Weekend Sports in Brief

NBA

MIAMI (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 26 points, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart each added 24 and the Boston Celtics held off a frantic rally in the final seconds to beat the Miami Heat 100-96 Sunday night to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010.

The Celtics face the Golden State Warriors in a series that starts Thursday in San Francisco.

Jimmy Butler, who willed Miami into Game 7 by scoring 47 points on Friday in Boston, led the Heat with 35 points in what became their season finale.

Bam Adebayo added 25 for the Heat, who were down 11 with under 3 minutes to go before trying one last rally.

AUTO RACING

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Marcus Ericsson had to leave Formula One to become a global superstar — a goal achieved when the Swedish driver won the Indianapolis 500.

Ericsson took control of Sunday’s race late and had it under control for Chip Ganassi Racing until a crash by teammate Jimmie Johnson with four laps remaining brought out a rare red-flag stoppage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The stoppage gave Pato O’Ward and the rest of the challengers almost 12 minutes on pit road to strategize how to catch Ericsson for the win. The race resumed with two laps remaining and Ericsson easily got the jump on O’Ward, who finished second.

Tony Kanaan was third in a Ganassi car and followed by Felix Rosenqvist, another Swede, who was fourth for McLaren.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Denny Hamlin held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch in overtime on Sunday night to win the longest — and perhaps wildest — Coca-Cola 600 in history.

Hamlin won for the 48th time in the Cup Series, and for the time in a points race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR’s longest and most grueling race lasted more than 5 1/2 hours and took 413 laps to complete. There were 18 caution flags and 16 drivers failed to finish.

The race featured a 12-car wreck and a magnificent crash that sent Chris Buescher’s car flipping over five times before stopping upside down.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Josh Berry outdueled teammate Justin Allgaier to give JR Motorsports its first win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Xfinity Series race on Saturday.

Berry took the lead with 22 laps to go when Allgaier got loose and brushed the outside wall in Turn 1. Berry slowly pulled away and won by more than 18 seconds while Allgaier finished seventh after experiencing a leaky tire.

Ty Gibbs finished in second place and pole sitter Sam Mayer was third.

MONACO (AP) — Red Bull driver Sergio Perez held on to win Sunday’s rain-marred and chaotic Monaco Grand Prix.

A calamitous Ferrari call cost Charles Leclerc a shot at winning his home race and also allowed world champion Max Verstappen to extend his overall lead.

Leclerc finished fourth behind Verstappen’s Red Bull in third and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in second place.

Verstappen moved nine points ahead of Leclerc in the standings.

MLB

CINCINNATI (AP) — San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, who has been avoiding the field during the national anthem as a protest following last week’s school shooting in Texas, said he may suspend that decision Monday in recognition of Memorial Day.

Kapler said Friday he would refuse to take the field for the anthem to protest the nation’s political direction. He said his protest would continue “until I feel better about the direction of our country.”

But before Sunday’s game in Cincinnati, when asked specifically what he would do on Memorial Day, when his Giants play in Philadelphia, Kapler wasn’t definitive, saying he may take the field for the anthem.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham was suspended by Major League Baseball for three games on Saturday after he slapped San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson because of a dispute about their fantasy football league.

Pham, 34, also was fined. The suspension was made retroactive to Friday night, and he will serve the final two games this weekend.

While the Giants warmed up in the outfield before Friday’s series opener, Pham confronted Pederson and smacked him in the face before the pair was separated.

NHL

TORONTO (AP) — Veteran Maple Leafs forward Jason Spezza announced his retirement Sunday after a 19-season NHL career.

The 38-year-old is moving into the Maple Leafs’ front office as a special assistant to GM Kyle Dubas.

Spezza spent his first 11 seasons with the Ottawa Senators before joining the Dallas Stars in 2014 and Toronto in 2019.

Spezza finished with 995 points (363 goals and 632 assists) in 1,248 regular-season NHL games, with another 76 points (28 goals and 48 assists) in 97 playoff games.

GOLF

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Sam Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Colonial, which came just more than two hours after he had finished his round, to beat top-ranked Scottie Scheffler on Sunday.

After finishing his 5-under 65 to get to 9 under, Burns was done in the clubhouse when, at one point, Scheffler was among five players tied at 10 under.

The gusty wind and a strange sequence changed all that. And Scheffler needed three clutch putts for a 72 just to get into the playoff matching 25-year-old standouts and close friends.

Burns’ seven-stroke comeback matched Nick Price in 1994 for the biggest in a final round to win Colonial.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Steven Alker avoided mistakes down the stretch and closed with an 8-under 63 for a three-shot victory in the Senior PGA Championship, his third title this year and first major.

Alker started the final round four shots behind and forged a three-way tie with Stephen Ames and Bernhard Langer on the back nine.

Alker finished at 16-under 268. Ames closed with a 70 to finish second, while Langer (71) finished alone in third.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Eun-Hee Ji won the LPGA Match-Play on Sunday for a spot next week in the U.S. Women’s Open, beating Ayaka Furue 3 and 2 at Shadow Creek.

Ji, the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open winner, took the last spot at Pine Needles with her sixth LPGA Tour victory and first since 2019.

At 36, Ji is the oldest South Korean winner in LPGA Tour history. Ranked 83rd in the world, she was seeded 36th in the 64-player field.

Furue is winless on the LPGA Tour. Ranked 27th, the 22-year-old Japanese player was seeded 10th.

In the windy morning semifinals, Ji beat Andrea Lee 4 and 3, and Furue edged Lilia Vu 2 and 1. Vu beat Lee 4 and 2 in the third-place match.

BOXING

NEW YORK (AP) — Gervonta Davis regained his knockout power and retained his lightweight title after stopping Rolando Romero in the sixth round Saturday.

Davis landed a crushing left hand near the corner and Romero fell forward into the ropes. He struggled and got up but was wobbly the whole way, and referee David Fields ended the fight.

Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) had to go the distance in his last win for only the second time in his career, and Romero said that showed the three-division champion was vulnerable. If Davis was, it wasn’t for long.

Romero lost for the first time in 15 pro fights.

SOCCER

PARIS (AP) — Real Madrid became European champion for a record-extending 14th time after beating Liverpool 1-0 in a Champions League final that started 37 minutes late because of disturbing crowd issues outside the Stade de France on Saturday.

Brazil winger Vinícius Júnior applied a close-range finish in the 59th minute from Federico Valverde’s drive across the face of goal, securing a win that gave Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti a record fourth European Cup title.

While Madrid completed a Champions League-La Liga double, Liverpool finished a season that promised so much — a week ago, it was in contention for an unprecedented quadruple of major trophies — with the two domestic cups in England.

SOCCER (AP) — Ralf Rangnick will not take up his role as a consultant at Manchester United, the Premier League club said Sunday, because of the demands of his new job as Austria coach.

Rangnick was due to move into a consultancy position after being United’s interim manager for the second half of the recently completed season.

Erik ten Hag has been hired as United’s next full time manager and started this week.

INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY

TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — Sakari Manninen scored on a power play at 6:42 of 3-on-3 overtime and Finland beat Canada 4-3 on Sunday for its fourth world hockey championship title.

Finland completed an Olympics-world double after winning in China in February.

In the third-place game, David Pastrnak had a hat trick in the Czech Republic’s 8-4 victory over the United States.

CYCLING

VERONA, Italy (AP) — Jai Hindley accomplished what he so narrowly missed out on two years ago by sealing overall victory in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday — becoming the first Australian rider to win Italy’s Grand Tour.

Hindley finished 1 minute, 18 seconds ahead of 2019 champion Richard Carapaz following the concluding individual time trial, which finished next to Verona’s Arena, a Roman amphitheater.

WOMEN’S COLLEGE LACROSSE

BALTIMORE (AP) — Sam Geiersbach scored three times — including the go-ahead goal with about 5 minutes to play — and North Carolina beat defending-champion Boston College 12-11 Sunday to win the NCAA women’s lacrosse title.

The top-ranked Tar Heels finished the season 22-0, setting a school record for wins and becoming the first undefeated national champion since 2017 (Maryland).

Charlotte North, the NCAA’s all-time goals leader, led Boston College (19-4) with four goals and Cassidy Weeks scored three.

COLLEGE TENNIS

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Ben Shelton rallied to beat San Diego’s August Holmgren and give Florida back-to-back men’s singles national championships and Peyton Stearns of Texas took the women’s title with a straight-sets win over Stanford’s Connie Ma on Saturday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex.

Stearns, a sophomore and the No. 2 seed, avenged one of only two season losses when she beat Ma 6-3, 6-2. The unseeded freshman beat Stearns 7-6(7), 2-6, 6-2 in February as the Cardinal beat Texas 5-2. Stearns, who dropped just one set out of 11 at the championships, completed her season 33-2, with her other loss against Virginia’s Emma Navarro as Texas — which won its second consecutive women’s team title last Sunday — beat the Cavaliers 4-2 in the quarterfinals of NCAA team competition.

COLLEGE ROWING

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Texas won the first eights final on Sunday by more than five seconds to win a tie-breaker over Stanford and claim the Longhorns’ second consecutive NCAA rowing title.

Texas and Stanford each finished with 124 points and Princeton finished third with 118.

OBITUARY

LONDON (AP) — Lester Piggott, a jockey who won the English Derby nine times in his haul of victories in horse racing’s top events, has died. He was 86.

Piggott’s death was confirmed to Britain’s PA news agency on Sunday by horseracing trainer William Haggas, who is married to Piggott’s daughter, Maureen.

Piggott will be remembered for being one of the greatest jockeys of all time. He was champion jockey in England 11 times and rode his first winner at the age of 12 and his last a few weeks short of his 59th birthday.

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