Jan 18, 2018 4 min read

RMU tops

Sacred Heart

Dachon Burke had 10 of his 19 points in a dominant first half, Matty McConnell added 16 points and Robert Morris rolled to a 74-60 win over Sacred Heart Thursday night.

Koby Thomas added 10 points for the Colonials (12-8, 6-1 Northeastern Conference), who held the Pioneers to 29 percent shooting with 11 turnovers to open a 42-20 haltime lead.

Despite missing all six of its 3-pointers, Sacred Heart (7-13, 2-5) shot 50 percent in the second half but was never able to threaten the league-leading Colonials.

Joseph Lopez had 14 of his 18 points in the second half for Sacred Heart and grabbed 10 rebounds. Zach Radz added 17 points.

McConnell had a pair of 3-pointers as Robert Morris scored the first 14 points of the game. Sacred Heart didn’t got on the board until Kinnon LaRose made a free throw more than seven minutes in and didn’t make a a basket until his layup at the 12:25 mark.

Rahm leads Challenge

Jon Rahm shot a 10-under 62 on Thursday in perfect conditions at La Quinta Country Club to take the first-round lead in the CareerBuilder Challenge.

The top-ranked player in the field at No. 3 in the world, Rahm eagled the par-5 fifth – hitting a 5-iron from 215 yards to 5 feet – and played the first six holes in 6 under. The 23-year-old Spaniard had the lowest score of his PGA Tour career, topping a 64 two years ago at Congressional in his first round as a professional.

Austin Cook, Jason Kokrak and Andrew Landry were a stroke back. Cook played PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course, and Kokrak and Landry opened at La Quinta. Nick Watney and Grayson Murray each shot 65 to top the players at PGA West’s Stadium Course.

Phil Mickelson had a 70 at La Quinta in his first tournament round since late October.

Locally, Steve Wheatcroft shot 3-under and is tied for 64th.

Penguins fall to Ducks Wednesday

Rickard Rakell and Adam Henrique scored 1:35 apart to Anaheim the lead during its four-goal second period, and the Ducks went on to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 Wednesday night.

Chris Wagner and Ondrej Kase also scored for Anaheim in the middle period, and Hampus Lindholm added an empty-netter in the final second of the game. John Gibson stopped 30 shots to help the Ducks improve to 7-3-1 in their last 11 games.

Anaheim scored four goals in a period for first time since doing it in the third period at Buffalo last Feb. 9.

Jake Guentzel, Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins, who snapped a four-game win streak. Tristan Jarry made 28 saves.

NBA All-Star

captains named

LeBron James and Stephen Curry will be the captains who pick teams for the revamped NBA All-Star Game.

James and Curry received the most votes from fans in their conferences Thursday night and will draft from a pool of the rest of the NBA’s best for next month’s game in Los Angeles.

The format was changed from the traditional East vs. West matchup for the first time after lackluster games the last two seasons, when players made little attempt to defend and the West nearly scored 200 in both of its victories.

The remainder of the starters from the Eastern Conference will be Boston’s Kyrie Irving, Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Kevin Durant joins Curry from the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, while New Orleans also has two starters in Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. Houston guard James Harden rounds out the starters, who were selected by a combination of fan, media and player voting.

The reserves, voted upon by the head coaches in each conference, will be announced Tuesday, and the rosters selected by James and Curry will be unveiled next Thursday