SPORTS HEADLINES

OKC’s Mark Daigneault knows what it takes to win championships. His wife has won a ton of them

Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault has the best record of any coach in the NBA this season. And he has the second-best record of any coach in his house. Daigneault is a coach, and a coach’s husband, too. His wife is Oklahoma assistant women’s gymnastics coach Ashley Kerr. She and the Sooners went 33-2 this season and won another national championship, their third in the last four years. So, as Daigneault chases his first NBA title, his wife has now been part of seven national championships over her career on the staffs at Florida and Oklahoma.

Pacers’ 25-year Finals drought is over. Now they’re looking to overcome their snake-bitten history

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner beamed as they carried the Indiana Pacers shiny, new Eastern Conference championship trophy into their postgame news conferences Saturday night. Pascal Siakam needed help because he was also bringing the series MVP trophy. The Pacers have finally ended their 25-year NBA Finals drought. They enjoyed it with a fitting celebration for the team that plays in a state where basketball is treated like religion. These Pacers have managed to achieve the unthinkable after starting 10-15 and looking less like anything but a title contender. But now Indiana will try to exorcise the demons of its decades-long snake-bitten history when the Pacers take on the Oklahoma City .

Texas Tech ends Oklahoma’s 4-year run as Women’s College World Series champ with walk-off 3-2 win

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s run of four straight Women’s College World Series titles ended when Lauren Allred’s walk-off sacrifice fly gave Texas Tech a 3-2 victory in the semifinals. Coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners were down to their last strike in the top of the seventh inning when Abigale Dayton summoned a bit of magic, hitting a tying two-run homer against Red Raiders ace NiJaree Canady. But the Red Raiders responded quickly in the bottom half. Mihyia Davis singled with one out and Hailey Toney followed with a double. Allred hit a fly ball to right field and Sydney Barker’s throw to the plate was wide, allowing Davis to score easily.

French Open: Coco Gauff reaches quarterfinals and jokes with Frances Tiafoe about forgetting rackets

PARIS (AP) — Coco Gauff has earned her fifth consecutive trip to the French Open quarterfinals with a straight-set victory but still is catching flak because she forgot to bring her rackets to an earlier match. The No. 2-seeded Gauff has been engaging in a bit of back-and-forth with another American and Roland-Garros quarterfinalist, Frances Tiafoe, over the equipment blunder. Gauff won the 2023 U.S. Open and was the runner-up in Paris in 2022. She beat No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5 on Monday. Tiafoe teasingly called the 21-year-old Gauff “Mrs. Mature.”

French Open: No. 1 Jannik Sinner dominates Andrey Rublev to reach the quarterfinals

PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner’s latest dominant performance at the French Open is a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 17 Andrey Rublev. The result on Monday night put Sinner back in the quarterfinals in Paris and extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 18 matches. Sinner won the U.S. Open last September and the Australian Open this January. Now he’ll try to get to the semifinals at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year and faces 62nd-ranked Alexander Bublik on Wednesday. Sinner hasn’t lost a set through the fourth round and has dropped just 30 games.

Surprise! NHL, with the help of kids, gives Barkov the Selke and King Clancy awards

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Aleksander Barkov thought the team meeting was over. He found it odd that the Panthers hadn’t been told they could leave. Turns out, there was a good reason. Two of them, actually. The Panthers hadn’t had an opportunity to spend any time at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital during their playoff run, so the team decided to bring some of the patients into the team facility for a visit instead. And the kids came bearing gifts for Barkov: the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward, and the King Clancy trophy for leadership and humanitarian work.

French Open: 361st-ranked Frenchwoman Boisson upsets No. 3 Pegula. Gauff, Djokovic and Sinner win

PARIS (AP) — Loïs Boisson had never even played at the French Open before, let alone on the biggest court at Roland-Garros. Now the 361st-ranked Frenchwoman is in the quarterfinals after beating No. 3 Jessica Pegula of the United States 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round. Quite some victory, considering Pegula was the U.S. Open runner-up last year. Boisson won on her first match point with a forehand winner. She joined second-seeded Coco Gauff, No. 6 Mirra Andreeva and No. 7 Madison Keys in the women’s quarterfinals. No. 3 Alexander Zverev, last year’s runner-up in the men’s tournament, also reached the last eight.

Journalism opens as the Belmont favorite. Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty is the 2nd choice

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — Kentucky Derby runner-up and Preakness winner Journalism has opened as the 8-5 favorite in the Belmont Stakes to close out the Triple Crown. Derby winner Sovereignty was set as the second choice at odds of 2-1 on Monday. Baeza, who finished third in Kentucky in early May, opened at 4-1 with Bob Baffert-trained Rodriguez next at 6-1. Journalism drew the No. 7 post in the field of eight horses for the second Belmont at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York. Sovereignty will leave the starting gate from the No. 2 post.

Max Homa carries his own bag and falls just short of qualifying for the US Open

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Max Homa’s long day of 36-hole U.S. Open qualifying got even longer because he carried his own bag. Homa is no longer with his caddie of two months. A person aware of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells the AP that caddie Bill Harke is out of a job. Homa wasn’t interested in sharing details. He only wanted to talk about golf. He three-putted for par on his final hole. That put him in a 5-for-1 playoff that was won by Cameron Young. Homa offered some insight when he says it helped him not having someone standing next to him.

Jacpot! The Royals call up top prospect Jac Caglianone in the hopes of jump-starting their offense

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals have called up top prospect Jac Caglianone, and he could make his big league debut on Tuesday night in St. Louis. They announced the move on Monday, one day after a second straight 1-0 game against Detroit. Kansas City has hit the fewest homers and scored the second-fewest runs in baseball, and the Royals hope that Caglianone can help to jump-start that anemic offense. In 50 games between Double-A and Triple-A this season, Caglianone has hit 15 homers and 56 RBIs with a .322 batting average. He was the sixth overall pick in last year’s first-year player draft.