ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2021 SPORTS 14

Fever edge Wings Creed wins Truck playoff opener Loyd, Stewart star, Storm rout Liberty NEW YORK, Aug. 21, (AP): Jewell Crafton fi nishes 2nd Loyd scored 29 points and Breanna Stewart added 19 to help the Seattle Storm rout the New York Liberty 99-83. MADISON, Ill., Aug 21, The teams also played Wednesday (AP): Defending series night and the Liberty came away with a champion Sheldon Creed four-point win, rallying from a 10-point defi cit in the fourth quarter. The Storm won the NASCAR Camp- didn’t have Sue Bird and Stewart in the ing World Truck Series lineup for that game as the pair missed the team’s last two games - both losses - playoff opener with a dom- while resting after helping the U.S. win inating run at Gateway. a seventh consecutive gold medal at the In a race interrupted by a power Olympics. outage that knocked out the lights Stewart also spent time at home with for about an hour early in the sec- wife Marta Xargay Casademont and ond stage, Creed swept the stages their new baby daughter Ruby, who was born via surrogate Aug. 9. and led 142 of 163 laps on the Now with the two back in the lineup, 1.25-mile oval. the Storm (17-7) turned a one-point The 23-year-old California driver halftime defi cit into a blowout. The wrapped up an automatic spot in the game was tied at 59 midway through next three-race round of the playoffs, the third quarter when Seattle closed the winning for the second time this year quarter on a 17-4 run. Loyd and Stewart and seventh in two seasons. each scored six points during the burst. “My guys put together such a good The Liberty (11-13) couldn’t recover truck” Creed said. “We’ve been work- in the fourth quarter. ing hard all year and obviously haven’t Sami Whitcomb scored 15 of her 26 had the speed at times and I’ve made points in the fi rst quarter to lead New mistakes at times. But we were able to York. build this brand new truck and I feel Bird, a New York native, received a like we’ve taken everything we’ve warm ovation from the crowd when she learned this year and applied it. They was introduced before the game. This gave me a hot rod today and I couldn’t was her fi rst time playing at Barclays be happier.” After a caution set up an overtime shootout, Creed kept the No. 2 GMS BASKETBALL Racing Chevrolet ahead of Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes - with three- time series champion Crafton passing Center. She missed the team’s one game in 2019 that was played in Brooklyn be- ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes for cause she was recovering from a knee second. surgery. Creed beat Crafton by 0.292 sec- She scored the 6,500th point of her onds. career and fi nished the game with 10 “I love late-race restarts,” Creed Racers compete during a NASCAR truck series auto race at World Wide Technology Raceway, on Aug. 20, in Madison, Ill. (AP) points and six assists. said. “I didn’t want it, but when it came out I was just thinking, `OK, just Fever 83, Wings 81 focus and execute. This is huge. I’ve In Arlington, Texas, Danielle Robin- had such a stressful month trying to Jakobsen grabs 2nd sprint victory at Vuelta, Roglic leads son converted a go-ahead, three-point fi gure out what I’m doing next year, play with 7.2 seconds left and the In- so many mixed emotions on what I’m diana Fever rallied to beat the Dallas LA MANGA DEL MAR MENOR, have to be on time. I have been separating a salt water lagoon from Felix Grosschartner of Bora- Wings 83-81. Spain, Aug 21, (AP): Fabio Jakob- twice too late (in other stages), but the Mediterranean Sea that is pop- Hansgrohe remained second in Indiana (5-18) won on the road for sen sprinted to win the Spanish this time I was perfectly right from ular among tourists. the general classifi cation at eight just the second time this season - in 11 TRUCK RACING Vuelta’s eighth stage on Satur- the corner and could do a full sprint A breakaway group opened up seconds behind Roglic. Movistar attempts. day, while Primoz Roglic kept the to the line. The a gap of over three minutes ear- leader Enric Mas is third at :25 Trailing 81-80 with 25.8 seconds left, going to do and if I’ll even have a ride. lead before the race returns to the team did a per- ly on the fl at ride down Spain’s back. Egan Bernal of Ineos Grena- Robinson dribbled down the clock and Biggest thing is to keep winning and drove the right side of the lane before mountains. fect job.” southeast coast, but the Astana diers is sixth at :41. getting fouled by Marina Mabrey and get ourselves in the Championship 4 The Dutch sprinter was launched Jakobsen The race is back in the moun- and execute.” making the layup. by a Deceuninck-Quickstep team- was closely fol- tains on Sunday with a 188-kilom- After a timeout, Dallas got it to Arike Stewart Friesen was fourth, with mate and crossed almost a com- lowed by the CYCLING eter (116-mile) ride from Puerto Ogunbowale but her jumper from the the top four all in the 10-driver play- plete bike length ahead of Alberto rest of the pelo- Lumbreras to a summit fi nish atop wing was long and the Wings couldn’t off fi eld. Carson Hocevar was the only get off another shot after getting the of- other playoff driver in the top 10, fi n- Dainese. Jakobsen also won stage ton as it fi nished the beyond-category Alto de Vele- four at this edition of the race, the 173-kilom- team led the peloton back to reel fi que. fensive rebound. ishing eighth. Hailie Deegan was a Robinson led six Indiana players in career-best seventh. as well as two stages in the 2019 eter (107-mile) them in with around 40 kilom- Movistar veteran Alejandro Val- double fi gures with 18 points. Emma Regular-season champion John Vuelta. fl at trek from eters left. verde underwent surgery on his Jakobsen Cannon added 16, Kelsey Mitchell Hunter Nemechek had a fl at tire and “It was about being strong, fast Santa Pola to Roglic was unchallenged as the broken collarbone that he injured had 14, Lindsay Allen 13, and Teaira ended up fi ve laps down in 22nd. and it’s about timing,” Jakobsen La Manga del race leader on the route made for when he crashed on Friday and had McCowan and Victoria Vivians each Austin Hill was 23rd, Chandler Smith said. “On a fi nish like this, you Mar Menor, a slim fi nger of land teams hunting for a stage win. to abandon the race. scored 11. The Fever only had seven 28th, Todd Gilliland 29th and Zane players available. Smith 35th to round out the playoff drivers. The playoff fi eld will be cut to eight Slingsby’s Aussies lead Ainslie’s after the third race and to four after the sixth for the fi nale at Phoenix Race- way. The playoffs will resume Sept. British’s team in SailGP regatta 5 at Darlington Raceway, the historic South Carolina track where Creed won AARHUS BAY, Denmark, Aug. 21, you could get,” Slingsby said, mention- in May. (AP): Skipper Tom Slingsby and his ing wind shifts of 30 to 40 degrees. “It defending champion Team Australia was a game of snakes and ladders. We had two seconds and a fifth in three had some races where we were a long fleet races to take a one-point lead way back and had some awesome over Sir Ben Ainslie and his British comebacks. We are really happy to get team at SailGP’s ROCKWOOL out of today with some good results, Denmark regatta on Aarhus Bay. and were stoked to make it to the top of The Aussies lead the British 18-17, the leaderboard, despite not winning with Jimmy Spithill’s U.S. crew third any of the fleet races.” The Aussies won the previous regatta, in Plymouth, England, after SAILING finishing an uncharacteristic last in a regatta in Italy in June. They won the inaugural title in 2019 and the $1 mil- with 16. The rest of the leaderboard lion winner-take-all prize. is Denmark 15, New Zealand 14, Nicolai Sehested helmed the host Japan 13, France 6 and Spain 0. Danes to their first-ever SailGP race Spain’s foiling 50-foot catamaran win in the opener. capsized an hour before the start of The United States won the second the first fleet race and was too dam- race and the British won the third Sheldon Creed celebrates after aged to compete. race. Ainslie was back at the helm winning a NASCAR truck series After two more fleet races after missing the last two regattas to auto race at World Wide Technol- Saturday, the top three teams advance be with his wife for the birth of their ogy Raceway, on Aug. 20, in Madi- to the podium race. second child. The British also had New York Liberty guard Rebecca Allen (9) goes to the basket against Seattle Storm center Ezi Magbegor (13) dur- son, Ill. (AP) “I’d say today was about as tricky as finishes of fourth and fifth. ing the second half of a WNBA basketball game, on Aug. 20, in New York. (AP)