MLB-NEWS-AL MVP
Jose Altuve is the 2017 American League MVP. The Houston Astros infielder beat out New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for the award by a wide margin.
The 5-foot-6 Altuve drew 27 of the 30 first-place votes in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Altuve batted a major league-best .346. He hit 24 home runs with 81 RBIs, scored 112 times, stole 32 bases and showed a sharp glove at second base.
The 6-foot-7 Judge won the AL Rookie of the Year award Monday. He set a rookie record with 52 home runs.
Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton won the NL MVP award, barely edging Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds.
In the closest MVP vote since 1979, Stanton became only the sixth player to win from a losing team. Stanton led the big leagues with 59 home runs and 132 RBIs.
NFL SCHEDULE
Ben Roethlisberger threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns, three to Antonio Brown, and the Pittsburgh Steelers pulled away from the Tennessee Titans in a 40-17 victory on Thursday night.
Running the no-huddle offense extensively for the first time all season, Roethlisberger completed 30 of 45 passes to help the Steelers (8-2) win their fifth straight.
Brown caught 10 passes for 144 yards and the three scores, including an acrobatic grab in the back of the end zone in which he pinned the ball to his helmet before bringing it in to put Pittsburgh up 20 in the fourth quarter.
This weekend’s matchups:
SUNDAY
Kansas City at New York Giants 1:00 PM
Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles 4:05 PM
New England Patriots at Oakland 4:25 PM
Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas 8:30 PM
The New York Jets have a bye week.
NBA SCHEDULE
Kyrie Irving had 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, including two free throws that put Boston ahead in the closing seconds, and the Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors 92-88 on Thursday night for their 14th straight victory.
Jaylen Brown had 22 points and seven rebounds, and Al Horford added 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Kevin Durant had 24 points for Golden State. The defending champion Warriors had won seven in a row.
Playing his second game since suffering a facial fracture, Irving shed his protective mask in the second quarter. Then, with the game tied at 88, he was fouled on his layup attempt and calmly made a pair of free throws. Durant then came up empty on his jumper on the other end.
Golden State led by as many as 17, but had to lean heavily on its reserves as its trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Durant struggled offensively.
Curry, who returned to action after missing a game with a bruised right thigh, was the most ineffective. He was 3 of 14 from the field — 2 of 9 from the 3-point line — and had nine points.
— In the only other NBA game, James Harden had 23 of his 48 points in the second quarter while the Houston Rockets scored 90 points in the first half en route to a 142-116 win over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night. Houston dominated with Chris Paul back in the lineup after missing 14 games with a knee injury. The Rockets made 61 percent of their first-half shots to get the second-most points in a first half in NBA history.
NHL SCHEDULE
Patric Hornqvist and Jake Guentzel each scored in the second period and the Pittsburgh Penguins held on for a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
Riley Sheahan scored into an empty net at 19:29 of the third for the Penguins. Matt Murray made 21 saves and faced just 12 shots over the final two periods.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third period for the Senators, who won their previous two games. Craig Anderson turned aside 26 shots.
Other finals from around the NHL:
— Gabriel Landeskog scored three goals — one on a penalty shot — for his first career hat trick, Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and four assists and the Colorado Avalanche made it a successful return from Sweden with a 6-2 win over the Washington Capitals. Mikko Rantanen added a goal and three assists, Colin Wilson also scored and Semyon Varlamov had 28 saves for the Avalanche.
— Johnny Boychuk scored the tiebreaking goal on a slap shot with 4:25 remaining and the New York Islanders rallied to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4. Mathew Barzal had a goal and two assists, and Nick Leddy, Josh Bailey and Cal Clutterbuck each had a goal and an assist to help the Islanders remain one of two NHL teams without a regulation loss at home this season. Anders Lee had two assists and Thomas Greiss finished with 28 saves.
— William Nylander scored with 2.2 seconds left in overtime and Frederik Andersen made 42 saves in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 1-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils. The Maple Leafs have won five straight to improve to 13-7-0.
— Steven Stamkos had two goals and two assists, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves to beat his mentor Ben Bishop, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 6-1. Vasilevskiy was Bishop's backup in Tampa Bay for parts of three seasons until Bishop was dealt to Los Angeles last February. Bishop holds the Lightning career wins record with 131, while Vasilevskiy has gone 26-5-3 since taking over the starting role.
— Derek Stepan and Christian Fischer scored power-play goals in the third period and the Arizona Coyotes rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 for their first regulation victory of the season. Brad Richardson, Christian Dvorak and Tobias Rieder also scored for the Coyotes, and Antti Raanta made 33 saves. Arizona snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 3-15-3.
— Jason Zucker scored with 2:55 left and the Minnesota Wild scored four goals in less than six minutes in the third period to beat the Nashville Predators 6-4. Jared Spurgeon scored twice and Eric Staal had a goal and two assists for Minnesota, which won its fourth straight. Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk with a franchise-record shutout streak of 195 minutes, 5 seconds. That ended 49 seconds in when Ryan Johansen converted a pass from Filip Forsberg, the first goal allowed by Dubnyk on 108 shots.
— Bryan Little scored the deciding goal in a shootout and the Winnipeg Jets rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2. Mark Scheifele tied it 2-all when he scored with 49 seconds left in the third period with Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck pulled for an extra attacker.
— Brayden Schenn had two goals and an assist and the St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 to end a two-game skid. Vladimir Sobotka and Alexander Steen also scored for the Blues, who improved to 14-5-1. Jake Allen made 29 saves.
— Erik Haula scored the go-ahead goal in the third period as part of a two-point night in the Vegas Golden Knights' 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. David Perron, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson also had a goal and an assist apiece, while Reilly Smith, into an empty net, provided the rest of the offence for Vegas (11-6-1).
— Roberto Luongo made 35 saves for his 74th career shutout and the Florida Panthers blanked the San Jose Sharks 2-0 on goals by Colton Sceviour and Nick Bjugstad. Florida coach Bob Boughner won in his return to San Jose. He served as an assistant coach for the Sharks the last two years. Luongo earned his first shutout of the season and first in 32 games against San Jose.
— Zdeno Chara's second-period goal held up for a 2-1 victory for Boston over the Los Angeles Kings, snapping a four-game winless streak. Patrice Bergeron also scored for the Bruins, who won only their second road game of the season. Drew Doughty scored the lone goal for Los Angeles, which after starting the season 11-2-2, have now lost four consecutive games.
T25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL-SCHEDULE
Quinton Flowers tossed a pair of touchdown passes and No. 23 South Florida held off Tulsa 27-20 to remain in contention for a berth in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
Flowers, one of the nation's top dual-threat quarterbacks, ran for 119 yards while also throwing for 142 to send the Bulls into next week's regular-season finale against No. 14 UCF with the AAC's East Division title on the line.
Flowers and USF's high-powered offense weren't as sharp as usual, however first-quarter TD throws of 25 yards to Tyre McCants and 35 yards to Darnell Salomon helped USF to an early 21-7 lead.
D'Angelo Brewer ran for 163 yards for Tulsa, becoming the Golden Hurricane's all-time rushing leader with 3,662 yards. The senior also broke the AAC career mark of 3,609 set by former USF running back Marlon Mack.
T25 MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
Allonzo Trier made eight of nine shots, including all three 3-point attempts, for 28 points and No. 3 Arizona coasted to its third straight victory, 91-59 over Cal State-Bakersfield on Thursday night.
Freshman Deandre Ayton added 18 points, 16 in the second half, and grabbed 10 rebounds — his third double-double to start his college career — for Arizona (3-0). Dusan Ristic scored 12 points and Parker Jackson-Cartwright 11 for the Wildcats, who led by as many as 18 in the first half and 38 in the second.
In Gainesville, No. 8 Florida dominated the visiting North Florida Ospreys 108-68 behind a balanced effort and six double-figure scorers.
Junior KeVaughn Allen was Florida's top scorer with 18 points. The balanced scoring helped the Gators, now 2-0, dismantle the Ospreys from the beginning, with Keith Stone, Gorjok Gak and Allen contributing some emphatic dunks along the way.
Allen aside, Stone was next on Florida's balanced scoring sheet with 14 points. He was followed by Jalen Hudson with 13 and Egor Koulechov, Deaundrae Ballard and Gak with 12 each.
In other men's college finals:
— Highly touted Miami Hurricanes freshman guard Lonnie Walker IV is nursing a twisted left ankle, but coach Jim Larranaga says he doesn't think the injury is serious. Walker was hurt Thursday night when he stepped on another player during the first half of the 11th-ranked Hurricanes' 90-59 win over Florida A&M. In the game, Bruce Brown had 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Hurricanes, who shot 59 percent and had six players in double figures.
— Jarron Cumberland led Cincinnati's opening blitz of 13 made shots, and the 12th-ranked Bearcats pulled away to a 97-54 victory over Coppin State. The Bearcats piled up 107 and 102 points while beating Savannah State and Western Carolina, and were trying to reach triple digits in three straight games for the first time in school history.
— Sophomore guard T.J. Gibbs survived a scary second-half fall to score a career-high 23 points as No. 13 Notre Dame ran away from Chicago State 105-66 on Thursday night. Bonzie Colson, a preseason Associated Press All-America selection, had 15 points and nine rebounds, and fellow senior Matt Farrell added 18 points and four assists for coach Mike Brey, whose 385th victory at Notre Dame was never in doubt after a 7-0 start led to a 56-29 halftime lead.
— Trevon Bluiett scored 25 points and hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 1:47 to spark a decisive run, helping No. 15 Xavier to pull away late for an 80-70 win over Wisconsin. J.P. Macura added 20 points for the Musketeers, who won at a tough road venue following two easy home nonconference victories to open the season.
UALBANY Soccer
The University at Albany men’s soccer team advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, defeating host Maryland 5-4 in the eighth round of penalty kicks. It was the third overtime game UAlbany has played in their last five, and their second to go to penalty kicks in their last four.
After both overtime sessions passed without either team scoring, the game went into penalty kicks for the second time this season for UAlbany. Last week, the Great Danes advanced past UMBC in the America East quarterfinals 4-2 on penalty kicks. This time, the kicks went into the eighth round before Brynjar Steinþórsson successfully converted the clinching attempt to send UAlbany into the second round. UAlbany will play tournament 7-seed Western Michigan on Sunday, November 19.
T25 MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL NEWS
Michigan State forward Kenny Goins has a sprained left knee and is expected to miss a couple weeks.
The school announced Goins' timetable Thursday and described the sprain as mild.
The 6-foot-7 Goins scored four points in 15 minutes in Michigan State's loss to No. 1 Duke on Tuesday night. He averaged 3.4 points a game last season.
MLB
In other Major League Baseball news:
— Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas and outfielder Lorenzo Cain were among nine free agents who turned down $17.4 million qualifying offers from their teams Thursday. Chicago Cubs pitchers Jake Arrieta and Wade Davis also said no to the offers, as did Tampa Bay pitcher Alex Cobb, Colorado closer Greg Holland, St. Louis pitcher Lance Lynn and Cleveland first baseman Carlos Santana.
— Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says rule changes to speed games will be put in place next year with or without an agreement with the players' association. Major League Baseball proposed last offseason to institute a 20-second pitch clock, limits in trips to the mound by catchers and raising the bottom of the strike zone.
— The Seattle Mariners have made a deal that should give them more flexibility if they want to try to sign Japanese pitcher/outfielder Shohei Otani. They acquired an additional $500,000 for their international signing bonus pool from the Chicago White Sox in a trade for Brazilian right-hander Thyago Vieira.
— Hensley Meulens is the third candidate to interview for New York Yankees manager after Rob Thomson and Eric Wedge. The 50-year-old former outfielder has been a coach with the San Francisco Giants for the last eight seasons.
TRUMP-NCAA
President Donald Trump is set to host collegiate sports championship teams at the White House Friday.
The White House says NCAA teams will attend a reception at the executive mansion, but has not provided a list of the teams attending.
Trump hosted the 2016 NCAA football champion Clemson Tigers at the White House in June. The University of North Carolina's 2017 national championship men's basketball team said earlier this year it could not agree on a date for a visit.
Trump sparred with professional athletes earlier this year when NBA star Stephen Curry said his championship-winning Golden State Warriors didn't wish to meet with Trump. The feud erupted as Trump was lambasting NFL athletes for kneeling in protest during the national anthem.
PGA-RSM CLASSIC
Chris Kirk holed an 18-foot putt for eagle on his final hole for a 9-under 63 and a one-shot lead in the RSM Classic.
Kirk played the par 5s on the Plantation Course at Sea Island Golf Club in 5 under Thursday. The seven lowest scores of the opening round came on the Plantation Course during a picturesque afternoon on the Golden Isles.
Joel Dahmen had a 64, while the group at 65 included Hudson Swafford, Jason Kokrak and Brian Gay.
The RSM Classic is the final PGA Tour event of the calendar year.
LPGA TOUR
LPGA rookie Sung Hyun Park took a big first step toward sweeping all the season awards with a 5-under 67 to finish one shot behind after the opening round of the CME Group Tour Championship.
Peiyun Chien of Taiwan and Sarah Jane Smith both shot 66 on a breezy day at Tiburon Golf Club.
OBIT-PACHECO
— Fernando "Ferdie" Pacheco, "The Fight Doctor" who served as Muhammad Ali's ringside physician, has died. He was 89.
Pacheco's daughter, Tina Louise Pacheco, told The Associated Press that he died Thursday morning at his Miami home after prolonged illness.
He met Cassius Clay, who would later become Muhammad Ali, in 1960 when the fighter began training with Angelo Dundee at the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach.
Pacheco worked as Ali's cornerman from 1962-1977, which included three successful title bouts.
Copyright The Associated Press 2017. All Rights Reserved.
