Aug 13, 2020 3 min read

NCAA cancels fall championships

The NCAA called off fall championship events – a move Thursday that does not affect major college football – because not enough schools will be competing in sports such as men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball during the first semester.

NCAA President Mark Emmert made the announcement in a video posted on Twitter, but it has been clear this was coming as conferences canceled fall sports seasons because of the coronvirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, the Big Ten and Pac-12 became the first Power Five conferences to decide not to play football, or any sports, this fall.

In all, four Bowl Subdivision conferences are pointing toward trying to make a spring football season work. Six others say they are still planning a fall season, including the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 – more than three-dozen big schools from New York to Texas.

In the NBA

With their season on the line, Jonas Valanciunas and Ja Morant teamed up to make history and keep the Memphis Grizzlies’ playoff hopes alive.

Valanciunas and Moranth had triple-doubles, Dillon Brooks scored 31 points and the Grizzlies beat the Milwaukee Bucks 119-106 on Thursday to wrap up a spot in the play-in tournament that will determine the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

• Devin Booker scored 27 points and Phoenix ran past the Dallas Mavericks 128-102 to keep its playoff hopes alive and finish as the only unbeaten team in the seeding games.

Dario Saric scored 16 points and Cameron Payne and Cameron Johnson each added 15 for the Suns. They will qualify for the play-in series that starts Saturday if Portland loses to Brooklyn later Thursday. If Portland wins, Phoenix’s season is over.

• Buddy Hield scored 28 points, including a 3-pointer that capped Sacramento’s streak of 11 consecutive baskets made in the third period, and the Kings beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 136-122.

Bogdan Bogdanovic had 27 points as the Kings won for only the third time in the bubble.

• Thomas Bryant had 26 points and nine rebounds to help the Washington Wizards beat the Boston Celtics 96-90 for their lone win in the restart.

In golf

Harold Varner III, Tom Hoge and Roger Sloan each shot 8-under 62 Thursday to share the first-round lead at the Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour’s final regular-season event before the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Varner started the go-low parade at Sedgefield Country Club with an eight-birdie, no-bogey round that matched his career best on the PGA Tour

Hoge and Sloan, playing together, followed suit later in the round, Hoge also matched his career low on tour, while Sloan’s score set his personal best.

There were 33 players on the course who had not finished when the round was suspended due to bad weather.