Sports briefs
Duke women end basketball season
The Duke women’s basketball team ended its season Friday amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The student-athletes on the Duke women’s basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns,” said Michael Schoenfeld, Vice President for Public Affairs & Government Relations and Chief Communications Officer for Duke University.
“We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time. Duke will maintain our current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include daily testing for all student-athletes and are based on guidance from leading medical experts.”
The men’s basketball team planned to keep playing.
The women’s basketball team has been on pause since Dec. 16 because of two positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing within the program’s travel party.
In the NBA
Khris Middleton scored 31 points and the Milwaukee Bucks routed the Golden State Warriors 138-99 Friday to win their first Christmas Day home game in over half a century.
Middleton went 10 of 15 overall and 6 for 8 from 3-point range, leading a strong performance from deep for his team. He totaled 58 points in his first two games of the season.
n Erik Spoelstra remained perfect on Christmas, and a record-tying show from Duncan Robinson helped him stay that way.
Robinson made seven 3-pointers – tying the Christmas single-game mark – and scored 23 points, helping the Heat beat the New Orleans Pelicans 111-98 to start the NBA’s holiday quintupleheader.
n Kyrie Irving scored 37 points with eight assists in his return to Boston and Kevin Durant added 29 for Brooklyn to lead the Nets to a 123-95 victory over the Celtics.
Jarrett Allen added 11 rebounds for the Nets, who remained perfect so far this season and sent Boston to its first loss. Irving was 7 of 10 from 3-point range in his first regular-season game at TD Garden since he opted out of his Celtics contract in 2019.
In college basketball
D’Mitrk Trice had to play on the road Christmas Day and still got to celebrate one of his best games with his family in the house.
Trice scored a season-high 29 points, lifting No. 9 Wisconsin to an 85-76 win over No. 12 Michigan State on Friday.
Trice’s parents, older brother, Travis, and his grandma were among the dozens of fans in the stands. The family used to cheer for the Spartans when his older brother, Travis, played for Tom Izzo from 2011-15.
In college football
Kevin Marks looked like a super sub early, stalled against a stingy defense and then delivered the decisive blow.
Marks scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:09 left after a clock-eating drive and Buffalo made a final defensive stop to beat Marshall 17-10 in the Camellia Bowl on Friday.
Subbing for the national leader in rushing yards per game, Jaret Patterson, Marks carried 35 time for 138 yards for the Bulls (6-1) against one of the nation’s top run defenses.
Buffalo milked more than six minutes off the clock on the final 13-play, 88-yard drive. Quarterback Kyle Vantrease took a knee on first down and coach Lance Leipold even considered calling for a second one for a team that had only made its first field goal of the season in the first half.