College Football
SEC is 1st conference to put four in AP top 5
The Southeastern Conference has reached a new milestone in The Associated Press college football poll, becoming the first league to place four teams in the top five – all from the western division.
Mississippi State stayed No. 1 after a weekend off. The Atlantic Coast Conference’s Florida State held its ground at No. 2 after beating then-No. 5 Notre Dame 31-27.
Mississippi remained No. 3. Alabama jumped three spots to No. 4 after a 59-0 victory against Texas A&M. Auburn moved up a spot to No. 5 during a bye week, taking advantage of losses by previously unbeaten Notre Dame and Baylor.
Thirty times since 2001 a conference has placed three teams in the top five of the AP Top 25. The SEC had done it 16 times since 2009.
Golf
Lengthy eagle putt gives Martin first Tour win
LAS VEGAS – Ben Martin made a 45-foot eagle putt on the 16th hole that sent him to his first PGA Tour victory Sunday in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
Martin was one shot behind Kevin Streelman when his eagle put him back in the lead. He closed with a birdie for a 3-under 68 and a two-shot victory at the TPC Summerlin. The 27-year-old from South Carolina won in his 56th career start.
ASH, England – Finland’s Mikko Ilonen beat top-seeded Henrik Stenson of Sweden 3 and 1 on Sunday to win the World Match Play Championship.
Ilonen also won the Irish Open this year and has five European Tour titles.
In the morning semifinals, Mikko Ilonen beat Dutchman Joost Luiten 2 and 1, and Stenson topped South Africa’s George Coetzee 1 up.
INCHEON, South Korea – Kyu Jung Baek won the LPGA KEB-HanaBank Championship in her first tour start, beating fellow South Korean player In Gee Chun and American Brittany Lincicome with a 4-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff.
CONOVER, N.C. – Jay Haas became the 18th player to win a Champions Tour at 60 or older, closing with a 5-under 66 on Sunday for a two-stroke victory in the Greater Hickory Kia Classic.
NBA
Shortened game doesn’t affect the final score
NEW YORK – The Boston Celtics beat the Brookyln Nets 95-90 on Sunday in an experimental 44-minute game.
The idea of a shortened game arose during the NBA coaches’ offseason meeting as a way to analyze and compare the flow of the game with that of the league-standard 48 minutes.
While an average game takes 2 hours, 15 minutes, the game Saturday took 1 hour, 58 minutes. Instead of the customary 12-minute quarters, Sunday’s game featured four 11-minute periods along with a reduction of mandatory timeouts from three to two during the second and fourth quarters.
The opening quarter has played in 19 minutes, the second in 29 minutes, and the third and fourth in 25 minutes each.
SkIing
Ski champ Svindal injured while playing soccer
VIENNA – Two-time overall World Cup champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway likely is out for the entire ski season after tearing his Achilles tendon while playing soccer.
Svindal, the defending downhill world champion, sustained the injury Saturday – eight days before the men’s World Cup season starts with a giant slalom on the Rettenbach glacier in nearby Soelden. The season also includes the world championships Beaver Creek and Vail in February.
Svindal clinched the overall title in 2006 and 2009, and won Olympic gold in super-G and silver in downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Associated Press
