STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — LJ Cryer and Dale Bonner each scored 15 points, and No. 7 Baylor held off Oklahoma State for a 74-68 victory. Jalen Bridges had 14 points and Adam Flagler added 13 for Baylor, which earned its second straight win since dropping consecutive games at Kansas State and Kansas. The Bears played without leading scorer Keyonte George, who sprained his right ankle during Saturday’s 81-72 victory over Texas. John-Michael Wright scored 17 points for Oklahoma State.
AMES, Iowa (AP) — Erik Stevenson scored 23 points, Joe Toussaint added 19 off the bench and West Virginia rallied late to beat Iowa State 72-69. Stevenson made 8 of 17 shots from the floor with four 3-pointers for the Mountaineers (17-13, 6-11 Big 12 Conference). Toussaint hit all eight of his free throws and added seven rebounds. Emmitt Matthews Jr. added 13 points and two blocks. Gabe Kalscheur scored a season-high 26 points to pace the Cyclones (17-12, 8-9), who have lost four straight. Jaren Holmes had 16 points.
UNDATED (AP) — The final week of the regular season is here, the calendar rounding toward March Madness. A handful of regular-season titles are already wrapped up. Several are still up in the air, like the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences. No. 25 Pittsburgh has a half-game lead over No. 16 Miami in the ACC with a game against the Hurricanes on Saturday. No. 3 Kansas leads No. 9 Texas by a game in the Big 12 and will play the Longhorns on Saturday. Top-ranked Houston and No. 4 UCLA are among the teams that have already clinched regular-season titles.
UNDATED (AP) — The top five spots in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll remained the same. The rest of the AP Top 25 was a big jumble. Houston was No. 1 for the second straight week in the poll released Monday, receiving 49 first-place votes from a 62-person media panel. No. 2 Alabama had five first-place votes and No. 3 Kansas received eight. UCLA and Purdue rounded out the top 5. The Boilermakers held at No. 5 despite losing to No. 15 Indiana. The rest of the poll, only No. 20 Providence kept the same position from last week.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — New York Mets right-hander Max Scherzer described pitching under Major League Baseball’s new rules as a “cat-and-mouse” game. Contrary to previous years, Scherzer feels the pitcher finally has control of the tempo because of the new pitch clock. In his first start of the Grapefruit League schedule, Scherzer was touched for a run in the second inning but struck out five while working the first two innings of the Mets’ 6-3 win over Washington. The average game time through three days of spring training is 2 hours, 39 minutes, down from an average of 3:01 for all of spring training last year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s average salary rose 14.8% to a record $4.22 million last year after the end of the lockout, boosted by big deals for Max Scherzer, Francisco Lindor, Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. The rate of increase was the highest since a 17.7% increase in 2000 to $1.61 million,according to final calculations by the players’ association. The average had dropped in each of the previous four seasons before 2022, sparking player anger that was expressed by the union during a 99-day lockout that ended last March.
PARIS (AP) — World Cup winner Lionel Messi has won FIFA’s Best Men’s Player award for 2022. Spain’s Alexia Putellas won FIFA’s Best Women’s Player award for the second straight time. Messi won the voting over Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema. Putellas won the women's voting over Alex Morgan of the United States and England’s Beth Mead. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has been voted FIFA men’s coach of the year after leading his team to the World Cup title in December. The women’s coach award went to Sarina Wiegman after she led England to the title at the Women’s European Championship.
MONDAY SCORES
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final (7)Baylor 74 Oklahoma St. 68
INTERLEAGUE
Final Atlanta 7 Toronto 0
Final Miami 4 Houston 3
Final Milwaukee 10 Kansas City 4
Final Cleveland 12 Chicago Cubs 4
Final Colorado 7 Oakland 3
Final San Francisco 8 L.A. Angels 6
Final Texas 13 Cincinnati 2
Final Arizona 6 West Virginia 0
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Boston 4 Minnesota 1
Final Tampa Bay 14 Baltimore 2
Final Chicago White Sox 10 Seattle 1
Final N.Y. Yankees 8 Detroit 5
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Philadelphia 9 Pittsburgh 7
Final St. Louis 12 N.Y. Mets 7
Final Arizona 3 Chicago Cubs 0
Final L.A. Dodgers 7 San Diego 6
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final Charlotte 117 Detroit 106
Final Miami 101 Philadelphia 99
Final New York 109 Boston 94
Final Orlando 101 New Orleans 93