COLLEGES

Starting point guard Alba Orois has decided to leave the University of Maine women’s basketball team to pursue professional basketball opportunities in Europe, the school announced Wednesday.

Orois, a native of Spain, averaged 9.9 points per game and led America East in assists with 5.8 per game, earning third team all-conference honors.

Also on Wednesday, UMaine signed Anna Soler, a 5-foot-8 point guard from Barcelona. Soler spent last season at Eastern Wyoming College and will have three years of eligibility with the Black Bears.

Soler started all 30 games last season for Eastern Wyoming, averaging 9.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 37.9 percent from 3-point range.

BOSTON COLLEGE: Boston College hired former Miami athletic director Blake James to succeed Patrick Kraft as the Eagles AD. Blake is a former AD at the University of Maine.

James held the job in Miami from 2013-21, overseeing 18 varsity sports. During his tenure, the Hurricanes built new indoor facilities for football, baseball and golf, and improved the ones for men’s and women’s basketball.

Kraft left BC to take the AD job at Penn State.

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Justin Lewis has decided to remain in the NBA draft rather than return to Marquette for the 2022-23 season.

The 6-foot-7 forward issued a social media post saying, “Thank you Marquette,” on Wednesday, which marked the NCAA deadline for players who had entered the draft to withdraw from consideration and maintain their college eligibility.

• Iowa State Coach T.J. Otzelberger received a contract extension and a $500,000 raise after leading the Cyclones to the NCAA Sweet 16 and the third-best turnaround in major college basketball history.

Otzelberger’s contract was extended one year, through June 2027, and his compensation package increases from $1.5 million to $2 million annually.

Iowa State had been a unanimous pick to finish last in the Big 12. The Cyclones finished seventh and were ranked as high as No. 8 in The Associated Press Top 25.

BASEBALL

EASTERN LEAGUE: The Portland Sea Dogs lost their fifth straight game, falling to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 4-3 at Manchester, New Hampshire.

The Sea Dogs rallied in the ninth with two runs. Christian Koss hit a two-out triple and scored on a double by Hudson Potts, who then scored on a single by Kole Cottam. But Brandon Howlett was called out on strikes to end the game.

Koss had an RBI double in the fourth inning as Portland took a 1-0 lead. New Hampshire took the lead in the bottom of the inning as Philip Clarke was hit with the bases loaded and then LJ Talley got an RBI on a bases-loaded walk.

New Hampshire added to its lead with two runs in the seventh on Cam Eden’s double.

GOLF

DEATH: Professional golfer Bart Bryant, who once beat Tiger Woods by six shots to collect the biggest paycheck of his career, was killed when a truck slammed into his SUV while he was stopped in a line of vehicles on a central Florida road for a construction crew, authorities said.

Bryant, 59, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, was unresponsive when emergency responders in Polk City found him Tuesday afternoon. He was taken to a hospital where he died. His wife, Donna, 49, also was in the vehicle and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Sabrina Ionescu scored 23 points, Rebecca Allen added 17 and the host New York Liberty beat the Indiana Fever 87-74 to snap a seven-game losing streak.

New York was outscored 33-17 in the second quarter, but used two big runs in the second half to take control. New York went on a 13-0 run in the third to take a 53-52 lead on Natasha Howard’s three-point play. The Liberty also went on a 12-0 run, capped by Allen’s 3-pointer, in the fourth to make it 77-68.

• Rhyne Howard scored 22 points, Kristy Wallace made five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 18 points and the Atlanta Dream beat the visiting Minnesota Lynx 84-76.

SOCCER

U.S. MEN: U.S. captain Christian Pulisic was critical of the level of American support from the crowd of 19,512 at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati during a 3-0 victory over Morocco in the first of four World Cup warm-up matches in June.

“For whatever reason, I’m not super happy with the amount of Americans here, however, that works out, if I’m being completely honest,” the 23-year-old Chelsea forward told a live audience on ESPN2. “But thanks to the ones who did come, and the support is always great from them.”

Brenden Aaronson and Tim Weah scored midway through the first half and Haji Wright converted a second-half penalty kick in his international debut.

The 15th-ranked Americans, using a roster at about 75% of full strength, won for the first time in four matches with No. 24 Morocco, also preparing for the November tournament in Qatar.

WORLD CUP: Ukraine’s emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup amid an ongoing war moved past the first hurdle with a 3-1 win over Scotland on  in a pulsating playoff semifinal.

Now the team needs just one more win to reach Qatar.

Veteran captain Andriy Yarmolenko lifted his nation by scoring a deft lobbed goal in the 33rd minute and then helped set up Roman Yaremchuk’s header in the 49th to make it 2-0.

Ukraine dominated for much of a deserved win but had to resist a Scotland revival as risk-filled attacks brought a goal in the 79th by Callum McGregor, before Ukraine substitute Artem Dovbyk broke clear to score with the last kick of the game.

Now Ukraine moves on to face Wales on Sunday with a place at the World Cup at stake.

The winner in Cardiff will go to Qatar in November to play in a group against England, the United States and Iran.

MANCHESTER CITY: Benjamin Mendy will stand trial accused of eight counts of rape after being charged with an additional offense.

The latest allegation of rape relates to a new complainant and could only be reported for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted during a hearing at Chester Crown Court.

The World Cup-winning France defender pleaded not guilty last month to all but the latest charge, for which he has yet to enter a plea.

The 27-year-old Mendy also denies one count of sexual assault and one count of attempted rape.

All the offenses are alleged to have taken place at his home address between October 2018 and August last year when he was suspended by City.

He is due to go on trial on July 25 along with co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, who has also entered not guilty pleas to all charges he faces. Matturie denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault.

Both defendants are on bail.

REAL MADRID: Gareth Bale confirmed he is leaving Real Madrid, saying he was happy to have fulfilled his dream of playing with the Spanish powerhouse.

The 32-year-old Bale, whose contract expires at the end of this month, joined Madrid from Tottenham in 2013. He played on loan with the English club in 2020-21.

AWARD: Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is in contention to win English football’s Player of the Year award for the third straight season.

De Bruyne was on a six-man shortlist for the award, alongside Liverpool trio Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, Tottenham striker Harry Kane and Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo.

De Bruyne won the prestigious award, voted by the players, in 2020 and ’21. Van Dijk and Salah won it the years before that.

The shortlist for the women’s Player of the Year award consisted of Chelsea duo Pernille Harder and Sam Kerr, Arsenal pair Vivianne Miedema and Kim Little and Manchester City’s Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp.

MANCHESTER UNITED: Paul Pogba joined Manchester United for a world-record fee. He’ll leave the English club for nothing.

United said the France midfielder would be departing Old Trafford at the end of the month when his contract expires. Another midfielder, Jesse Lingard, will also be leaving when his latest contract runs out on June 30, United said.

AC MILAN: Less than two weeks after celebrating AC Milan’s league title win with thousands of fans, Gerry Cardinale is on the verge of becoming the new owner of the storied Serie A club.

Cardinale is the founder and managing partner of American investment firm RedBird Capital Partners, which has signed a preliminary agreement to buy Milan for 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

Milan said RedBird is expected to complete the purchase from fellow American firm Elliott Management by September at the latest.

BELGIUM: Belgium’s most successful club Anderlecht has hired Felice Mazzu as its new coach to replace Vincent Kompany.

Anderlecht won the last of its record 34 Belgian league titles in 2017 and hopes to get back to the top with Mazzu, who was recruited from local Brussels rival Union Saint-Gilloise.

WEST HAM: Defender Kurt Zouma was banned from keeping cats for five years and ordered to carry out 180 hours of community service as a punishment for kicking and slapping his pet cat in abuse caught on video.

AUTO RACING

INDYCAR: Callum Illot will miss the Detroit Grand Prix because of a broken hand suffered in a crash during the Indianapolis 500. Juncos Hollinger Racing replaced him with Santino Ferrucci to race in Detroit this weekend.

Illot was an early crash at Indy and finished 32nd; Ferrucci was 10th on Sunday.

• Rookie Kyle Kirkwood will replace Alexander Rossi next season at Andretti Autosport, the team that developed the Floridian but did not have an open seat for him when Kirkwood was ready for the big leagues.

Kirkwood has won at every level of IndyCar’s ladder system and was last year’s Indy Lights champion. But Michael Andretti had a full lineup this year, so Kirkwood signed a one-year deal to drive for A.J. Foyt Racing.

Rossi is expected to announce he signed a contract with Arrow McLaren SP before this season even started, leaving the No. 27 seat open for Andretti to bring back his prized young driver for 2023.

HORSE RACING

BELMONT: Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike arrived at Belmont Park for the final jewel of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.

The track announced the long-shot winner of the Derby arrived around 1 a.m. to start preparations for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 11. The colt was shipped by van from Kentucky.