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Los Angeles, Calif. — The Los Angeles Lakers (5-2) built a 22-point lead and nearly gave all of it back Luka Doncic made sure they didn’t, finishing with 45 points in a 131-125 win over the Toronto Raptors (3-3) on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Doncic set the game up in the first quarter — 16 points, four steals and a block while the Lakers ran out to a 36-23 lead, Toronto unable to keep the ball or stay in front of him. He had 24 points and a career-high five steals by halftime, with the Lakers up 66-54. The third quarter broke it open: Los Angeles won the period by 10, Doncic hit from everywhere, and the lead reached 104-82 going into the fourth.

Toronto scored 43 points in that fourth quarter. Scottie Barnes, who finished with 29, and RJ Barrett, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds, dragged the Raptors back within single digits while the Lakers, on the first night of a back-to-back, tried to coast home. Big baskets from Austin Reaves — 19 points on the night — and Doncic in the closing minutes restored order. Doncic’s 45 came with 15 rebounds, six assists and eight 3-pointers, his fourth straight game of at least 35 points.

The Lakers host the Miami Heat on Monday night. The Raptors play at the Clippers on Monday.

S. Barnes PF 4

29 PTS, 6 REB, 5 AST

L. Doncic PG 77

45 PTS, 15 REB, 6 AST

Raptors

STARTERS	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
S. Barnes	29	6	5	11/20	0/3	7/13	3	36	2	0	5	-9	42
R. Barrett	22	10	5	9/18	4/9	0/0	4	32	0	0	3	+9	39
I. Quickley	12	6	7	3/13	3/11	3/3	1	33	1	0	1	+8	32
J. Walter	11	4	2	4/12	3/9	0/0	3	32	1	1	1	-10	20
T. Jackson-Davis	5	5	0	2/3	0/0	1/1	0	9	2	0	0	-7	12

BENCH	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
J. Battle	20	5	0	7/14	4/10	2/2	2	16	0	0	1	-4	24
J. Shead	9	2	6	3/6	2/4	1/1	4	25	3	0	2	-27	24
A. Martin	5	2	4	2/4	1/3	0/0	2	16	0	0	0	+10	15
C. Murray-Boyles	4	3	1	1/6	0/2	2/2	3	20	3	0	1	-14	11
J. Bradley	3	1	2	1/2	0/0	1/1	1	4	1	0	0	+9	9
A. Graves	3	0	0	1/5	0/3	1/2	2	9	1	0	0	-4	4
K. Anderson	2	3	3	1/2	0/0	0/0	1	4	0	0	1	+9	10
J. Poeltl	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
M. Smith	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	125	47	35	45/105	17/54	18/25	26	236	14	1	15	-30	–

1 2 3 4 T Raptors 3-3 23 31 28 43 125 Lakers 5-2 36 30 38 27 131

Crypto.com Arena Los Angeles, CA

Lakers

STARTERS	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
L. Doncic	45	15	6	12/23	8/12	13/13	5	35	5	1	7	+27	71
A. Reaves	19	3	4	6/16	2/7	5/6	2	38	0	0	3	+14	27
W. Kessler	16	15	1	6/6	0/0	4/4	3	31	1	3	2	+11	35
J. LaRavia	8	2	4	3/6	2/3	0/0	3	25	1	1	2	+6	18
M. Thybulle	6	2	3	2/6	2/4	0/0	1	25	2	2	1	+10	17

BENCH	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
C. Sexton	14	3	3	6/10	1/3	1/2	2	19	1	0	1	-9	23
S. Mamukelashvili	11	1	1	4/7	2/5	1/1	0	23	0	0	0	+7	14
Q. Grimes	7	1	3	2/4	1/3	2/4	1	25	0	0	4	+5	10
J. Vanderbilt	4	3	1	2/2	0/0	0/0	3	12	1	0	1	-12	9
J. Hardy	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	1/2	1	1	0	0	0	-9	1
C. Carr	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0	0	0	-9	0
B. James	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0	0	1	-11	-1
K. Looney	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C. Manon	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
L. Lovering	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
A. Kaluma	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	131	45	26	43/80	18/37	27/32	21	236	11	7	22	+30	–

San Francisco, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors (4-3) rested Stephen Curry and Draymond Green on Sunday night and won their fourth straight anyway, because a rookie had the biggest scoring night by a Warriors first-year player in 16 years. Yaxel Lendeborg scored 37 points in a 124-112 win over the Los Angeles Clippers (1-5) at Chase Center — the most by a Golden State rookie since Curry himself scored 42 in 2010.

The Clippers started like the rested team. They led by as many as 11 in the first quarter, closing the period on a 10-0 burst built on 3-pointers from Kobe Sanders and Brook Lopez to go up 37-26, and took the quarter 37-29. Golden State flipped it in the second — an 11-2 run to open the period put the Warriors in front, Lendeborg scored 14 of his 19 first-half points in the quarter, and the Warriors led 63-57 at halftime.

Lendeborg pushed the lead out himself in the third. He scored five straight midway through the quarter, and his 3-pointer with 5:20 left made it 83-68, the Warriors’ biggest lead to that point. The Clippers, who got 24 points from Rui Hachimura and 16 off the bench from Sanders, kept it within reach into the fourth, but Lendeborg’s fifth 3-pointer with 8:29 to go restored a double-digit lead Golden State held the rest of the way. He finished with six 3-pointers and six assists two nights after fouling out against the Lakers in the worst game of his young career.

De’Anthony Melton added 21 points for Golden State, and Brandin Podziemski and Brandon Williams scored 17 apiece. The Clippers have lost five straight.

The Warriors host the Phoenix Suns on Monday night, with Curry and Green expected back. The Clippers host the Toronto Raptors on Monday.  

For stats information, go to www.cbssports.com.

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© Old Town News Scottsdale — oldtownnews.us

R. Hachimura PF 28

24 PTS, 7 REB

Y. Lendeborg PF 1

37 PTS, 4 REB, 6 AST

Clippers

STARTERS	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
R. Hachimura	24	7	0	10/16	4/7	0/0	0	30	0	0	2	-28	29
D. Garland	15	0	7	4/12	1/7	6/6	1	32	1	0	3	-17	27
K. Dunn	12	2	4	5/8	0/3	2/2	2	26	7	0	0	-8	29
D. Jones Jr.	9	7	1	3/11	1/5	2/2	2	27	0	0	2	-8	16
I. Jackson	5	8	2	2/7	0/0	1/2	4	21	0	0	1	-20	16

BENCH	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
K. Sanders	16	3	0	6/9	4/6	0/0	4	30	1	0	3	-18	17
N. Martinelli	10	3	0	4/5	2/3	0/0	0	6	0	0	0	+10	13
B. Lopez	7	2	0	3/8	1/2	0/0	3	19	2	0	2	+1	9
K. Wagler	7	4	4	2/8	0/4	3/3	1	19	0	0	1	-6	18
C. Christie	3	1	0	1/2	1/1	0/0	0	6	0	0	0	+10	4
B. Wesley	2	0	0	0/0	0/0	2/2	0	4	0	0	0	+7	2
B. Miller	2	2	1	0/1	0/0	2/2	0	6	0	0	0	+10	6
G. Dick	0	1	0	0/3	0/1	0/0	0	3	0	0	0	-3	1
J. Pickett	0	2	3	0/1	0/0	0/0	0	6	0	0	0	+10	8
B. Ingram	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Y. Konan Niederhauser	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	112	42	22	40/91	14/39	18/19	17	235	11	0	14	-60	–

1 2 3 4 T Clippers 1-5 37 20 28 27 112 Warriors 4-3 29 34 29 32 124

Chase Center San Francisco, CA

Warriors

STARTERS	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
Y. Lendeborg	37	4	6	13/19	6/11	5/6	1	33	1	0	2	+6	52
D. Melton	21	6	3	6/9	6/8	3/4	2	27	2	1	4	+20	32
B. Podziemski	17	8	8	7/14	2/7	1/1	3	37	0	0	1	+11	40
C. Bassey	6	10	2	3/6	0/0	0/0	2	19	1	1	0	+5	22
G. Niang	3	1	2	1/7	1/5	0/0	3	21	0	0	2	0	6

BENCH	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	FPTS
B. Williams	17	3	3	7/11	2/3	1/2	0	24	0	1	1	+15	26
A. Horford	9	5	2	3/7	3/7	0/1	2	22	0	1	3	+4	16
G. Payton II	5	2	2	2/4	1/3	0/0	2	14	1	0	1	+3	11
G. Santos	4	3	1	2/4	0/2	0/0	2	8	0	1	1	+8	9
W. Richard	3	0	3	1/3	1/3	0/0	1	21	0	0	0	-4	9
G. Ike	2	2	0	1/1	0/0	0/0	0	5	0	0	0	+3	4
L. Cryer	0	0	0	0/1	0/0	0/0	0	1	0	0	0	-11	0
M. Leons	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	124	44	32	46/86	22/49	10/14	18	232	5	5	15	+60	–

Anaheim, Calif. — The Anaheim Ducks (6-7-1) were down 3-0 after one period and scored the next six goals. Cutter Gauthier’s second career hat trick carried a 6-3 comeback win over the Ottawa Senators (9-6-1) on Sunday night at Honda Center, with the Ducks’ power play doing most of the damage.

Ottawa’s first period was clean. Philip Tomasino tipped in a Thomas Chabot shot for his first goal as a Senator, Claude Giroux snapped one in from the right circle at 7:02, and Michael Amadio finished a breakaway at 17:37, beating Laurent Brossoit glove side for 3-0.

The comeback started on an Ottawa mistake. Ninety seconds into the second period, Shane Pinto mishandled the puck in front of his own net and Gauthier put it away. Judd Caulfield cut it to 3-2 at 3:33, and Caulfield tied it on the power play at 19:18, tipping Tristan Luneau’s shot from high in the zone under Jonas Johansson’s stick. The Ducks scored four power-play goals on five chances on the night, and the last three goals of the game all came with the man advantage.

A 5-on-3 early in the third decided it. At 1:50, Gauthier slid a wrist shot under Johansson’s left pad from a sharp angle to put Anaheim ahead for the first time, and 36 seconds later, still on the power play, he scored again to complete the hat trick at 5-3. Rookie Roger McQueen finished it at 15:19, beating Johansson through the five-hole from the left circle.

Leo Carlsson had three assists for Anaheim. Brossoit made 20 saves in his Ducks debut; Johansson made 27 for Ottawa, which got no power-play goals in three chances. The win was just the Ducks’ second in their last nine games.

The Ducks play at Vancouver on Tuesday night.

For stats information, go to www.cbssports.com.

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© Old Town News Scottsdale — oldtownnews.us

Philadelphia, Pa. — The Utah Mammoth (9-6-0) had the better of the play Sunday and lost anyway. The Philadelphia Flyers (4-8-4) buried the chances Utah didn’t, built a 5-1 lead by the middle of the third period, and held off a late power-play rally for a 6-3 win at Xfinity Mobile Arena — a season-high six goals from six different scorers for a team that had lost three straight.

Matvei Michkov opened it at 12:49 of the first, collecting a puck that bounced off Noah Cates in front and beating Karel Vejmelka. Utah answered 1:35 later, when a lofted puck took a wild bounce right to Dmitri Simashev in the slot to tie it 1-1.

Travis Konecny, back in the lineup off injured reserve, put the Flyers ahead for good 1:06 into the second, backhanding a shot off Utah defenseman Artem Duda. Cates made it 3-1 later in the period. Christian Dvorak scored 1:02 into the third, and Oliver Bonk’s first career goal made it 5-1 before the period was six minutes old.

The chances said Utah was in this game — the Mammoth attempted more shots and created the better looks all afternoon. The finishing said otherwise. Vejmelka allowed five goals on 20 shots, while Dan Vladar stopped 19 of 22 at the other end, and every Philadelphia line got in on it. Jamie Drysdale finished with three assists.

Utah’s power play finally broke through late. Mikhail Sergachev scored on the man advantage at 16:00 of the third, and Logan Cooley added a second power-play goal 67 seconds later — both set up by Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller — to cut it to 5-3 with the game suddenly alive. Cole Knuble ended it with an empty-net goal at 18:26. 

For stats information, go to www.cbssports.com.

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© Old Town News Scottsdale — oldtownnews.us

Arlington, Texas — Mike LaFleur’s team lost players in every direction Sunday, changed quarterbacks in the third quarter, missed an extra point that would have won the game in regulation, and still walked out of AT&T Stadium with a 33-30 overtime win over the Dallas Cowboys (3-5). The Arizona Cardinals’ head coach used the same word for all of it afterward.

“I don’t know if there’s any words I can express about this team right now other than they’re resilient and they just keep fighting,” LaFleur said. “They’re always in the fight. That was a total team effort right there. Obviously we didn’t do enough on offense, and that was a collective — that was not just on one person.”

The injury list is the Cardinals’ problem now. LaFleur said he’ll know more Monday, but the roll call from Sunday ran long: a head/neck injury that ended one player’s day, Kendrick Bourne’s ankle — “KB’s certainly didn’t look good,” LaFleur said — tackle Jayden Williams’s knee, Reggie Virgil’s low back, running backs Jeremiyah Love and Bam Knight both out, and Michael Wilson playing the whole game in pain. “We ended with three receivers, one running back, a tackle going down, a quarterback change, all those kind of things,” LaFleur said. “I’ve never seen anything like it from an injury standpoint in the skill position in my life.”

He credited the defense for keeping Arizona in it while the offense sputtered, holding a Dallas offense he called very good to 3.6 yards per play. And he refused to let the comeback cover the first half. On benching Jacoby Brissett for Gardner Minshew II, LaFleur said, “I just thought we needed a spark. Again, it was a collective deal. I need to be better with our scheme, I need to be better with our play calling. I don’t want this last 30 minutes or 35 minutes to mask the stuff that we need to fix on offense, because I know we’re a lot better than that. We gotta figure out how to execute it for 60 straight minutes, not just turn it on for the last 30.”

LaFleur did not name a starting quarterback for next week. “I know what the story is going to be, and so does he,” he said of Brissett. “But that was collective, and it starts with me.”

The Cardinals (3-5) play at the Seattle Seahawks next week, with the injury updates due Monday.  

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Arlington, Texas — Gardner Minshew II had not taken a snap all season, had not taken a rep with the Arizona Cardinals’ starters since training camp, and entered Sunday’s game with his team down 17-3 in the third quarter and its starting quarterback benched. He finished it having thrown for 188 yards and three touchdowns in a 33-30 overtime win over the Dallas Cowboys (3-5), and afterward he kept reducing the whole afternoon to the same two words.

“You keep going, man,” Minshew said. “We got some rough goes at it here to start the year, and our guys just keep going. Guys are dropping, guys are playing through stuff, and it was awesome to see the heart of this team — to keep going, keep believing, and keep giving ourselves a chance.”

Asked if there is a secret to coming in cold as the backup and succeeding, he laughed it off. “I don’t know about that. If it was a secret, I probably wouldn’t tell you. You just come in, look your guys in the eye and tell them you’re going to give it all you got for them. We got guys that are willing to do that with you, and there’s nothing better.” 

Head coach Mike LaFleur, who made the switch from Jacoby Brissett because “we needed a spark,” said Minshew’s timing is what opened the offense up. “He did a good job, obviously extended a few plays, but I thought his timing was great,” LaFleur said. “He’s had a lot of success in this league, guys. He’s about as resilient as they come. If you ask Gardner Minshew, he’s ready at all times. The guys made some plays for him, and he was getting the ball out of his hands.”

The test came with six seconds left in regulation, when Minshew’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Michael Wilson tied the game — and Chad Ryland’s extra point to win it missed. “You just keep going,” Minshew said. “It’s not like that’s the first adversity we had on the day. It’s 30-30, got a chance to go play these boys in overtime — let’s freaking go. Sign me up. How quick can you reset? Forget what happened before, forget everything that’s happened to this point, just keep going, keep giving yourselves a chance. We had a group of fighters today.”

LaFleur has not said whether Minshew or Brissett starts next week at Seattle, and Minshew said nobody has told him anything. His plan for the wait was simpler. “Go enjoy the plane ride right now, that’ll be awesome. Enjoy going to see my wife and baby tonight. Then we’ll show up to work tomorrow and give it our best, regardless.”

The Cardinals (3-5) play at the Seattle Seahawks next week.

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Arlington, Texas — By the end of Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals (3-5) were almost out of players. Jeremiyah Love’s ankles didn’t hold up. Kendrick Bourne left with an ankle injury, tackle Jayden Williams with a knee, receiver Reggie Virgil with a low back, and running back Bam Knight was gone too. Head coach Mike LaFleur said it plainly afterward: his team finished the 33-30 overtime win over the Dallas Cowboys (3-5) with three receivers, one running back and a quarterback who hadn’t taken a snap all season. The two players who carried it were the receiver playing in pain and the last running back standing.

Michael Wilson caught eight passes for 111 yards — the biggest receiving day the Cardinals have had from anybody in weeks — and did it while playing through two broken ribs. The 111 yards weren’t empty ones. He caught the 13-yard touchdown from Gardner Minshew II with six seconds left in regulation that tied the game at 30, and in overtime his 17-yard run on third-and-1 kept the winning drive alive.

Wilson said the first half went badly for him — Gardner Minshew II gave him a chance on a slant and he didn’t make the play — and that all he could do from there was the next right thing. On the tying touchdown, Dallas went Tampa-2, and his job was simple.

“All I do is outrun the Mike linebacker, and then Gardner gave me a fantastic ball, high and away, get two feet down,” Wilson said. “Pain is temporary, glory is forever, so I’ll take the rib pain for a win for the Arizona Cardinals.”

Minshew knew what he had in him. “Making huge plays — when we needed it, he was our guy, just absolutely playing through it,” Minshew said. “He’s so tough. Especially for a guy from Stanford, he’s so tough, I tell him that. I was fortunate to have a lot of reps this offseason with him, knowing how he fights for the ball, knowing how he can win at the top of routes, knowing he’s going to be in the right place. You feel good every time you have a one-on-one to him.”

LaFleur said the same thing from the coach’s side: “He’s a stud. He’s everything you want. If you guys knew how much pain that Mike was in, and to go out there and do what he did and just continue to battle and have that big run on the third-and-one, proud of him.”

Tyler Allgeier was the one running back left. Knight went down, Love went down, and Allgeier ran 11 times for a career-high 147 yards — better than 13 yards a carry, which is why Dallas’s defense never got to sit on anything. His 63-yard touchdown run came two plays after Minshew entered the game and turned 17-3 into a game again, and his 5-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter cut it to 24-17. He added five catches for 44 yards on top of the rushing.

Allgeier’s word for it afterward was readiness. “I don’t think anyone was thinking this,” he said. “For me, it’s always stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. Seeing Bam go down with that nasty hit and J Love go down, I felt like my second touchdown, they were behind me just  pushing me in the end zone. Being able to really just play for them, that was my biggest thing.”

On the 63-yarder, he pointed at the blocking first: Reggie, he said, knocked his man down twice on the play. “We need to get that on the highlights for sure.”

The Cardinals were down to almost nobody by the end. Wilson and Allgeier are why almost nobody was enough.

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Arlington, Texas — The Arizona Cardinals (3-5) were down to their backup quarterback, down 14 points, and dead for most of Sunday afternoon. They beat the Dallas Cowboys (3-5) 33-30 in overtime at AT&T Stadium anyway, on a 42-yard field goal by Chad Ryland — the same kicker whose missed extra point with six seconds left in regulation had nearly buried the whole comeback.

Dallas built the lead in pieces. A fumble in the first quarter — Javonte Williams lost the ball under pressure from Budda Baker — was recovered in the end zone by the Cowboys’ J. Mitchell for a 7-0 lead. Dak Prescott hit Ryan Flournoy for a 9-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and Arizona’s only answer before halftime was a Ryland field goal. When Brandon Aubrey made it 17-3 in the third quarter, the Cardinals had 130 yards of offense, two failed red-zone trips, and a starting quarterback going nowhere.

Jacoby Brissett finished 10 of 23 for 119 yards and an interception. With 1:35 left in the third quarter, head coach Mike LaFleur benched him for Gardner Minshew, who had not played a snap all season. Two plays later, Tyler Allgeier ran 63 yards for a touchdown, and the game had a pulse again at 17-10.

Prescott pushed it back to 24-10 with a 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth. Minshew answered with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Allgeier — the running back finished with 147 rushing yards and two scores — and after an Aubrey field goal made it 27-17, Minshew found Trey McBride for another touchdown to cut it to 27-24. Arizona’s defense got the stop it needed, but a personal foul on L.J. Collier extended Dallas’s drive, and Aubrey’s 41-yard field goal with 1:14 left made it 30-24.  

Minshew drove the Cardinals one more time and hit Michael Wilson for a 13-yard touchdown with six seconds left. One extra point wins the game. Ryland, who had not missed one in more than two seasons, pushed it wide left.

“You could see some life kind of go out of the guys,” Minshew told FOX’s Pam Oliver after the game. “But then it was like, no — smash that. Let’s keep going. You keep going regardless of what’s happening in the past, what’s happening to this team before. You keep going, putting your best foot forward, and you’ll give yourself a chance.”

Ryland got his chance in overtime and took it, hitting the 42-yarder with 2:58 left in the extra period. Minshew finished 17 of 23 for 188 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Prescott threw for 195 yards and a touchdown and ran for a score. Dallas, which led 14-0, 17-3 and 24-10, had been 69-0 since 2000 when leading by 14 or more in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals’ 14-point comeback is the second-biggest in the NFL this season.

The Cardinals play the Seattle Seahawks next week.

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Pasadena, Calif. — There is no fan base in the West that enjoys saying this less than Arizona State’s, so say it plainly: the UCLA Bruins (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) are undefeated, alone on top of the Big Ten, and playing the best defense in their conference. Saturday’s 27-0 shutout of Nevada at the Rose Bowl was UCLA’s first home shutout since 2007, and the Bruins are 8-0 for the first time since 2005 — one of three unbeaten teams left in the country.

Sun Devil fans have hated UCLA for decades, through every Pac-12 fight the two schools ever had, and this version of the Bruins is almost built to annoy them: no fireworks, no star turn — a defense that intercepted Nevada on its first three drives, held the Wolf Pack to 176 yards, and finished the game with a fourth interception in the final minute. Backup quarterback Ty Dieffenbach, starting for the injured Nico Iamaleava, threw for 178 yards and accounted for two touchdowns, and it was more than enough.

The Bruins’ own coach is not celebrating any of it. “To get yourself to 8-0 is a big deal, and to shut a team out at any level is a big deal,” first-year coach Bob Chesney said. “Wins are not the easiest thing to come by. I like where we’re at, and there’s a whole lot more that we’ve got to continue to step up. We’ll be right back to the drawing board.”

Asked about the noise building around an unbeaten season, Chesney waved it off: “There’s no noise. The noise is us, in our own heads, in our locker room.”

The defense talks the same way. “That should be our standard,” defensive lineman Aiden Gobaira said. “We’re always going to try and play physical, fast and make as many plays as we can in the defense within our scheme.”

The first College Football Playoff rankings come out Tuesday, and UCLA will be in that conversation whether the Valley likes it or not. The Bruins’ hardest stretch starts now: at Minnesota on Saturday, against a Gophers team that just took Indiana to overtime.

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Lubbock, Texas — Five sacks killed the Arizona Wildcats (6-2, 3-2 Big 12) in Saturday’s 34-26 loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-1, 4-1), and there is enough blame in those five plays for everybody wearing Arizona colors — the quarterback who held the ball, the protection that broke down, the calls that put the offense behind the chains, and a Texas Tech plan built to do exactly that.

Noah Fifita threw for 417 yards and still lost, which tells the story by itself. Every sack is lost yardage and a drive pushed backwards — second-and-long, third-and-longer — and a quarterback sacked five times has not had a clean night no matter how many yards pile up next to his name. Fifita took his share of it standing at the podium.

“I take the blame for that,” Fifita said, pointing to his overthrow of an open Tyler Powell on fourth-and-1 with Arizona driving to the Texas Tech 18 in the fourth quarter. “The fourth-down miss on my part was a big momentum shift. The defense played their asses off, and I apologize for not having their back 

The game was there to be taken even after that miss. Down 27-23, Arizona got the ball back when Texas Tech fumbled and the Wildcats recovered at their own 32 — one drive for the lead. A holding penalty on first down backed them up, the chains got long again, and on third-and-10 Fifita was sacked one more time. Arizona punted, and J’Koby Williams’ 64-yard touchdown run on the next series finished it.

Texas Tech’s plan was no secret afterward. “Cage Noah — make sure we didn’t let him get out of the pocket,” Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire said. “When we had an opportunity to hit him, we hit him, make sure he was in a football game and not a seven-on-seven game.”

Arizona helped the plan along. With no running game at all — 12 rushing yards against Texas Tech’s 328 — the Red Raiders never had to honor the run, and second-and-long became the Wildcats’ whole second half. Fifita kept throwing them back into the game anyway, which is how a team loses by eight with 417 passing yards and zero turnovers of its own.

The Wildcats get a short week to fix it. Arizona hosts TCU on Friday night in Tucson.

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