabweans, who had seen their country’s economy crumble amid some of the hig...

As Canadian cities make pandemic patios permanent, experts call for clear standards

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

At the height of social distancing and other restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Canadian cities rolled out temporary patio policies, loosening rules and waiving fees for bars and restaurants looking to seat more customers outdoors.These programs brought a glimmer of hope — and revenue — to businesses that had been forced to shut their doors, allowing them to offer more outdoor dining to citizens eager to leave their houses.Now, as cities transition into their new normal post-pandemic, experts say patios need better across-the-board standardization to make them more accessible, as well as more predictable for the businesses still trying to make up for lost sales.“It was a thing that became an obvious no-brainer for better streets and better neighbourhoods and better cities,” said city planning consultant Brent Toderian, who is also the former chief planner for Vancouver.“So it’s remarkable how bad a job we’ve done.”When the pandemic hit, restaurants and b...

Man found dead in a Minnesota freezer was hiding from police: investigators

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:59:21 GMT

BIWABIK, Minn. (AP) — A man found dead in a freezer in Minnesota last month was hiding from police, investigators said in a preliminary report.The body of 34-year-old Brandon Lee Buschman of Babbitt, Minnesota, was found in a chest freezer in the basement of an unoccupied home in the town of Biwabik on June 26.Investigators believe Buschman was in the house hiding because there was an active warrant for his arrest, police said in a news release Friday. Girl, 14, found at California Marine base two weeks after being reported missing They believe that he got into the freezer to hide on his own accord, perhaps because officers were in the area.The freezer was an older model that could not be opened from the inside, according to police. The house had no electricity and the freezer was not running when Buschman's body was found.