locker room

LAS VEGAS — Call it St. John Bosco’s Nightmare on South Hualapai Way on Friday night.

Why St. John Bosco traveled on three buses to the desert to play in 104 degree temperature against Bishop Gorman was on everyone’s mind, because the Braves were either unprepared or uninterested at the outset for a high school football team ranked No. 1 in the nation by several national publications. A sold-out crowd of 5,000 was surprised when the Braves were down by 21 points at halftime and the offense looked deader than Elvis.

“It was almost like the moment was too big,” Braves coach Jason Negro said.

Then the real St. John Bosco team came out of the locker room after halftime and almost pulled off a Hollywood ending, rallying to tie the score before losing 38-28.

“We showed a lot of resolve, a lot of fight,” Negro said.

The Braves didn’t get a first down until 7:35 left in the second quarter. Their first offensive play from scrimmage was a botched snap landing quarterback Koa Malau’ulu on the three-yard line. The third play resulted in Malau’ulu getting sacked and losing the ball on a fumble in the end zone for a Bishop Gorman touchdown.

The Gaels (2-0) cruised to a 21-0 halftime lead. They’re ranked No. 2 nationally and repeatedly hurt the Braves with the mobility and decision-making of quarterback Ace Amina, who finished with 212 yards passing and four touchdowns. He guided the offense on an 80-yard drive to start the game. St. John Bosco struggled to adjust covering Bishop Gorman running backs going out for passes.

In the third quarter, everything changed. A 10-yard touchdown catch by fiery sophomore Kuika Moaalii on fourth down was the moment St. John Bosco got its mojo back. Then DJ Tubbs followed with a touchdown catch to make it 21-14. Bishop Gorman went back up 28-14 on a 53-yard touchdown reception by Zyren Menor. But the quarter ended with the Braves’ Maliq Allen scoring on a 29-yard run. The noise in the stadium was rising on both sides.

The Braves finally tied it 28-28 on Tubbs’ punt return for a touchdown with 9:52 left after Dillon Davis’ third-down sack.

As if the fourth quarter weren’t wild enough, the Gaels regained the lead with 6:49 left on a 54-yard touchdown reception by Corey Hinton. And what a game-changer it turned out to be. Hinton played for St. John Bosco the last two seasons until returning to Las Vegas, the city he grew up in.

Asked if he wanted to leave, Hinton said, “I didn’t but it looks like God did this.”

On the winning touchdown, Hinton said, “It was surreal. It was something I prayed for and it meant everything.”

Afterward, he was hugging former teammates. “No hate. Those are my boys,” he said.

Bishop Gorman’s Maximiliano Fuentes clinched the win with a 49-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter.

Negro said all the mistakes made by his team are fixable, so he believes the Braves can get back on the winning track. “We just have to execute better,” he said.

Malau’ulu was under duress much of the night. He had two passes intercepted, was sacked three times and did not look comfortable throwing on the run. He did rally the Braves and ended up with 210 yards passing.

There was an “extreme heat warning” on Friday, with the daytime temperature reaching 109 degrees. St. John Bosco began its preparation to be hydrated and avoid cramps on Monday with constant reminders on taking fluids all week by athletic trainer Daisy Martinez.

“It’s 108 out there. It’s good for us,” a Bishop Gorman coach told players 3 1/2 hours before kickoff during their pregame meal in a room on the second floor of their gymnasium complex. Players began to eat in total silence focused on their task at hand.

The Braves hadn’t faced Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas since their 34-31 loss in 2014 to the Gaels amid thunder, lightning, wind and a downpour of rain. They were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation just like Friday’s matchup.

Bishop Gorman (2-0) looks talented and executed well, but the Braves, like their final game of 2025 when they were upset as the No. 1 seed in the first round of Division 1 playoffs by Orange Lutheran, have plenty to work on.

St. John Bosco is starting the season without its two prized transfer students, offensive tackle Elisha Mueller and defensive back Kingston Fatu, who will will be eligible on Sept. 28. It still hasn’t been determined if Mueller will be a sit-out period player.

NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu scored 20 points and the New York Liberty avoided one of the biggest collapses in WNBA history, holding off the Sparks 85-81 on Thursday night.

New York (21-14) led 69-41 early in the fourth quarter and looked poised to cruise to an easy victory when the Sparks scored 21 straight points to get within striking distance.

The Sparks (12-21) only trailed 82-79 with 26.6 seconds left and were in position to match the Chicago Sky for the biggest comeback in league history. The Sky rallied from 28-down to beat Las Vegas in 2022. Rae Burrell got the Sparks within one on a reverse layup with 22 seconds left. Ionescu hit two free throws with 14.8 remaining to restore the three-point advantage.

The Sparks had one last chance, but Ariel Atkins missed a three-pointer from the wing with seven seconds left and Ionescu hit a free throw with 3.2 seconds left to seal the win.

The Sparks also lost Cameron Brink earlier in the fourth quarter. She helped key the game-changing run, drawing an offensive foul on Breanna Stewart. Brink was down on the floor for a few minutes before being helped to the locker room with a towel over her head. She took a shot to the stomach area from Stewart to get the offensive foul called. A few minutes earlier Brink and Burrell banged heads.

Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said Brink was being evaluated by doctors after a “brutal hit to the ribs”, but didn’t have an update other than that.

Cameron Brink controls the ball during the first half against New York on Thursday.

(Elsa Garrison / Getty Images)

Burrell finished with a career-high 28 points.

New York got a scare in the third when Ionescu left the game. She went down awkwardly after playing defense and quickly grabbed her right foot. She subbed out soon after and jogged up the tunnel back to the locker room area. She returned about four minutes later on the game clock to a nice ovation from the crowd.

Jonquel Jones was a big reason the Liberty built a 49-32 lead at the half with 10 points and 12 rebounds. New York extended the advantage to 26 after three quarters and 69-41 before the Sparks rallied.

New York was still playing without Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally. Coach Chris DeMarco said that there’s no timetable on Fiebich’s return and that Sabally, who has been sidelined for over a month with a concussion, was away from the team.

Up next for the Sparks: at Washington on Saturday.

When you take a guided tour of the nearly completed Harvard-Westlake River Park Sports Complex in Studio City, you lose count how many times you’re saying, “Wow.”

From the underground parking lot to the 8,200-square-foot weight room, from the two gymnasiums to the 52-meter pool, from the eight tennis courts to the two all-weather turf playing fields, from the yoga room with a million-dollar view to the 11 locker rooms with projector screens, the $200-million project is certainly living up to expectations.

There’s also a cafeteria, a smoothie machine, 117 toilets, wrestling room, fencing room, training room, community rooms, more than 150 security cameras, an underground water basin and facial recognition technology from the parking lot to enter the coaches’ area. In the main gym foyer, there’s an area for people to watch live streams of games while purchasing food.

With two gyms and two sports fields, the school would be capable of holding basketball or soccer tournaments. The P.A. system in the main gym is state of the art.

Not only will students who attend the upper school on Coldwater Canyon enjoy the facility but so should fans and visiting teams with all the amenities such as large visiting locker rooms. The only question is when an official opening will take place.

Construction is nearing completion, but it’s unclear when teams will start practicing and playing there because the facility still needs to go through inspections and receive a Certificate of Occupancy from the city. The school is targeting early 2027 for activity to begin at the site.

The basketball teams are unlikely to use the main gym this coming season unless they are allowed to practice there.

Construction began in April of 2024. The project replaces the beloved Weddington Golf & Tennis Center and took several years of obtaining permits, having community meetings and receiving city approval to overcome a vocal group within the community objecting to losing the Weddington center.

There are still 14-foot-high covered fences hiding the progress off Whitsett Avenue, but those will be coming down soon to give community members a peak what’s been going on.

Head of athletics Terry Barnum and communications director Ari Engelberg have been providing updates to school administrators. The school added two new sports this year, flag football and girls lacrosse, in anticipation of the new field space.

The first year it opens is expected to be trial and error on how to best use the facilities, figuring out traffic patterns and welcoming the public to grounds that can be used during the school day, from the tennis courts to a privately run cafe to a walking path next to the L.A. River.

Ariel Atkins’ head whipped back. After taking an elbow from Indiana’s Monique Billings on May 13, the Sparks’ team doctors spotted the potential for a head injury and sent her to the locker room.

It was the second concussion of her career, but she didn’t know that at the time. All she knew was that her head hurt.

“You just don’t feel like yourself,” Atkins said. “It’s hard to even be a part of society. Luckily, this wasn’t a serious one.”

There have been eight diagnosed concussions in the WNBA already this year after just a quarter of the season. There were eight total in 2025, four in 2024 and six in 2023.

The “why” could be bad luck, better awareness in diagnosing concussions or something else. Atkins thought the lack of game flow because of new officiating standards might be making things harder.

“You would think it should be down,” Atkins said. “Maybe there is no rhythm when there are stoppages.”

Atkins got hit in the nose against the Wings three weeks after returning from her concussion. She stayed in the game after a quick check on the bench.

She didn’t have a concussion that time, but players do seem to be getting hit in the head at a higher rate. Minnesota-based sports scientist Lucas Seehafer thinks it’s too early to make a definitive declaration of why that is happening.

“Some players and coaches in the past have talked about the physicality of the play,” he said. “I know some people have talked about how the rules are kind of lax, or you’re maybe not as rigorous as what they could be in terms of like punishing blows above the shoulders and that kind of stuff. But it’s tough to say with any certainty until we get more data.”

On opening night in Seattle, Golden State forward Cecilia Zandalasini suffered her first concussion when elbowed by the Storm’s Zia Cooke.

She called the process to return a “nightmare.”

“It was so weird with the feeling of always having a headache,” she said. “I had to wait until it was gone, I couldn’t move.”

Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini called working through concussion protocal a “nightmare” earlier this season.

(Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)

Seehafer said that when it comes to women’s sports, hockey and soccer have a reputation for having higher concussion rates, but basketball can be just as physical.

“Compared to the rest of the [pro sports] leagues, the WNBA is pretty much doing exactly what the other leagues are doing, but again, is that enough?” he said. “It’s tough to say. I would say they’re not, but I don’t think they’re egregiously leaving athletes open to even more severe injuries, necessarily. My bias is just that everything can be safer.”

The WNBA follows the same concussion protocol as the NBA, by which a player must undergo a locker room evaluation after getting hit in the head. If the player is cleared by medical staff, they can return to the game.

Any player showing concussion-related symptoms, such as a headache or dizziness, must be monitored for 24 hours by the team’s medical staff. Once they are symptom-free, they go through a range of activities from light physical activity to full-contact practice. They must stay symptom-free throughout that entire process to be allowed back into games.

“Back when I played, I didn’t know what concussion meant,” said Sparks coach Lynne Roberts. “I think now we understand the science of how serious it is, and we don’t rush them back. Once they’re back, there’s really nothing you can do. It’s a contact sport, and the players just kind of play through that, but obviously we’re very cautious with not letting a player play until the doctor’s fully certain that she’s symptom-free and at no risk.”

The hardest part with concussions can be the initial diagnosis. Oftentimes, symptoms show up hours or even days later. For Zandalasini, she was originally diagnosed with a jaw injury before dealing with a headache the next day.

Atkins knew a little bit about what concussions felt like, and even this time was different. Why concussions are up this year is still a mystery, and perhaps it will even out as the season goes on.

But for now, players and medical staff are on alert.

“It’s the thing with athletes, right?” Atkins said. “We’re trying to figure out pain versus injury, like, is it something serious? Is it not? I don’t want to hurt myself further. So, yeah, it can be hard to decipher that with a head injury.”