Sports briefs
In the NFL
The Chicago Bears will wait until game time to announce their starting quarterback for Sunday’s game against Detroit, choosing between Andy Dalton and rookie Justin Fields.
Both quarterbacks are dealing with injuries, but Fields has been able to go through full practices the entire week while Dalton has been limited every day. Dalton is suffering from a bone bruise to his left knee while Fields wore a brace on his injured right hand all week in practice.
Coach Matt Nagy said Friday he couldn’t rule out Dalton for Sunday at Soldier Field.
Wisconsin naming field for Alvarez
Wisconsin is naming the playing field at Camp Randall Stadium after former Badgers football coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez, a Langeloth native.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced the decision at a Friday night ceremony honoring Alvarez, who retired as Wisconsin’s athletic director this summer. Blank said the playing field will be known as “Barry Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium.”
He coached Wisconsin from 1990-2005 and set a program record for career coaching victories, winning three Rose Bowl titles at a program that had gone 9-36 in the four years before his arrival. His 119-74-4 career record includes a 1-1 mark as an interim coach in bowl games that capped the 2012 and 2014 seasons.
Alvarez was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
In basketball
The WNBA semifinal playoff series are knotted at a game apiece and both could go the full five games based on the historic and gritty performances thus far.
Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury put on a shooting clinic as they scored the most points in a regulation playoff game in the league’s 25-year history in a win over Las Vegas on Thursday night. Eight months after having surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon Alyssa Thomas provided a spark for the Connecticut Sun in a victory over the Chicago Sky.
Both series are now tied at 1-1 and play will shift to Chicago and Phoenix for the next set of games scheduled to tip off on Sunday.
In soccer
The National Women’s Soccer League will not play the games scheduled for this weekend as it deals with the fallout from allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against a former coach.
North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley was fired by the team following a report in The Athletic that detailed the alleged misconduct, which included claims by two former players of sexual coercion.
The NWSL did not specify Friday whether the games were canceled or postponed. In a statement, Commissioner Lisa Baird said the decision was made with the NWSL players’ association.
In golf
So Yeon Ryu finally quit thinking about her swing and thought only about scoring just in time to birdie the last three holes for a 6-under 65 and a share of the lead with Jodi Ewart Shadoff in the ShopRite LPGA on Friday.
Scoring was so low on the Bay Course of Seaview that 20 players shot 67 or better.
Ewart Shadoff, who has missed the cut in her last eight LPGA Tour events, birdied the par-5 18th to join Ryu in the lead.
Jin Young Ko, the world’s No. 2 player, Inbee Park and Solheim Cup star Matilda Castren of Finland were among those one shot behind at 66.
Correction
Anthony Finney caught a 53-yard scoring strike from Mike Evans in Canon-McMillan’s 61-7 victory over Baldwin.