LOWELL, Mass, — UMass-Lowell scored five of the last six goals in the game and raced to a 9-5 men’s hockey win over the University of Maine on Monday.
Chase Blackmun had three goals as the River Hawks (3-1, 3-1 Hockey East) kept the visiting Black Bears (0-3-1, 0-3-1) winless.
Blackmun got the opening goal 7:47 into the first period, tied it at 3 late in the period and made it 4-3 just 2:48 into the second.
Eduards Tralmaks, who had two goals and an assist for the Black Bears, tied it at 4-4 with a short-handed goal 6:19 into the second for Maine, but Lowell scored two more in the period and outscored the Black Bears 3-1 in the third to put it away.
Levi Kleiboer, Edward Lindelow and Emil Westerlund also scored for Maine, which was outshot 58-30.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
BOSTON UNIVERSITY 1, MAINE 0: Chloe Aurard scored just over two minutes into the third period and lifted Northeastern to a 1-0 women’s hockey win over Maine in Boston on Monday.
Maine (4-4, 3-3 Hockey East) senior goaltender Loryn Porter made 40 saves a day after making 44 saves in a 3-0 loss against the same Northeastern team on Sunday, but the Black Bears did not score a goal in either game.
Northeastern, ranked fourth in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll, improves to 3-1 with all its games played in Hockey East. Aerin Frankel had 21 saves for the shutout.
MASKS DURING GAMES
BOSTON UNIVERSITY: The Boston University men’s and women’s basketball teams opened their seasons on Monday wearing masks — not just on the sidelines, but during their games.
Daman Tate had 28 points, nine rebounds and four steals for the BU men in their 83-76 victory at Holy Cross. Although the Terriers wore masks, as the school requires of all teams, the Crusaders did not.
Back on BU’s campus in Boston, Sydney Johnson scored 18 points to lead the Terriers women to a 76-54 win over Holy Cross with both teams wearing masks. Masks will also be required for both sides when the BU men host Holy Cross at the Case Gym on Tuesday; it is believed that will be the first men’s college basketball game with both teams in masks.
Although the NCAA has not mandated masks on the court, a few women’s teams have worn them – most prominently No. 20 DePaul. Creighton coach Jim Flanery left it up to his players, and eight of 13 elected to mask up.
The Patriot League canceled all nonconference games before the season, leaving BU and Holy Cross with mostly local contests. BU and Holy Cross will meet six times each in both men’s and women’s basketball.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
VILLANOVA: Jay Wright’s plan to resume coaching No. 3 Villanova following a bout with COVID-19 was put on hold Monday when two players tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing the program to postpone its next three games.
The Wildcats (8-1) were scheduled to play Tuesday at DePaul, Friday vs. Marquette and Jan. 13 at Xavier. No makeup dates have been announced.
“We are one of the unfortunate ones right now,” Wright said Monday.
The Wildcats are tested daily and practiced Sunday without any positive test results. Then came Monday’s results – Wright said the two unidentified players who tested positive have symptoms and learned of their results before the Wildcats were set to travel to DePaul.
“We were suited up for practice,” Wright said. “We just kind of assumed everybody would be negative. We were dressed and ready for practice.”
A two-time national championship coach, Wright went into isolation after he tested positive on Dec. 26. The program checked players into individual hotel rooms over the holiday break from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 and were not allowed to have outside contact with anyone. The Wildcats were allowed to meet with their families at a masked, socially distanced event on Dec. 24-25 at their on-campus arena. There were no positive tests over that span.
“No players did anything wrong,” Wright said. “A couple of staff members tested positive on the 26th, 27th, but they were not with the players. They were isolated.”
Wright said he had avoided social gatherings, always wore a mask and was unsure exactly how he contracted the coronavirus. He said he had all the major symptoms and described his physical state as “like having a bad case of the flu.”
“What’s sad is, this started with me and now the players have to go through it,” he said.
The Wildcats had to pause activities before the season even started and opened with four consecutive games in a “bubble environment” at the Mohegan Sun resort casino in Connecticut.
MARCH MADNESS: The NCAA announced Monday that all 67 men’s basketball tournament games including the Final Four will be played entirely in Indiana in a bid to keep the marquee event from being called off for a second consecutive year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Games will be played one at a time on two courts inside Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. They will also be held at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Mackey Arena at Purdue and Assembly Hall in Bloomington. .
Championship weekend is still scheduled for April 3 and April 5 but preliminary round dates have not yet been determined.
“Last year, we had to rip March Madness away from all the teams and all the fans at the very last minute,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said during a video call. “We know it was the right thing to do, but it was a painful thing to do. So we want to deliver this year on the promise of March Madness. They deserve it.”
Still to be determined is how many fans will be allowed inside the venues. NCAA officials said a limited number of family members of players and coaches could attend games but decisions about expanding attendance or conducting fan events will be announced later. The pandemic has already canceled scores of college basketball games this season, with postponements and COVID-19 issues nearly a daily occurrence.
AP POLL: While Gonzaga and Baylor remain firmly atop The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, Shaka Smart and fourth-ranked Texas are making a push into the rankings’ top tier, too.
The top-ranked Zags and second-ranked Bears remained 1-2 in Monday’s latest Top 25 as they have all season. But the Longhorns jumped four spots after a lopsided weekend win at Kansas to earn the program’s highest ranking under their sixth-year coach, as well as its first top-5 ranking since February 2011.
“If this is the peak on Jan. 2, that would be really, really disappointing,” Smart said after the 84-59 win against the Jayhawks. “It’s something that we’ll talk a lot about. I asked the guys in the locker room if this was kind of all they wanted. Obviously that’s a rhetorical question: They want more.”
Texas (8-1) started the year at No. 19 and hadn’t cracked the top 10 under Smart before this season. The Longhorns hadn’t cracked the top five since spending three weeks at No. 3 followed by a week at No. 5 in February 2011 under former coach Rick Barnes.
Mark Few’s Bulldogs earned 63 of 64 first-place votes in Monday’s poll, while Scott Drew’s Bears received the other vote. Gonzaga and Baylor have been 1-2 in all seven polls so far this season.
DUKE: Coach Mike Krzyzewski says he won’t be able to coach the No. 21 Blue Devils when they face Boston College on Wednesday night, but he hopes to be out of quarantine in time to return for their game against Wake Forest on Saturday.
Krzyzewski said he and his wife were placed into quarantine last Friday after a member of his family tested positive for COVID-19. He said he and his wife were both tested Monday, and both were negative.
Krzyzewski said he found out about the quarantine as he was getting on the bus to go to Florida State. The Blue Devils traveled to Tallahassee, Florida without Krzyzewski, but found out after a team meeting Friday night that the game was being postponed.
The noon start of the Wake Forest game is right at the end of the quarantine and Krzyzewski said he will have to get guidance from health officials on whether he can return.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
(12) MARYLAND 84, (16) INDIANA 80: Maryland jumped out to a 23-9 lead after the first quarter and held off a fourth-quarter surge as the 12th-ranked Terrapins beat No. 16 Indiana on Monday in College Park, Maryland.
The Hoosiers (5-3, 3-1 Big Ten) got 18 points and 11 rebounds from Gorham native Mackenzie Holmes, but trailed by 14 going into the fourth quarter and couldn’t erase the deficit.
For Maryland (7-1, 3-0), Diamond Miller scored 18 of her 20 points in the second half.
(16) OHIO STATE 82, PENN STATE 69: Madison Greene had 24 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Jacy Sheldon scored 21 points and No. 16 Ohio State (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten) beat Penn State (3-4, 0-3) on Monday night in its first game since Dec. 10.
Ohio State went 24 days between games after pausing due to COVID-19 protocols, last beating Miami (Ohio).
AP POLL: Oregon’s run in the top 10 of The Associated Press women’s college basketball poll is over after 64 consecutive appearances.
The Ducks fell to No. 11 in the AP Top 25 released a day after the team’s 27-game winning streak ended with a two-point loss to then-No. 11 UCLA.
Oregon entered the Top 25 at No. 11 in the 2017-18 preseason poll and moved up a spot in the first regular-season poll that year. The Ducks hadn’t fallen below 10th until Monday, climbing as high No. 1 for a few weeks last year.
It was the fourth longest active streak behind UConn, Baylor and Louisville. The Huskies have been in the top 10 of every poll since March 7, 2005. The Lady Bears have done it since Dec. 8, 2014, and Louisville started its run in the preseason poll of 2017-18.
FOOTBALL
OHIO STATE: Coach Ryan Day says he expects Justin Fields to play in the College Football Playoff national championship game against Alabama after the quarterback was banged up during the semifinals.
Day declined to detail Fields’ injury on Monday during a Zoom news conference. Day did say that that Fields told the coach “he felt better waking up in the morning than he expected.”
Ohio State and Alabama play for the title on Jan. 11 in South Florida.
Fields took a hard hit to the right side of his torso from Clemson linebacker James Skalski in the second quarter of the Sugar Bowl on Saturday. Skalski was ejected for targeting because he led with the crown of his helmet.
Fields missed only one play and finished with six touchdown passes in Ohio State’s 49-28 victory. Fields later said he was aching after every throw following the hit and that he had received a shot from the medical staff to deal with the pain.
TEXAS: Quarterback Sam Ehlinger is passing on a fifth season with the Longhorns to enter the NFL draft.
Ehlinger announced the decision in a video Sunday, a day after Texas fired Coach Tom Herman and replaced him with Steve Sarkisian.
“I’m so proud to have been your quarterback for four amazing years,” Ehlinger said in the video. “I love this university and I love Longhorn nation. May God bless all of you, and hook ’em.”
Ehlinger finished his Texas career with 11,436 yards passing and 94 touchdowns in 46 games, 43 of them starts. He also ran for 1,907 yards and 33 touchdowns.
MARSHALL: Coach Doc Holliday is out after 11 seasons with the Thundering Herd after the school said Monday it would not renew his contract.
Holliday was named Conference USA coach of the year, but the Thundering Herd lost their final three games of the season after starting 7-0 and moving up to No. 15 in The Associated Press poll.
The 63-year-old Holliday went 85-54 at Marshall, including 6-2 in bowl games. His six-year contract was set to expire June 30.
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