College Football
STANFORD, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey is done playing college football.
The star running back announced Monday he will not play in the Sun Bowl for No. 16 Stanford on Dec. 30 when the Cardinal (9-3) face North Carolina (8-4) in El Paso, Texas.
McCaffrey is the second prominent player to make such a decision. LSU running back Leonard Fournette has said he will not play in the Citrus Bowl to focus on the draft.
McCaffrey said last month he would be skipping his senior season. He was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2015 as a sophomore when he set the NCAA record for all-purpose yards in a season.
This season, McCaffrey had at least 135 yards rushing in his final five games and finished the season with 1,603 yards on the ground and 13 touchdowns.
NBA
DENVER — Nikola Jokic had 27 points and 14 rebounds, Gary Harris scored a career-high 24 points and the Denver Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks 117-107.
Jokic finished an assist shy of his first career triple-double and tied his career high in points to help the Nuggets win their third straight game.
Denver’s offensive surge started after its 20-point loss in Dallas on Dec. 12. Coach Michael Malone shook up his starting lineup and the Nuggets have responded by scoring 30 or more points in eight of the last 12 quarters and are averaging 125.3 points since the change.
NHL
RALEIGH, N.C. — A scheduled game between the Carolina Hurricanes and Detroit Red Wings has been postponed because of unplayable ice.
A Freon leak in the cooling system at PNC Arena was discovered earlier Monday. The issue was fixed, but not in time to restart the game. NHL rules say a game cannot start less than 22 hours before a team’s next scheduled game, and the Red Wings are set to play at Tampa Bay at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Skiing
LA VILLA, Italy — French skier Cyprien Sarrazin was the surprise winner of a parallel giant slalom race on Monday as overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher was eliminated in the first round for the second consecutive year in Alta Badia.
Competing in just the seventh World Cup race of his career, Sarrazin edged former champion Carlo Janka of Switzerland by 0.10 seconds in the single-run final of the night event.
VAL D’ISERE, France — A group of American skiers are taking it all off in an effort to raise some money.
Five female and six male ski racers have joined together to pose in a nude calendar they hope will help them overcome high costs — and scarce funding — on the professional ski tour.
Called “Under the Suit: The Bodies of the Ski Team,” the calendar features the skiers in naked action shots: Either on the slopes or mountain biking in Chile and New Zealand, or pumping iron at their local gym in Park City, Utah.
Skiers below “A’’ team level pay their own travel costs, ranging from $15,000 to $35,000 each season. The original idea for calendar came from Brennan Rubie, who is racing at “C’’ team level.
Athletes should get up to $4,000 each from sales, which Rubie says is “a big chunk of money that can really take some stress off.”
Associated Press
