This marks the second teammate couple for the Connecticut Sun alongside DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas. Thomas is set to make her return from an Achilles tear on Wednesday.
Meanwhile the Connecticut Sun continue to flourish on the court as much as they do off, currently sitting first in the league at 24-6.
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First-time LPGA Tour Champion Yealimi Noh Wins Founders Cup
Yealimi Noh earned her first LPGA win at the Founders Cup on Sunday. (James Gilbert/Getty Image)
After four days of stiff competition, the 2025 Founders Cup yielded a first-time LPGA Tour winner on Sunday as US golfer Yealimi Noh surged to victory on strong back-nine play in Bradenton, Florida.
The world No. 32-ranked Noh kicked off her sixth season with the LPGA by lifting her first trophy in her 111th start.
In just two holes on Sunday, the 23-year-old flipped a one-shot deficit into a three-shot lead, eventually claiming the $300,000 championship check with an overall 21-under-par performance.
"I always knew it would happen and it was a matter of time," Noh told reporters after her win. "To really get it done, and especially in the first tournament of the year, is really nice."
Noh, who earned a captain's nod in the 2021 Solheim Cup, is officially on an upswing. After less successful 2022 and 2023 seasons, she made 21 cuts across her 25 LPGA starts in 2024, helping fuel last weekend's blockbuster 2025 debut.
"Having a lot of better results and getting my confidence back and contending a few times last season really helped me carry that out through the winter and just really prepare for this week," she explained. "[I] just felt really ready — this was going to be my year and week."
Jin Young Ko made bogeys on Sunday's 13th and the 14th hole to finish the Founders Cup in second place. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
Founders Cup sees additional standout performances
Just behind Noh on last weekend's leaderboard is No. 7 Jin Young Ko. The South Korean star's narrow lead fell when she made her first bogeys of the competition, logging two back-to-back on Sunday.
The 15-time LPGA title-winner capped her tournament four strokes back from Noh, with US golfer and world No. 17 Megan Khang one stroke behind Ko in third place.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda finished tied for seventh place after capping her Founders Cup outing nine shots behind Noh.
The US star will next take a seven-week break, opting to sit out the upcoming trio of LPGA Tour stops in Asia. Korda will instead continue to search for her first victory of 2025 at the end of March, when she tees off at the Ford Championship in Chandler, Arizona.
JWS Staff
Feb 10, 2025
Unrivaled Cancels Game, Shortens 1v1 Tournament Due to Player Injuries
Injuries forced Unrivaled to shorten this week's 1v1 tournament. (Rich Storry/Getty Images)
Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball hit an injury wall this weekend, forcing the inaugural offseason league to cancel one regular-season game and truncate this week's 1v1 tournament.
With multiple Laces players sidelined, the league called off the team's Saturday night matchup against Vinyl BC.
Similarly, after seven participants had to pull out of Unrivaled's hotly anticipated 30-player 1v1 tournament, the league responded by shortening the contest's first round.
With all teams camped together on Unrivaled's Miami campus, specific details concerning player availability as well as injury type and severity have been tough to come by.
Laces stars Alyssa Thomas (knee) and Tiffany Hayes (concussion) both exited the 1v1 tournament after suffering injuries in previous Unrivaled matchups, putting their fitness statuses in question as the 2025 WNBA season looms.
Fellow Laces standouts Kayla McBride and Kate Martin, plus Rose BC's Brittney Sykes and Phantom stars Natasha Cloud and Marina Mabrey, will not participate. The withdrawal is "due to lingering injuries and to prioritize player wellbeing for regular-season games," per Unrivaled.
Injuries shrink Unrivaled 1v1 tournament's first round
Instead of a planned 14 games split across an afternoon session and an evening set on Monday, the now eight-game opening round of the league's 1v1 contest will occur in a single night of competition.
In an effort to maintain the original bracket as much as possible, Unrivaled decided against making any changes to its first-round matchups.
Because of this, five additional athletes will join the previously announced Jewell Loyd and Arike Ogunbowale in snagging first-round byes, with Courtney Williams, DiJonai Carrington, Satou Sabally, Rae Burrell, and Azurá Stevens now also set to tip off their 1v1 journeys during Tuesday's second round.
Unrivaled's reliance on short, elite rosters has spelled heated competition on a star-stacked court, but the strategy is now revealing its shortcomings. Such slim margins leave the league scrambling whenever one of their players — all of whom plan to return to the WNBA in mid-May — needs a break to prioritize rest and recovery.
DiJonai Carrington is one of five players who now have 1v1 tournament byes because of league injuries. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
How to watch Unrivaled's 1v1 tournament
The three-day competition tips off its eight-game first round at 7 PM ET on Monday. Both the second round and quarterfinals are set to begin at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with the semifinals and finals slated for Friday at 7:30 PM ET.
All games will air live on truTV, with TNT also broadcasting Monday's and Friday's sessions.
Claire Watkins
Feb 10, 2025
Texas Snaps South Carolina’s SEC Streak in NCAA Weekend Action
Texas handed South Carolina their first SEC loss since 2021. (Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
No. 4 Texas basketball claimed their revenge over No. 2 South Carolina on Sunday, taking down the reigning NCAA champs 66-62 to even the pair's regular-season series at 1-1.
In the process, the Longhorns snapped South Carolina's 57-game regular-season SEC winning streak — a victory chain dating back to December 2021.
Texas star sophomore Madison Booker led all scorers with 20 points and 11 rebounds, prompting South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley to levy high praise by calling her "a beast on the boards" after the game.
Texas could claim the SEC's top spot outright by defeating LSU on Sunday. (Scott Wachter/Imagn Images)
Strength of SEC sets up fight for NCAA tournament positioning
This weekend's results ultimately bottlenecked Texas, South Carolina, and LSU into a three-way regular-season tie for first-place in the SEC — one of the NCAA's toughest leagues.
With that result, all three teams now have 10-1 conference records, though LSU and Texas could break from the line during their possible winner-take-all date this Sunday.
All in all, the Southeast's depth is both a blessing and a curse.
On one hand, the conference's elite teams are gearing up to take March Madness by storm: Each of the SEC's top trio is likely to finish the season as an AP Top-10 team, ultimately earning a strong seeding throughout the postseason.
Other strong squads, however, must grapple with under-seeding due to disappointing conference records suffered in the gauntlet of the SEC.
For example, despite last week's big win over No. 5 UConn, Tennessee's string of slim conference losses have them sitting 4-6 in SEC play. This means that the Vols will likely face an uphill battle to claim beneficial seeding in March's NCAA tournament, giving them a disproportionately difficult road to the Final Four.
Already looking beyond the 2024/25 NCAA postseason, star center Lauren Betts will return to UCLA next season and forego the 2025 WNBA Draft, the National Player of the Year candidate confirmed on Friday.
Ranked No. 1 out of high school, the 6-foot-7 junior transferred to the Bruins from Stanford after her freshman year, making the 21-year-old eligible to pass up her senior season and instead turn pro this spring.
"College is the best years of your life, and so I don't think I'd ever give that up," Betts told ESPN. "Why not be spoiled for a whole another year?"
"The way the coaches take care of us in this program, like, how comfortable I am here, and I think that the friendships I've created -- I'd want to do that for another year," she added.
She also cited the opportunity to play with her sister, incoming UCLA freshman forward Sienna Betts, as a factor in her decision to remain in the NCAA.
"I think that I would be crazy if I gave up the opportunity to play with my sister, so obviously, I'm going to come back next year," Betts said.
UConn star Paige Bueckers is expected to go pro this year. (BM. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
WNBA teams eye draft-eligible college athletes
Betts isn't the only top college player weighing her options. A number of factors are impacting the decision NCAA standouts currently face in deciding when to turn pro, from NIL money to the new CBA expected to reshape the WNBA in 2026.
Lottery locks like UConn's Paige Bueckers and Notre Dame's Olivia Miles could technically also opt to stay in school for another year. However, neither has indicated any plans to do so.
Accordingly, WNBA franchises eyeing the upcoming draft have noted that the volatility of the market is affecting first-round pick trades. Teams would be unwise to place their bets on every top NCAA prospect making the leap this April.
JWS Staff
Feb 7, 2025
UEFA Draw Sets Champions League Quarterfinals
Eight teams' paths to May's Champions League final in Lisbon were determined in Friday's draw. (Kristian Skeie - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
The 2024/25 Champions League quarterfinals are officially set, with UEFA drawing the remaining eight teams into the field early Friday morning.
The annual season-long competition pits Europe's top leagues against each other. This season, 72 clubs across 50 different leagues qualified for the contest. From the UK to Ukraine, all teams have been vying for the continent's top-dog status amidst a cutthroat atmosphere and a growing sense of parity in the sport.
Two qualifying rounds narrowed the initial teams down to the 16 contending in the tournament's official group stage. Each played six group-stage matches from October through December to determine the eight clubs that advanced to Friday's final draw.
Four previous champions made the 2024/25 Champions League quarterfinals. (Kristian Skeie - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
The road to Champions League glory in Lisbon
All remaining clubs are now eyeing the May 24th final in Lisbon, Portugal, and Friday's draw mapped each team's path to that championship match. The 2024/25 quarterfinals will feature four former champions and four seeking a first-ever trophy, with both familiar fights and rarely tested toss-ups on deck.
Both the March quarterfinals and April semifinals employ a two-leg format, offering teams who suffer narrow first losses a shot at second-match redemption.
Friday's draw determined that WSL contenders Arsenal will kick off the tournament's quarterfinals against Real Madrid on March 18th, with Germany's Bayern Munich taking on France's 2024 UWCL runners-up Olympique Lyonnais shortly afterwards.
The following day, Bayern's Frauen-Bundesliga foes Wolfsburg will face Spain's 2024 UWCL champs FC Barcelona. Closing out the initial tilts is a WSL standoff between Manchester City and the UK league's undefeated titans Chelsea FC.
Backed by club president Michele Kang, Lyon will seek its record ninth UWCL title this year. (Kristian Skeie - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Increased global parity to test UWCL dynasties
With eight of the tournament's 23 titles under their belts, Lyon is the winningest team in UWCL history. Meanwhile, current back-to-back champions Barcelona claimed three of the last four trophies.
Despite the recent two-team domination, capturing this season's title will be a challenge. Hoping to spoil Lyon's and Barcelona's dynastic runs is four first-time title-hunters, plus two-time winners Wolfsburg and early champion Arsenal — who won the trophy in 2007, when the tournament was called the UEFA Women's Cup.
All in all, the European crown has never been tougher to claim, with leagues across the continent increasingly stocking up on standout — and potentially game-changing — players from beyond their borders.