Assembly Ball beats Men of Mackey in the Basketball Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse
IU basketball alumni team Assembly Ball has advanced to the round-of-16 in the $1 million winner-takes-all The Basketball Tournament. Assembly Ball defeated Purdue alumni team Men of Mackey by a final score of 68=55 at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Sunday evening. The winners were led by Kristian Doolittle with 14 points. Yogi Ferrell added 13. Men of Mackey shot just 30.1% from the field. The game featured the debuts of IU basketball alumni Miller Kopp and Jordan Hulls. Kopp scored seven points. Hulls made a brief appearance and did not score. Assembly Ball will play Eberlein Drive in the round-of-16 tonight at 7pm, back at Hinkle Fieldhouse with the game televised on Fox Sports 1. #6 Seed Eberlein Drive knocked off #2 Seed All Good Dawgs which is the Butler Alumni Team 88-73 in the First Semifinal Sunday Evening.
Kel’el Ware leads the Miami Heat to the NBA Las Vegas Summer League Championship Game
Former Indiana Hoosier Kel’el Ware scored 18 points in pulled down 5 rebounds as the Miami Heat beat the Golden State Warriors 102-99 in the Semifinals of the NBA Las Vegas Summer League at the Thomas and Mack Center on the UNLV Campus Sunday Afternoon. Ware started and played 23 minutes going 8-15 from the field, 1-2 from three-point range and 1-2 from the free throw line. Ware had a turnover and four fouls. Ware started the game with a dunk and continued to impress with his ability to finish at the rim, run the floor and hit the outside shot. The Heat finished 5-0 and made the Semifinals after a 109-73 win on Friday over the Toronto Raptors. Ware played and started 23 Minutes scoring 17 points and 10 rebounds for his 3rd double-double in Las Vegas and fourth of the summer after 26-point, 11 rebound performance against the Sacramento Kings at the California Classic in San Francisco earlier in the month. Ware had 4 steals, 2 assists and 1 block against the Raptors.
Miller Kopp scored 3 points in 16 minutes for the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 90-83 loss on Friday Night Kopp went 1-7 from the field and 1-5 from three-point range. He pulled down 5 rebounds and had an assist. Kopp did not play Saturday as the Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks 88-79 on Saturday as the Thunder finished the Summer League with a 1-4 Record.
Indiana University Women’s Tennis Earns Team and Indvidual ITA Scholar Honors
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced their All-Academic teams and Scholar Athletes for the 2023-24 season, earning All-Academic team and six individual honors. Indiana boasted a 3.62 GPA for the 2023-24 season. To be eligible for the award, Division I programs must hold a combined team grade point average of 3.2 or higher for the current academic year. Four freshmen Chase Boyer, Elisabeth Dunac, Sarah L’Allier and Li-Hsin Lin were among the individuals honored in addition to graduate students Lene Mari Hovda and Saby Nihalani. To be named a Scholar-Athlete, one must maintain a grade point average of at least 3.5 for the current academic year.
Indiana University Men’s Tennis Earns Team and Indvidual ITA Scholar Honors
Six Indiana Men’s Tennis players and the team as a whole were recognized for academic excellence by the ITA on Monday. Indiana was named an All-Academic Team with Carson Haskins, Jagger Saylor, Luc Boulier, Niokla Kolyachev, Nishanth Basavareddy and Sam Landau being named ITA Scholar-Athletes. The scholar All-American honor was given to tennis student-athletes for attaining a 3.5 GPA or higher throughout the entire school year. In order for a team to be recognized, an entire team’s collective GPA needed to be at 3.2 or higher for the whole academic year.
Kyle Larson wins the Brickyard 400
Kyle Larson made a late charge through the field, managed to get his car refired after a red flag and won the final two restart battles Sunday before coasting to his first Brickyard 400 victory under caution. Larson took the lead when Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel and pulled off the track just before the second-to-last restart and beat pole winner Tyler Reddick at the end with the yellow flag out. “Today was definitely meant to be for us with the way the strategy was working out and all that fell into place,” Larson said. “Thankfully, it did. I just can’t believe it. It’s just surreal to win here.”
Larson won in his first trip back to the speedway since he tried to become the fifth driver to complete 1,100 miles of racing on the same May Day, at Indy and Charlotte, North Carolina. Larson won for the fourth time this season and took the points lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. The 31-year-old Californian charged back from 12th over the final 32 laps as many drivers attempted to save fuel in the first Cup race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s historic 2.5-mile oval since 2020, with the last three being run on the facility’s 14-turn road course. Larson has won three of NASCAR’s crown jewel races, missing only the Daytona 500. And his return to Indy was every bit as exciting as it was in May.
When Keselowski pulled off the track before taking the green flag with three to go, he ceded the inside lane to Larson, who take advantage of a clean shot to pass Ryan Blaney’s second-place car just before a five-car pileup that began when Daniel Hemric and John Henry Nemechek made contact. The crash brought out the red flag and Larson needed an assist in getting his No. 5 Chevrolet stated. Once he did, though, he again had the inside lane, and again beat Blaney off the restart and held on for the victory. “That’s a heartbreaker. We did everything right today,” said Blaney, who was upset that Larson essentially went from third into the line Keselowski had chosen to restart. “He was in prime position to win, and it just didn’t work out for us.”
Denny Hamlin won the first stage, his first ever at Indianapolis, and Bubba Wallace took the second stage, giving him 10 points as he tries to make the playoffs. It was Wallace’s first stage win since 2022. Blaney wound up third, Elliott was fourth and Todd Gilliland was fifth. The race was scheduled to be broadcast on NBC, but viewers who tuned into the network found something else, breaking news about President Joe Biden withdrawing from the presidential race. NBC made the decision to briefly switch the telecast to USA Network, which also covered some of the weekend’s festivities then went back to Cup coverage at the start of the race. The race also finished on USA Network after the red flag stoppage, again because of the breaking news.
Riley Herbst wins the Xfinity Race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a Last Lap Pass
Riley Herbst saw an opening Saturday and made it pay off with a trip to victory lane at the Brickyard. The 25-year-old NASCAR Xfinity Series driver chased down Aric Almirola on the final lap, then got close enough to tap Almirola’s car with his front bumper in the final turn, dart to the inside for the lead and hold onto his sliding car to win his first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Herbst gave Stewart-Haas Racing its second straight victory, finishing ahead of teammate Cole Custer by 0.167 seconds. Almirola wound up third.
“This is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, everyone in the world wants to race here and win here,” Herbst said, explaining he barely held onto the car when it started to go sideways. “I don’t care if it’s the Xfinity Series or the go-kart series. This is Indianapolis.” Herbst’s only other career win came on his home track, Las Vegas, in October and just one week after his teammate, Custer captured his first win of the season at Pocono. The back-to-back wins give SHR, a team that’s closing its doors after the season, some momentum heading into the final six regular-season races.
Herbst also won the first Xfinity race held on Indy’s historic 2.5-mile oval since 2018, doing it in thrilling fashion. Each of the top three finishers held the lead during the final three laps and Custer came within a whisker of capping a perfect weekend with his second straight trip to victory lane when he passed Almirola on the inside of the front straightaway. Earlier Saturday, Custer was named the Haas Factory Team’s Cup driver for 2025. “I just needed one less lap, you know,” Custer said. “I felt like it was kind of a disadvantage to lead, in my opinion, all day. If you were in second, it actually got your car looser and it would save your tires. But what an awesome day for SHR.” The results kept Custer atop the series standings while Herbst locked up a playoff spot. Custer led the most laps, 47, while Herbst led 30 in a race marred by seven caution periods and a big crash on Lap 1.
Herbst also won the first stage and finished third in the second stage. Almirola, meanwhile, led five laps but couldn’t hang on when it mattered most. “Maybe just not carry as much speed at Turn 3,” he said when asked if he’d have done anything different. That miscue was all Herbst needed to get past Almirola for a milestone win. “It’s fun, it’s fun,” Herbst said. “I’m going to go drink a beer and turn my phone on. This is iconic.”
Cailtin Clark Named the WNBA Rookie of the Month for the Second Time
Indiana Fever Guard Caitlin Clark was named the WNBA Rookie of the Month for July, the league announced. This is the second time Clark has earned Rookie of the Month honors after being named Rookie of the Month in May. Clark joins Aliyah Boston as the only other rookie in franchise history to receive this recognition multiple times, as Boston was named Rookie of the Month for May, June and August in 2023. In July, Clark averaged 20.3 points, 12.5 assists, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals and played 38.2 minutes per game. Clark concluded the month as the WNBA leader in assists per game (8.2 apg), while also leading all rookies in points (17.1 ppg), assists, steals (1.5 spg), minutes (35.2 mpg), field goals made (138), 3-point field goals made (71) and free throw shooting percentage (89.1%).
In July, Clark broke multiple league and franchise records. In the 83-78 win against the New York Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 6, Clark became the only rookie in WNBA history and the first player in franchise history to record a triple-double, as she tallied 19 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds in her 22nd career game. Clark also became the fastest rookie in WNBA history to record at least 400 points and 200 assists in just 26 games. During Indiana’s six games in July, Clark recorded four-consecutive double-doubles in points and assists, marking the longest streak by a rookie in league history. Clark tied the previous franchise record of 13 assists in a game three times in July and then made league history on July 17 against the Dallas Wings, recording 19 assists for the WNBA single-game assists record. Clark also surpassed a franchise record of most assists recorded by any Fever player in a regular season, as she now has 213 assists through 26 games played.
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