CHICAGO — With 4:37 remaining in the second quarter of the McDonald’s All-American game Tuesday, the East held a comfortable 15-point lead over the West. Gabriela Jaquez, seeking to provide a spark for the West, drove hard to the basket, but defender Talaysia Cooper (East Clarendon High School; Turbeville, S.C.), a South Carolina signee, stayed close, forcing the UCLA signee to settle for a tough shot in the paint.

Camarillo did not have many of those in her four years at Adolfo Camarillo High School (Camarillo, Calif.), where she scored more than 1,100 points and averaged 34.2 points per game as a senior. That degree of offensive success takes discipline, but it also means understanding that all the shots you take won’t land.

Indeed, the ball clanked off the rim. West teammate Isuneh Brady (Cathedral Catholic High School; San Diego, Calif.), a UConn commit, snagged the offensive rebound, though, and every East player on the court paid attention to the ball, allowing Jaquez to slip down to the corner. Brady passed it out to Arizona signee Maya Nnaji (Hopkins High School; Hopkins, Minn.) at the top of the key, and Nnaji swung it to the wide-open Jaquez.

Jaquez for three. Swoosh.

The 6-foot forward poured in a team-high 17 points in the East’s 95-75 victory and logged almost 25 minutes on the court, more than any player on either team.

Jacquez’s performance against top-flight competition pointed to a bright future at UCLA, where she’ll team up with JWS Player of the Year Kiki Rice, who also scored 17 points and with whom she shared co-MVP honors.

“To be co-MVP with my future UCLA teammate just makes the experience so much more special,” Rice said. “I think the future’s bright.”

The East led for a full 40 minutes — a testament to the chemistry of coach Patty Evers’ (East Bladen High School; Elizabethtown, NC) roster, balanced scoring from beyond the arc (with five separate players draining at least one 3-pointer) and Rice’s calm leadership.

Rice set the tone from the onset. Her strengths as a player lie in her ability to keep her composure amid chaos, even when the chaos is playing with 23 of the best basketball players in the senior class.

She recorded five assists and grabbed four defensive rebounds in addition to her scoring output. Jaquez totaled two assists and a steal while pulling down nine rebounds. Both future Bruins were also perfect from the free-throw line.

Aaliyah Gayles ( @IsthatAg3 ) rebound and assist to Gabriela Jaquez ( @gabrielarj11 ) pic.twitter.com/pl1ewwkoXn

— Antonio Garcia (@Iruk_WomenSport) March 29, 2022

“Gabs’ and Kiki’s talent is only matched by their work ethic, character and competitive nature,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I’m very excited about their future impact on the Bruins.”

The East Team, which also managed to secure a victory in Sunday’s non-televised scrimmage, forced 21 total turnovers in Tuesday’s game and had five players score in double figures.

Cooper, who finished with 15 points, elicited shouts of disbelief from the crowd in the first quarter after crossing over USC signee Aaliyah Gayles (Spring Valley High School; Las Vegas, Nev.) and flying past help defender KK Bransford (Mount Notre Dame High School; Cincinnati; Ohio), a Notre Dame signee, in one of the game’s finer moments of ball-handling.

Ta’Niya Latson (American Heritage High School; Plantation, Fla.), a 5-foot-9 guard bound for Florida State, also dropped 15 points. Perhaps most impressive was her efficiency. She shot over 50 percent on 10 shots, including three 3-pointers.

If Tuesday’s showdown was, in fact, a peak into the future, college basketball might be on the precipice of reaching new heights. The 170 total points scored are believed to be the most in the game’s 19-year history.

Caroline Makauskas is a contributing writer for Just Women’s Sports. She also writes about college basketball for Blue Ribbon Sports and covers a variety of sports on her TikTok @cmakauskas. Follow her on Twitter @cmakauskas.

The USA women's hockey team came out on top over the weekend, kicking off the four-game 2025 Rivalry Series against Canada by dominating their northern neighbors, outscoring them by an impressive 10-2 margin across the pair's first two games.

US forward Abbey Murphy emerged as a series star, scoring a natural hat trick in the team's 4-1 win in Cleveland on Thursday — the first three-goal turn by a USA player against Canada since team captain Hilary Knight did so at the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship.

"I told [Murphy], 'You set the bar pretty high,'" said Knight, who added her own hat trick to the mix in Saturday's 6-1 victory in Buffalo.

"I love how we showed up," the 36-year-old continued. "We've been working like dogs since August and to get rewarded for our work, and see situations that we need to work on."

Notably, while the USA brought their entire 2025 world championship-winning roster to the first two Rivalry Series games, Canada chose to evaluate some fresh faces while resting a number of standout veterans, including their No. 1 goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens — a fact that should temper the sting of adding two big losses to their now four-game skid against the US.

With women's hockey taking over Milan at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February, the last two 2025 Rivalry Series matchups will more likely see both sides testing their final rosters for Italy.

How to watch the final games in the 2025 Rivalry Series

Canada will welcome the USA for the last two matchups in the 2025 Rivalry Series, with the puck dropping in Edmonton, Alberta, at 9 PM ET for both the December 10th and 13th clashes.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

The LPGA is bringing star power to Florida this week, as a wealth of women's golf talent — and one basketball superstar — tee off at the 2025 edition of The ANNIKA.

Kicking off the event on Wednesday was the annual Pro-Am, with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark headlining the field for the second straight year.

World No. 2 golfer Nelly Korda once again joined Clark through her first nine holes, as Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull served as guest caddies.

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The four-day professional tournament will then tee off on Thursday, though current world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul will not be in attendance for the second year in a row.

Korda, however, will lead the charge to both defend her 2024 title and secure her first win of the 2025 LPGA season — as well as add to her full trio of trophies collected at The ANNIKA.

Four other Top-10 players will look to upend Korda's back-to-back bid, including No. 3 Miyu Yamashita, No. 6 Charley Hull, No. 9 Mao Saigo, and No. 10 Lottie Woad.

With the 2025 CMA Group Tour Championship capping the LPGA season later this month, The ANNIKA will also see golfers on the bubble — like US stars Rose Zhang and 2023 champion Lilia Vu — try to snag enough points to make the end-of-year tournament's final 60-player cut.

How to watch The ANNIKA 2025 LPGA tournament

Coverage of the fifth edition of The ANNIKA continues through Sunday, airing live on the Golf Channel.

The No. 3 UCLA Bruins rose to the occasion on Monday, looking like 2025/26 NCAA basketball championship contenders as they took down the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners 73-59 in Sacramento.

Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens made the difference for the Bruins, leading all scorers with 20 points while opposing defenses limited both UCLA center Lauren Betts and Oklahoma big Raegan Beers to single digits.

Bruins forward Angela Dugalić also put up a standout performance, coming off the bench to score 16 points and snag 15 rebounds on Monday.

"There are so many weapons that I feel like it's hard for the defense to choose what to take away," Kneepkens said ahead of Monday's matchup. "What makes this team special is that any night could be someone's night."

Monday's clash with UCLA also served as the national broadcast debut of Oklahoma freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez, with the No. 1 high school basketball recruit seeing her first Top 10 NCAA matchup as a Sooner.

Chavez had a slow start against the experienced Bruins, registering 11 points, three assists, and two rebounds across her 32 minutes on the court.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

The heat continues for No. 3 UCLA on Thursday, when the Bruins will host the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels at 9 PM ET, airing live on ESPN.

Newly formed offseason league Project B is stocking up, with Phoenix Mercury star forward Alyssa Thomas becoming the second big-name WNBA player to sign with the overseas venture ahead of its anticipated November 2026 debut.

Thomas follows Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike in joining Project B, a traveling tournament-style competition reportedly offering players significant pay raises into the seven- and even eight-figure echelon — as well as equity stakes in the league.

Thomas will still feature in the 2026 season of Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball this January, with the launch of Project B expected to conflict with Unrivaled's third season in 2027.

With salaries reportedly topping both Unrivaled and the WNBA, Project B's funding sources came into question after Ogwumike's announcement last week.

In February, The Financial Times named Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as a league investor, though Project B co-founder Grady Burnett denied those claims to Front Office Sports last week.

However, the league is working with event partner Sela, a known subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, though Burnett was quick to qualify that "Sela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them."

With the first season of Project B set to field 66 players, expect more high-profile signings to continue as the new venture adds to the increasingly crowded WNBA offseason space.