No. 6 UConn blasts Xavier in Big East tourney romp

NEW YORK -- Solo Ball scored 19 points as No. 6 UConn led by double digits most of the way and cruised to a wire-to-wire 93-68 rout of 10th-seeded Xavier in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament on Thursday night.

The second-seeded Huskies (28-4) led by double digits for the final 28:35 and advanced to the semifinals for the sixth straight season since rejoining the Big East for the 2020-21 season. UConn will face 11th-seeded Georgetown, which upset third-seed Villanova 78-64 in the quarters.

Ball shot 34.1% (15 of 44) in his final five regular season games and made 5 of 12 shots, including four 3s.

Tarris Reed collected 17 points and a season-high 14 rebounds for his 10th double-double this season. Reed had a trio of dunks as part of an 8-of-12 showing from the floor and his effort helped the Huskies get a 40-28 rebounding edge.

Alex Karaban bounced back from a two-point showing in the Huskies' six-point loss at Marquette on Saturday and added 15 on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor.

UConn shot 57.4% and made 12 of 32 3s after missing 21 of 24 triples in the regular season finale. The Huskies also thrived at the rim as they went 13 of 18 on layups and converted all six of their dunk attempts while finishing with 22 second-chance points.

Filip Borovicanin led Xavier with a career-high 22 points, but the Musketeers lost the three meetings with UConn by a combined 80 points. Roddie Anderson III added 15 and Tre Carroll struggled and shot 2 of 10 in a 12-point showing.

Advertisement

Xavier also saw the duo of Malik Messina-Moore and Jovan Milcevic struggle all night. Messina-Moore was held to five points on 1-of-7 shooting and Milecevic finished with six on 2 of 9.

Xavier shot 37.3%, was 9 of 28 from behind the arc and missed 12 of its 33 free throw attempts.

Karaban's open corner 3 following an offensive rebound put the Huskies up 22-10 with 12:28 remaining. The Huskies ripped off a 12-1 run by converting two dunks and three layups and another Karaban hoop extended the lead to 39-19 with 5:03 left.

UConn finished the half with a 50-30 lead after Ball hit three free throws with 35 seconds left.

Xavier scored the first seven points of the second half and cut the lead to 50-37 on two free throws by Borovicanin with 16:59 left.

UConn gradually pulled away again and took a 59-41 lead when Reed and Jayden Ross converted dunks in a span of 32 seconds. The Huskies regained their 20-point lead when Ross got a corner 3 to roll in with 8:50 left and took an 80-55 lead with 5 1/2 minutes to go when Reed had a one-handed slam and Ball hit a corner 3.

--Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media

byAdministrator

in

23:06

No. 6 UConn blasts Xavier in Big East tourney romp

NEW YORK -- Solo Ball scored 19 points as No. 6 UConn led by double digits most of the way and cruised to a wire-to-wi...

Read More

No. 5 Houston fends off AJ Dybantsa, BYU in Big 12 tourney

Kingston Flemings led four players in double figures to help No. 5 Houston pull away from BYU for a 73-66 win in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals Thursday in Kansas City.

Emanuel Sharp added 13 points, Joseph Tugler tallied 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Chris Cenac Jr. notched 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for second-seeded Houston (27-5), which won its fourth straight game to return to the Big 12 semifinals for the third time in as many years in the league.

Houston will face No. 14 and third-seeded Kansas in the semis after the Jayhawks beat TCU 78-73 on Thursday.

Freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa racked up a game-high 26 points -- his 13th straight game with 20-plus points -- and Robert Wright III scored 15 and a game-high five assists for 10th-seeded BYU (23-11).

After Wright scored three straight points to cut the deficit to 59-58 with 6:52 left, Houston put the game away with a 12-3 run to take the first double-digit lead of the game for either team at 71-61 with 20 seconds left.

Sharp iced the game with six free throws in the last 33 seconds, making up for a 1-for-9 performance from the floor with a 10-for-10 showing from the charity stripe.

Houston got off to a strong start, jumping out to an 8-2 advantage as BYU missed its first six shots from the floor. That edge continued through the opening 10 minutes as Houston led 19-12 with 9:50 left behind an 8-for-13 shooting start.

Advertisement

Trailing by eight with 7:37 left in the half, BYU finally came to life, breaking off a 7-0 run which began a larger 24-9 surge for a 41-34 lead with 28 seconds left in the half.

Dybantsa scored nine points during this surge -- over half of his game-high 16 first-half points -- and Aleksej Kostic hit back-to-back threes to turn a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.

Kalifa Sakho completed a three-point play in the final second to cut Houston's halftime deficit to 41-37.

Houston opened the second half on a 10-5 run to reclaim the lead, and the Cougars jumped ahead for good on an 8-2 surge behind four points from Mercy Miller.

BYU made just one field goal over a span of 6:53 in the middle of the second half and managed just five made field goals over the final 14:14, missing 16 of their final 21 shots to finish 41.2% from the floor.

Houston wasn't much better at 44.8% but made up for it with a 37-30 rebounding edge and a 19-10 advantage in second-chance points.

--Field Level Media

byAdministrator

in

23:06

No. 5 Houston fends off AJ Dybantsa, BYU in Big 12 tourney

Kingston Flemings led four players in double figures to help No. 5 Houston pull away from BYU for a 73-66 win in the B...

Read More

How many points did Luka Doncic score tonight? Bulls vs. Lakers stats

Luka Doncic led the offense in theLos Angeles Lakers' 142-130 victory over the Chicago Bulls at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday, March 12.

Doncic nearly produced a triple-double while scoring 51 points in front of the home crowd. It marked his first 50-point game as a member of the Lakers after putting up 12 40-point games, including a 49-point effort on Oct. 24, 2025.

Advertisement

The Lakers have won four straight games and seven of their last eight. Doncic put together a triple-double effort against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday with 31 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

Here's how he did Thursday night against the Bulls:

Luka Doncic stats vs. Bulls

• Points: 51

• FG: 17-for-31

• 3PT: 9-for-14

• Free Throws: 8-for-9

• Rebounds: 10

• Assists: 9

• Steals: 3

• Blocks: 1

• Turnovers: 1

• Fouls: 3

• Minutes: 37

Luka Doncic highlights vs. Bulls

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Luka Doncic stats, points tonight, Lakers vs Bulls highlights

byAdministrator

in

23:06

How many points did Luka Doncic score tonight? Bulls vs. Lakers stats

Luka Doncic led the offense in theLos Angeles Lakers' 142-130 victory over the Chicago Bulls at Crypto.com Arena o...

Read More

Gay Muslim influencer hosts inclusive Ramadan meal and calls for acceptance across faiths

BERLIN (AP) — Ali Darwich, a gay Muslim influencer in Berlin, picks up a date from his plate, takes a sip of water, and addresses the 15 friends sitting around the table and breaking theRamadanfast with him.

Germany LGBTQ Ramadan

The 33-year-old German with Palestinian and Lebanese roots — who goes by @alifragt or "Ali asks" on Instagram — has a quickly growing following on Instagram, where he draws attention to the difficulties of living as a young, queer Muslim and calls for more tolerance and inclusiveness.

"Tonight we want to send a message that no matter where a person comes from, no matter who that person loves, no matter how queer that person is, they cannot be too queer ... because they are exactly as they should be," Darwich says, smiling at the diverse group of Muslims and Christians, Germans and immigrants, gay and straight people sharing this meal with him as the sun sets over Berlin.

"I am a believer, I believe in God, and I find Islam beautiful, just like Christianity or Judaism and many other religions," he says. But he adds that it's not always easy for homosexuals to be accepted — not just for Muslims but also for queer Christians and believers of many other religions.

Indeed,attacks against LGBTQ+ peopleand gay-friendly establishments are rising acrossGermany, including inBerlin, a city that has historically embraced the community.

According to the latest figures from 2024, there was a 40% increase in violence targeting LGBTQ+ people in 12 of Germany's 16 federal states as compared to 2023, according to the Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-Wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence.

Darwich calls for inclusion of homosexual Muslims

In one of his Instagram videos, Darwich sits by himself on a table during Ramadan and talks about the loneliness some Muslim homosexuals face when they are shunned by their families. It makes life hard, he says, especially during holidays that are usually a time of togetherness.

He calls on people to open their hearts and doors to queer Muslims so they don't have to be alone for Iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan.

And for his gay followers he also has a message on Instagram: "You deserve to break your fast surrounded by people who accept you — fully and without conditions."

Darwich's coming out a few years ago wasn't easy.

Advertisement

When he told his mother about it, she at first didn't want to believe him, then she cried and they didn't talk for half a year. Many other members of his extended family also were taken aback.

"From one day to the next, I was no longer invited. Not only to Ramadan, but also to family celebrations, and that was a very difficult time for me," he told The Associated Press in an interview this week.

Friends stepping up when your family shuns you

While Darwich and his mom are getting along just fine now, he said it helped him tremendously at the time that his friends stepped up and became a kind of family for him, supporting and accepting him.

For this week's "real life" Iftar in Berlin, his friend Randa Weiser, 40, a German-Palestinian influencer who shares her everyday life with three kids and husband on social media under the handle @randa_and_the_gang, has opened her home for Ali and his and her friends.

She cooked up a feast of freekeh soup, fragrant yellow rice with almonds, raisins and cardamon, grilled chicken drumsticks, and a variety of sweets for desserts.

"It's an absolute colorful mix tonight," she said referring to the crowd around the Iftar table. While most people are German, many of their families originally come from faraway places like Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco, Turkey, Chechnya and Syria, Iran and Peru.

Weiser said she got "some hate" on Instagram when she posted earlier in the day that she was about to host an inclusive Iftar, but mostly, she says her followers agree that "you can be Muslim and gay or lesbian."

As the crowd — many of them influencers as well — dug into Weiser's food, they didn't miss an opportunity to shoot video of one another and post it quickly on their accounts.

One of them, Darwich's good friend Haidar Darwish, a belly dancer and artist who came from Syria in 2016, had dressed up for the occasion with a red fez and a white, gold-embroidered gallabiyah.

"The hate and crimes against women, Muslim people, Jewish people also, and queers and trans siblings of mine have increased," said Darwish, who goes by @thedarvishofficial on Instagram.

"But no matter how much the others will show us hate, we can show more love only if we are believing in ourselves," he said, adding that they will be fine as long as they have "the help of our allies and friends and people that have our backs."

byAdministrator

in

22:34

Gay Muslim influencer hosts inclusive Ramadan meal and calls for acceptance across faiths

BERLIN (AP) — Ali Darwich, a gay Muslim influencer in Berlin, picks up a date from his plate, takes a sip of water, and a...

Read More

Trump threatens Iran following new wave of attacks on Gulf states and Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran launched multiple attacks early Friday on Gulf Arab states, including dozens of drones at Saudi Arabia, following warnings from its new supreme leader about hosting American bases, and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened major new retaliation.

APTOPIX Lebanon Israel Iran

"Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today," Trump wrote in a social media post. "Iran's Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth."

The comments came the day after Iran's Supreme Leader AyatollahMojtaba Khameneivowed to "not refrain from avenging the blood" of Iranians killed, and warned Gulf Arab nations to shut U.S. bases, saying the notion of American protection was "nothing more than a lie."

Intense airstrikes hit early Friday around Iran's capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil transits on its way from the Persian Gulf to the open seas.

Brent prices have spiked as high as about $120 per barrel and are currently some 40% higher than when Israel and the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.

Iran has been attacking ships that try to transit the strait, and Khamenei's comments — his first to the public since being named to replace his father, who was killed during the first day of the conflict — said Iran would continue to block the waterway.

In Iraq, recovery efforts were underway after an American KC-135 refueling plane went down, according to U.S. Central Command. And a French soldier who was stationed in the north of the country was killed in an attack, the French president said Friday.

Iran launches new attacks on Gulf Arab countries

Iran has been attacking oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, and on Friday Saudi Arabia that it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves throughout the early morning hours.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of incoming fire from Dubai, and black smoke billowed from an industrial area after authorities said debris from an interception had sparked a blaze.

Nearly 60 people were wounded in northern Israel after Hezbollah said it had fired several rocket salvoes toward the area and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Almost all the injuries were described as very minor.

One person was killed in southwestern Beirut in an Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and another attack hit an apartment in the capital, leaving it engulfed in flames. Following the attacks, the Israeli army said it had been targeting a member of Iran-linked Hezbollah.

Advertisement

More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, the Health Ministry has reported. and nearly 800,000 have been internally displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. The U.S. has lost at least seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.

In his Friday morning post, Trump said that "we are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise."

"They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them," Trump said. "What a great honor it is to do so!"

The U.S. military said American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.

France says a soldier was killed in Iraq

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. France earlier said six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State militants.

In the same region, British officials said several U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.

Italy said that a base where it has troops in Irbil was also hit Wednesday but that there were no injuries. The Italian contingent in the region trains local Kurdish troops at the request of the Iraqi government

Recovery efforts were underway in western Iraq on Friday after the American KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties, but the aircraft had five crew on board.

U.S. Central Command said the crash was not related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely.

The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the U.S. military's operations against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets weremistakenly downedby friendly Kuwaiti fire.

Rising reported from Bangkok and Abou AlJoud from Beirut, Lebanon

byAdministrator

in

22:34

Trump threatens Iran following new wave of attacks on Gulf states and Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran launched multiple attacks early Friday on Gulf Arab states, including dozens of d...

Read More