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PASADENA, Calif. — Ty Dieffenbach came back from a shoulder injury and threw the go-ahead touchdown, and No. 4 UCLA beat Illinois 22-14 at a rain-soaked Rose Bowl on Friday night to move to 10-0 for the first time since 1998.

UCLA led 10-0 at halftime, and Illinois cut it to 12-7 late in the third quarter. Dieffenbach came back with 55 seconds left in the third and led a seven-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass to Semaj Morgan for a 19-7 lead. Mateen Bhaghani’s 37-yard field goal with 1:56 left made it 22-14, and Illinois’ last pass fell incomplete with 43 seconds left.

The Bruins struck fast. On just the fifth play of the game, Dieffenbach hit Aidan Mizell on a 54-yard touchdown strike down the sideline with 12:37 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead. Bhaghani’s 20-yard field goal just before halftime made it 10-0. Dieffenbach was hurt shortly before halftime, landing on his left shoulder and needing help to leave the field, and Nico Iamaleava filled in while he was out.

Chesney said Dieffenbach was out of his gear at halftime while the staff made sure he was ready to go. “At halftime his shoes are off and he’s no shoulder pads on like you gotta get your shoes back,” Chesney said.

UCLA stretched it to 12-0 on a safety in the third quarter, when Katin Houser was sacked in the end zone at 8:21. Illinois answered at 1:08 of the third, when Houser passed to Kaden Feagin for an 18-yard touchdown to make it 12-7. Houser found Collin Dixon for a 7-yard touchdown on fourth and goal with 7:14 left in the fourth to cut it to 19-14, and Bhaghani’s 37-yarder sealed it.

Chesney said the fourth quarter was not pretty, with a whole drive of mistakes, but the team did not waver. “They just don’t give up they just don’t they believe they just believe that they have a shot to win every game,” Chesney said.

Mizell set career highs with six catches for 176 yards, and his 54-yard touchdown was his third straight reception to go for a score. Dieffenbach finished 13 of 20 for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and Morgan added four catches for 56 yards. Houser was 16 of 34 for 176 yards and two touchdowns, and the Bruins picked him off three times. UCLA outgained Illinois 361 yards to 240.

Chesney said that is what this team is built on. “On the bad teams you get nervous and you don’t want the ball to come your way, and then with the good teams you’re excited when they call your number,” Chesney said.

UCLA is 10-0 and 7-0 in the Big Ten, ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, with its first 10-0 start since 1998 and only the third in program history. The other two were 1946, under Coach Bert LaBrucherie and quarterback Ernie Cade, and 1998, under Coach Bob Toledo and quarterback Cade McNown. Illinois is 6-4 and 4-3 in the Big Ten.

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WASHINGTON — There is no sign so far that a cyber attack caused the nationwide FAA ground stop Friday, the White House said, blaming an overloaded analog telecom system that left radar and communications unstable in air traffic centers across the country.

The message came from two of President Trump’s cabinet secretaries at a White House briefing. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin opened by saying there is no connection to Microsoft and, so far, no sign of a cyber attack. “There is actually no cyber attack,” Mullin said, adding the public was never in danger. Mullin also said FEMA activated its centers so passengers who need medication can get it, and the airports have a direct number to reach out for help.

Then Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy walked through what happened. The trouble started at 3:36 p.m., he said, when radar and communications became unstable in the centers and TRACONs across the country. The FAA issued a ground stop with more than 3,500 airplanes in the air; by the time Duffy spoke, fewer than 400 remained in the airspace as they landed safely.

Even with the airspace shut down, Duffy said, medevac flights, cargo carrying critical medicines and law enforcement movements were still allowed to fly.

From there Duffy turned to why it happened. The air traffic control system runs on TDM analog telecom, he said, and its switches and routers got overloaded with data and started giving inconsistent readings. “Our new IP switches did not go down. It’s the old hardware that went down,” Duffy said.

That left Duffy making the case for money. Past administrations gave the FAA 15 billion dollars over 25 years to fix the system, he said, and “barely anything was done.” President Trump asked for 12 and a half billion dollars in the “one big beautiful bill” as a down payment, and Duffy said the president has asked Congress for 30 billion dollars to finish building a brand new system. “It’s not red it’s not blue it’s not Democrat it’s not Republican it’s American,” Duffy said, asking Congress to fund it.

Duffy also pointed to the outages in Newark a year and a half ago as the same problem, and said many of the towers are almost 100 years old, with leaky roofs, air conditioning that doesn’t work and elevators that don’t work.

The ground stop was lifted Friday evening. But the damage was already done. By early Friday evening, more than 1,900 flights had been canceled and over 10,000 delayed,  according to FlightAware, and in all more than 15,000 flights were delayed or canceled, leaving about 1.5 million passengers stranded.

 

The connecting hubs got hit hardest. At Chicago, Denver, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth, passengers missed their connections and slept in concourses, with rebookings stretching into late Saturday and Sunday. In Atlanta, some travelers were told they might not rebook for a day or more.

Hotels filled up fast. At Detroit Metro, the Skyline Hotel lobby was packed with at least 50 people in line at 8:30 p.m., the Detroit Free Press reported, and the Wyndham Garden had a line too. Around Atlanta, rooms filled quickly and prices went up. Some travelers got cots or thin blankets in gate areas instead of hotel rooms, and airlines generally aren’t required to pay for hotels when the disruption comes from air traffic control. Change fees were waived — Delta issued a systemwide waiver and United a “Nationwide ATC Outage Travel Waiver” for Nov. 13 and 14.

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LAS VEGAS — Roman Josi scored the deciding shootout goal, and the Vegas Golden Knights (13-5-3) fell 3-2 to the Nashville Predators (11-4-5) on Friday night.

Ryan O’Reilly scored twice for Nashville, opening the scoring at 7:56 of the first period on assists from Steven Stamkos and Mavrik Bourque. Victor Olofsson tied it at 11:19 on assists from Ivan Barbashev and Tomas Hertl, his sixth goal of the season.

Filip Forsberg also scored for Nashville in the shootout, and Trevor Connelly scored for Vegas. Juuse Saros made 40 saves for the Predators, and Adin Hill made 30 saves for the Golden Knights.

Rasmus Andersson put Vegas ahead 2-1 at 10:48 of the second period on assists from Mitch Marner and Parker Wotherspoon, and the Golden Knights led 2-1 after two periods.

O’Reilly scored twice, and his second goal tied the game at 9:44 of the third on assists from Adam Wilsby and Josi.

Overtime was scoreless, and the shootout decided it. Braeden Bowman missed for Vegas, Connelly scored, Hill stopped O’Reilly, and Saros stopped Marner. Forsberg scored for Nashville, and Josi scored the decider.

The Golden Knights outshot the Predators 42-32 and won 51 percent of the faceoffs, 34-33. Both teams went scoreless on the power play — Vegas 0-for-1, Nashville 0-for-2. The Golden Knights blocked 20 shots to the Predators’ nine, and outhit them 20-18. Penalty minutes were six for Vegas, four for Nashville.

Noah Hanifin did not play for Vegas.

The Golden Knights are 13-5-3. The Predators are 11-4-5.

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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Darius Garland’s driving layup and free throw with 50 seconds left gave the Los Angeles Clippers (3-8) the lead, and they edged the Oklahoma City Thunder (8-5) 113-112 on Friday night at Intuit Dome.

Garland had 24 points and seven assists, and Brook Lopez scored 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting with seven rebounds. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed a step-back 21-footer with 2.0 seconds left, and the Clippers held on for a critical win over an NBA threat in Oklahoma City.

The Clippers took control early, outscoring the Thunder 33-27 in the first quarter and 24-17 in the second for a 57-44 halftime lead. Lopez anchored the early offense, and Garland ran the point.

Oklahoma City roared back in the third quarter with a 40-25 surge to take an 84-82 lead, behind Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-high 40 points on 15-of-26 shooting. Isaiah Hartenstein added 21 points and 16 rebounds, and Jared McCain scored 23, hitting 7-of-11 from three.

The fourth quarter came down to the last minute. The Clippers were down as much as six points, 112-106, and they scored seven consecutive points to win the game. Lopez hit two layups to make it 112-110, and then Garland drove for the layup off Lopez’s feed to tie it 112-112 with 50 seconds left, and hit the free throw to complete the three-point play and put the Clippers ahead 113-112.

Derrick Jones Jr. missed a three-pointer, and Oklahoma City got the rebound and had a chance, but Gilgeous-Alexander’s step-back 21-footer with 2.0 seconds left missed, and the Clippers held on.

13. Wagler scored 14 points off the bench and G. Dick added 13.

The Clippers shot 16-of-41 from three, 39.0 percent, to the Thunder’s 11-of-35, 31.4 percent, and 17-of-21 from the line, 81.0 percent, to Oklahoma City’s 13-of-19, 68.4 percent. The Thunder shot 46.8 percent from the field to the Clippers’ 45.5 percent, and outrebounded them 45-40. The Clippers had 28 assists to the Thunder’s 27, seven blocks to four, and turned it over 11 times to Oklahoma City’s 12.

The Clippers are 3-8. The Thunder are 8-5.

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SAN ANTONIO — The Golden State Warriors (8-5) fell behind 18-0 and never recovered, losing 123-85 to the San Antonio Spurs (11-2) on Friday night in the Emirates NBA Cup: West Group C.

The Warriors played without Stephen Curry, out with an oblique injury — the team says at least two weeks — and they had nothing without him. They didn’t score until five minutes into the game, and by then the Spurs were up 18-0. The Warriors lost the first quarter 38-14 and trailed 63-33 at halftime. Cryer led the Warriors with 20 points off the bench, hitting 6-of-11 from three, but the Warriors shot just 33.3 percent from the field, 31-of-93, and their starters managed 30 points combined. Yaxel Lendeborg went 1-of-13 from the field for three points. De’Anthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski had eight points each, Will Richard had seven, Draymond Green four.

The Spurs shot 48.4 percent, 46-of-95, and outrebounded the Warriors 60-43, including 15 offensive rebounds to 10. They had 34 assists to the Warriors’ 23, seven steals to four, seven blocks to five, and turned it over just nine times to the Warriors’ 13.

Stephon Castle scored 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting, including 5-of-8 from three, with six assists and five rebounds for the Spurs. Victor Wembanyama added 12 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Keldon Johnson had 18 points off the bench, and Dylan Harper had nine points and four assists.

The Spurs pushed the lead to 67-39 in the third quarter on Castle’s dunk off Harper’s feed, and the Warriors never got closer than 24 the rest of the way.

The Warriors are 8-5. The Spurs are 11-2.

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TEMPE — Paulius Murauskas trusts Randy Bennett. That’s why he transferred, and that’s why he’s gotten better every single year.

“It’s pretty special, that’s why I transferred, because I trust the coach,” Murauskas said Friday night after the Arizona State Sun Devils beat the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks 92-62 at Desert Financial Arena. “I got better, like I said before, multiple times, every single year, and I think I will get better this year as the season goes on. I just really trust coach. I think he’s really great at making the guys better.”

Murauskas had his second straight double-double — 31 points and 13 rebounds, two points shy of his career high — his fourth 20-point game in four games as a Sun Devil.

Bennett said Murauskas has grown into a good leader, and leadership is where he’s gotten better most.

“He really wants to be good, he really wants his team to be good,” Bennett said. “Everybody asked me, where’s he gotten better? That’s by far number one.  He’s gotten better in other areas, he’s gotten stronger, he’s just really has grown up into a good leader, as far as basketball player, dad, husband.”

Joel Foxwell had 16 points and nine assists, and he did the easy work — getting the ball to the fellas, and they did the hard job of putting it in the rim.

“I think it’s just more about settling into the game,” Foxwell said. “I’m trying to get guys the best shots possible. Once you get into the flow of things and you start figuring out their defense as well, it becomes much easier to get the guys in their spots where they like it.”

The Sun Devils had to settle in. Louisiana-Monroe came out in an aggressive zone, and ASU hadn’t seen a lot of zone so far this year.

“We knew they were going to switch it up,” Foxwell said. “We didn’t know they were going to come out in zone straight away, and it was a pretty aggressive zone. It’s just all about getting settled from the jump, not rushing anything. We had really good looks, so we were really happy with how we were playing in that first five minutes, we just weren’t making shots, and we knew that was going to come. We’re a really good three-point shooting team.”

ASU crashed the offensive boards — 17 of them — and got open layups and easy points early.

Bennett said the defense started to gel, and rebounding, defending, taking care of the ball and being efficient offensively are the big deals.

“Yeah, important,” Bennett said. “That’s one of our big deals — rebounding, defending, taking care of the ball, and being efficient offensively. And we weren’t happy about it slipping.”

The Sun Devils were stunned at the beginning by the changing defenses, Bennett said, but they got it fixed pretty quick and took over on the boards.

“We pounded on the boards and, yeah, eventually kind of wore them down,” Bennett said. “We did what we were supposed to do in the game.”

Bennett also acknowledged what Louisiana-Monroe was up against. The Warhawks played TCU to double overtime on Tuesday, and they were missing arguably their best player — guard Quaran McPherson, who averages 16.8 points and scored 14 against TCU, but didn’t play Friday night.

A big key was keeping Louisiana-Monroe off the three, which ASU has not been doing a great job of. The Sun Devils did a pretty good job of it Friday night.

Foxwell also talked about the bench — Jared and Bryce, both coming off injuries, bringing confidence every day in practice.

“If you pass the ball, it’s most likely going to go in, and if not, they’re going to make the next one,” Foxwell said. “It’s just really good to play with guys like that, who are flat-out scorers who can really, really help the team win.”

“It’s more fun when you see teams break,” Foxwell said. “Even on the floor, when your guys are all happy and we’re all up in it, it’s more enjoyable that way — more enjoyable when you win games.”

The Sun Devils are 4-0, and they host Oakland on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m.

 

 

GLENDALE — Trey McBride is a captain now. Mike LaFleur, the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive coordinator, told the team on Wednesday, and McBride earned it.

“He’s a stud and he deserves that captain,” LaFleur said Friday. “What he does for this locker room and behind the scenes, you know, he’s a stud.”

LaFleur said McBride was very close from a vote standpoint back in August, when the Cardinals did it in early September. With Jacoby Brissett no longer here, the time was right.

“I told him he was very close from a vote standpoint,” LaFleur said. “It just felt right, you know. Trey deserves this, and the guys look up to him because of one, the way he acts, but two, the way he plays.”

Every single day, McBride puts in the work, and the guys see it. The way he plays on Sunday is how he practices, too.

“He practices the right way, he practices like he wants to be the best in the world,” LaFleur said. “The second thing that is awesome about any leader, but any person in general, he is himself. He’s not trying to be anyone that he’s not, and he just loves this game, he loves that locker room, and he loves doing what he can do for this organization.”

Carson Beck starts Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, and LaFleur said the rookie stays even. Watching his tape from Georgia and Miami, Beck doesn’t get too high or too low, in the meeting room or out there, and he doesn’t make it any harder than it needs to be in the film room.

“Sometimes us as coaches, we can start to overcomplicate,” LaFleur said. “He’s a very easy guy to work with.”

The Cardinals have continuity to lean on. Beck and the receivers have worked together a lot over the last few weeks, showing the defense the opposing offenses, so they’ve had good work together with the Cardinals’ own plays. The challenge is communication — making the call, making sure everyone’s on the same page, sometimes non-verbally, back to the quarterback and running back, just to make sure nobody gets cut loose.

On injuries, LaFleur said Fro will be out, and John Gaines will be out. Bam Knight has no designation — something just popped up from practice, and the Cardinals will know more today, tomorrow and Sunday.

Game planning, LaFleur said, comes down to three things: stick to your foundations, stick to what your guys can do, and does it make sense against the defense you’re going against. There’s a fine line, he said, because some of these guys haven’t played a lot of football on Sundays yet.

“We don’t want to outsmart ourselves or out-trick ourselves,” LaFleur said. “There’s a delicate balance, and that’s part of our job, is to figure that out.”

What LaFleur is excited about is the growth — to see these guys grow as they go, the incredible learning experiences, and take it from there. The Cardinals didn’t use a wristband during training camp on purpose, to challenge the quarterbacks, and Beck was really good with it through OTAs, July and August. It won’t be a full change just yet, but as he gets more comfortable, they’ll wean themselves out of it.

© Old Town News Scottsdale — oldtownnews.us

 

AUBURN, Ala. — The Arizona Wildcats (3-1) beat the Auburn Tigers (2-1) 80-69 Friday night at Neville Arena, the Wildcats’ first road win over an SEC opponent in 12 years, snapping one of the longest non-conference home winning streaks in the country.

The game got close. Auburn cut it to 70-65 with 3:46 left, before Arizona pulled away to win by 11.

Caleb Holt led the Wildcats with 24 points, nine rebounds and five steals, going 4-of-6 from three-point range. Ivan Kharchenkov added 19 points and eight rebounds, and Motiejus Krivas had 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.

Arizona led 36-32 at halftime. Auburn cut it to 33-30 on a Tahaad Pettiford three-pointer with 1:01 left in the half, but Holt answered with a 24-foot three at :46 to make it 36-30, and Kolby King scored the last basket of the half for 36-32.

In the second half, Kharchenkov’s 26-foot three-pointer with 5:22 left made it 68-61. Adam Olsen answered with a three to cut it to 68-64, and Kharchenkov’s layup made it 70-64. Thomas Dowd’s free throw cut it to 70-65 with 3:46 left, and that was as close as Auburn got. JJ Mandaquit hit two free throws, George Kimble III answered with two of his own, then Kharchenkov’s jumper made it 76-67, Krivas hit two free throws for 78-67, and Bukky Oboye’s alley-oop dunk made it 78-69 before Arizona closed it out.

Arizona shot 44.4 percent from the field to Auburn’s 34.8 percent, 42.9 percent from three to 35.5 percent, and 81.8 percent from the line to 60.0 percent, and won the rebounding 40-32 — even though Auburn blocked 13 shots to Arizona’s three, and had more assists, 13-8, and more steals, 12-9.

Derek Dixon scored 11 for Arizona, and Mandaquit added six, all from the line. Thomas Dowd led Auburn with 15 points and nine rebounds, Pettiford had nine points and three assists, and Olsen scored 12 off the bench. Narcisse Ngoy had one point, eight rebounds and six blocks for the Tigers.

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TEMPE — The Arizona State Sun Devils (4-0) beat the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (1-4) 92-62 Friday night at Desert Financial Arena, with Paulius Murauskas scoring 31 points and pulling down 13 rebounds.

The Warhawks jumped out 5-0 before the Sun Devils scored, on a Ziyade Ndancky three-pointer and a Phillip Tillman layup. ASU came back, and at 13:50 of the first half, Murauskas laid it in off a Ben Defty pass to put the Sun Devils ahead 10-9. After that, it was all ASU.

Murauskas made the first lead stand up. He went 11-of-20 from the field, hit three threes and went 6-of-8 from the line for his 31 points, with 13 rebounds — the biggest night of the game on either side. Joel Foxwell added 16 points and nine assists, and Dillan Shaw had 12 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

ASU shot 45.3 percent from the field and hit 15 three-pointers, to 33.9 percent and six threes for Louisiana-Monroe. The Sun Devils had 23 assists to the Warhawks’ five, won the rebounding 45-32, and turned it over just seven times to Louisiana-Monroe’s 13. ASU blocked five shots; the Warhawks blocked none.

JRob Croy scored eight for ASU, Defty seven, and Bryce Ford eight off the bench. Ajak Nyuon hit both of his threes for six points, and Nate Garcia added four.

Dayjaun Anderson led Louisiana-Monroe with 17 points and eight rebounds. Ndancky scored 13, Tillman 12, and K. London 12 off the bench.  

PHOENIX — The Grand Canyon Lopes (3-0) beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs (2-2) 82-62 Friday night at Global Credit Union Arena, the first win in program history for the Lopes over the Bulldogs, hitting 17 three-pointers and riding a 35-7 run to turn a game that was close after one quarter into a rout.

The first quarter was the last time it was competitive. The Lopes led just 19-18 after one, then went on a 35-7 run, outscoring the Bulldogs 26-7 in the second quarter and 23-7 in the third, and led 45-25 at halftime on the way to a lead as big as 36.

Maya Foz led the Lopes with 19 points, going 7-of-8 from the field and hitting five triples. Foz kept GCU afloat in a first quarter when the Lopes were a little disjointed, and four Lopes finished in double figures — Foz with 19, Chloe Mann with 14, Y. Schmidt with 12 and Ines Zounia with 10.

GCU shot 47 percent from the field and 17-of-32 from three-point range, 53 percent, while Gonzaga shot 36 percent and just 5-of-23 from three. The Lopes forced 22 turnovers and scored 22 points off them. Gonzaga won the rebounding 40-34, but it was not enough against the Lopes’ shooting.  

Gonzaga played without sophomore forward Jaiden Haile, who never played in the game. Haile has been sidelined with an overuse injury to her left foot.

Lauren Whittaker led Gonzaga with 16 points and eight rebounds. Teryn Gardner added 10.

GCU head coach Winston Gandy, speaking to Kelly Burke on CW Sports after the game, said the urgency was there from the opening tip. “I thought they did a great job from the tip,” Gandy said. “I thought we set the tone early.” Gandy said putting four quarters together was one of the things the Lopes wanted, and they did it Friday night, with different people stepping up and some players off the bench having welcome-to-college moments.

Gandy credited the team’s unselfishness for the shooting night. “I think the unselfishness,” Gandy said. “We recognize we have multiple people that can go off on any night… the willingness to share the ball, the willingness to play the game the right way.”

On Foz, Gandy said she makes everybody’s job easier, because the Lopes have five people who can score pretty much all the time. “She really kept us afloat in that first quarter,” Gandy said. “When you see the way she works, her work ethic… it’s hard not to really be too surprised when they have nights like this.”

Foz, speaking to Kelly Burke after the game, said she was not thinking about her own numbers. “I didn’t really think about it too much, I was just trying to win the game,” Foz said. “We started off a little slow but we picked it up.”

Foz said the Lopes knew it would not be easy after beating Oregon on Monday. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, so we have to come out and throw the first punch,” Foz said. “No team is just going to come in here and just let us win, so we had to fight for it.”

The win validates Monday’s 81-74 win over Oregon, and Gandy said the Lopes now turn the page to Santa Clara, another tournament-level team. “It’s important for us to validate Monday’s win with this one,” Gandy said. “After tonight we’re turning the page to Santa Clara, another tournament level team that we’re going to have to give our full attention to.”

GCU plays at Santa Clara on Thursday, with SMU also coming up.

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