The basketball gods apparently wanted Tyus Edney to see history repeating itself.

His history.

It’s the only explanation for how the former UCLA point guard known for his heroic coast-to-coast layup in the 1995 NCAA tournament came to yell, “Yeaahhh Baabyyy!” in a hotel lobby Saturday night after catching the end of his alma mater’s game against Illinois.

The final 4.9 seconds, to be exact.

Huddling around a phone with the Pepperdine team chaplain after the Waves played Oregon State, Edney arrived just in time to watch after the Bruins called a timeout to set up their final play while trailing by one point in overtime.

Edney, an assistant coach with the Waves, told the California Post on Sunday that he thought it was curious the Fighting Illini weren’t trying to deny UCLA point guard Donovan Dent the ball in the backcourt.

“I’m looking and I’m like, are they going to let Dent catch the ball?” Edney said. “Do they know that would not be ideal for them? And then he was kind of deep in the corner and then when I saw him cutting across, I’m like, oh my God, they’re letting him catch the ball and he was off to the races.”

Edney said he was struck by how Dent’s winning layup was similar to his against Missouri in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Like Dent, Edney took a pass while curling around in the backcourt and zipped past multiple defenders before being confronted by a big man at the rim. Contorting his body around Tigers forward Derek Grimm, Edney banked in a shot to lift the Bruins by a point in a victory that sparked their championship run.

Dent needed just two dribbles to get to midcourt, where he used a screen from Tyler Bilodeau to shed one defender. Splitting two more defenders near the free throw line, Dent twisted around Illinois’ final defender at the rim, scooping the ball off the backboard for the winning points in the Bruins’ wild 95-94 victory.

Edney started screaming “Yeaahhh Baabyyy!”, just like UCLA radio analyst Marques Johnson had in Boise that day after Edney went coast to coast in only 4.8 seconds.

“It was kind of perfect timing of being able to see that,” Edney said of getting to the hotel before Dent’s shot. “And then the announcer saying as he’s laying it up, like saying Tyus Edney. That was pretty cool too.”

Edney said he understood Dent not having watched his shot – widely considered the most iconic play in UCLA basketball history – given the generation gap. Dent was not even born when that play was made.

Edney saw Dent play in person earlier this season when Pepperdine lost to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion but has not met him. Edney texted Bruins center Steven Jamerson II, who played for San Diego when Edney was a Toreros assistant, to tell him to congratulate Dent.

When it came to Dent’s getting the chance to win the game in a moment that felt magnificently familiar, Edney said he understood coach Mick Cronin’s thinking.

“He’s fast,” Edney said. “He’s the one that I would have given it to.”

Cohen Bidgood scored twice and added an assist as the London Knights doubled up the Sudbury Wolves 4-2 on Feb. 22 at Canada Life Place.

Bidgood now has four goals and three assists in his past three games.

The Knights roared out to a 4-0 lead through 20 minutes as Bidgood scored twice and helped to set up another.

The first was set up by Will Nicholl and the second came off of a steal on the right side of the Wolves zone.

Jaxson Cover then fed Nicholl 26 seconds later to make it 3-0 Knights.

Cover had two assists in the opening 20 minutes and also chased down Chase Coughlin of Sudbury to deny a breakaway and drew a penalty at the other end of the ice on the same shift.

On that power play Bidgood got the puck on goal and Braiden Clark hammered home a rebound for his 14th goal of the year with just eight seconds showing on the clock and London led 4-0 heading to the dressing room.

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Sudbury’s 2025 first-round pick Brayden Bennett scored the only goal of the second period as he deflected a Genc Ula shot into the Knight net at 13:49.

In the third period, Wolves defenceman Artem Gonchar snapped a shot through traffic from the middle of the blue line with 4:21 remaining to tighten the score to 4-2.

London held on from there and moved to within three points of Sault Ste. Marie for fourth place in the Western Conference. Each team now has 11 games remaining in the regular season.

The Knights outshot the Wolves 38-28.

Seb Gatto made 26 saves for his 17th win of the year for London.

The Knights were 1-for-3 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The downs and ups of Oliver Bonk and Landon Sim

Former Knights defenceman Oliver Bonk was recalled from the American Hockey League’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms for a day. Bonk practiced with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers and was then reassigned to Lehigh Valley indicating he could be close to seeing some time in the big league. If and when Bonk debuts he would join Flyers teammate Denver Barkey and Easton Cowan and Sam Dickinson as the fourth player from the 2025 Memorial Cup Championship team to already make their NHL debut.

Former Knight forward Landon Sim is back with the Toronto Marlies. Sim missed time with a lower body injury early this year and had been sent to Cincinnati of the ECHL where he played 18 games. Sim scored one of the most memorable goals in London’s championship run last season when he knocked a rebound out of the air and in against the Oshawa Generals to score the insurance goal in the J. Ross Robertson Cup clinching Game 5 of the OHL Championship Series.

Up next

The Knights will finish their six-game home stand when they host the Windsor Spitfires at Canada Life Place on Friday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.

Windsor has the upper hand in the six-game season series having won two of the three games played so far but London won the most recent game when Andoni Fimis scored in overtime at the WFCU Centre on Dec. 6.

Coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Milan Cortina Olympics ended Sunday as the twin flames in co-host cities Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo were extinguished as part of a closing ceremony inside the ancient Verona Arena, roughly mid-distance between the far-flung mountain, valley and city venues that made these the most spread-out Winter Games ever.

In declaring the 2026 Games over, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told local organizers that they “delivered a new kind of winter games and you set a new, very high standard for the future.”

A total of 116 medal events have been held in eight Olympic sports across 16 disciplines, including the debut of ski mountaineering this year, over the course of 17 days of competition.

The closing ceremony paid tribute to Italian dance and music — from lyric opera to Italian pop of the 20th century to the DJ beat of Gabry Ponte, who got the 1,500 athletes on their feet for an upbeat dance number while colour confetti exploded on stage.

Earlier, the 2026 Winter Olympians filed into the arena waving small national flags to a rousing medley of Italian pop hits from the 20th century as the crowd sang along, taking their seats in the stone arena in places marked by green, red and white lights for the Italian flag.

The Canadian Olympic Committee said approximately 90 of Canada’s 207 athletes in Milan Cortina marched in the closing ceremony, with speedskater Valérie Maltais and short-track speedskater Steven Dubois carrying the Canadian flag into the stadium.

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The 2 1/2-hour ceremony opened with a whimsical tribute to Italian lyric opera, with the stage director rousing not only the closing ceremony cast, including Italian singer Achille Lauro, but also long-dormant opera characters tucked away in crates within the amphitheatre’s tunnels.

On stage, Madama Butterfly in a bright pink and green costume and Aida in golden tiers were unpacked from mirrored crates while 17th century musicians played the joyous “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” from La Traviata, a nod to the Arena’s long history as the venue for a summer opera festival.

6:49
Milano-Cortina Olympics: Brendan Mackay speaks after bronze medal win in men’s ski halfpipe

The opera characters, led by the jester Rigoletto, spilled out into the piazza outside, mixing with the bemused athletes who were flag-bearers for their countries, some ofwhom pulled out their phones to film.

In a key moment, the Olympic flame encased in a Venetian glass vessel was carried into the Arena by Italian gold medallists from the 1994 Lillehammer Games. The Olympic rings illuminated in white appeared high on the stone stairs behind the stage, flanked by national flags, when one raised the flame in the centre of the stage.

This was the first Olympics for Coventry, a two-time Olympic champion in swimming, who watched much of the ceremony alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Some 12,000 spectators joined the athletes and officials for the closing ceremony, which was much more intimate affair than the opening ceremony starring Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli inside Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, attended by more than 60,000 people.

Key moments included the Olympic flag is handed over to the next Winter Games host nation, France.

The Milan Cortina Games spanned an area of 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 square miles), from ice sports in Milan to biathlon in Anterselva on the Austrian border, snowboarding and men’s downhill in Valtellina on the Swiss border, cross-country skiing in the Val di Fiemme north of Verona and women’s downhill, curling and sliding sports in co-host Cortina d’Ampezzo.

It’s a model that will remain for future Games, to avoid the expense of building new facilities. The 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps will stage events in the Alps and Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea, while speedskating will be held abroad in a venue to be decided.

The closing ceremony concluded with the Olympic flames extinguished at the unprecedented two cauldrons in Milan and Cortina, viewed in Verona via video link. A light show substituted fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona, to protect animals from being disturbed.

The Milan Cortina Paralympics’ opening ceremony will also take place in the Verona Arena, on March 6, and the Games will run until March 15.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Connor Hellebuyck pulled off the save of the Olympic tournament, and Team USA went on to capture its first gold medal in men’s ice hockey since 1980.

The Winnipeg Jets goalie made a crazy paddle stop on Team Canada defenseman Devon Toews in the second period of a tie game, before Devils star Jack Hughes eventually sealed the victory with a truly golden goal in 3-on-3 overtime.

Hellebuyck, a three-time Vezina Trophy winner and the reigning Hart Trophy winner as league MVP, sprawled back through the crease to deny Toews’ open-net look from short range to preserve a 1-1 tie in the third period.

It was the best of 41 saves made by the Michigan native amid a heavy onslaught by the Canadians throughout the game aside from their lone goal by Toews’ Colorado teammate Cale Makar.

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2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

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“It’s a dream come true,” Hellebuyck told  NBC after the game. “We grinded, we battled, and this was some of the best and most fun hockey that I’ve ever played…It still hasn’t truthfully sunk in.

“I’m looking forward to celebrating for the next 24 hours and who knows how long it’s going to last.”

LIVIGNO – Canadian Amy Fraser, still dealing with the after-effects of a nasty injury suffered in training last March at the FIS World Championships, just missed the podium Sunday in women’s freeski halfpipe at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The 30-year-old from Calgary finished fourth, landing three clean runs with the best earning a score of 88.00.

“That’s some of my best skiing,” said Fraser. “I think there’s always some room for improvement clearly, being 4.5 points off the podium. Whatever. Someone’s got to come fourth.”

Fraser’s performance was all the more impressive given she broke her shoulder in last year’s crash at Engadin, Switzerland.

“Obviously fourth stings for us. It stings for her,” said Canadian halfpipe coach Trennon Paynter. “But really what she did today to ski her best in this situation, she needs to be super-proud.”

Paynter said the crash left Fraser “smashed up.”

“It was kind of a full-body beatdown. But the shoulder was definitely the worst of it and the one that lingered the longest and required the most management. Even now she’s still dealing with it somewhat.”

“I’m stoked I’m here,” Fraser said with a laugh.

Defending champion Eileen Gu of China won gold with a score of 94.75, adding to the two silvers she won earlier in the games in slopestyle and big air.

Chinese teammate Li Fanghui earned silver at 93.00, with reigning world champion Zoe Atkin of Britain taking bronze at 92.50.

The 22-year-old Gu won gold in both halfpipe and big air as well as silver in slopestyle four years go in Beijing, where she became the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Games.

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Gu’s six career medals move her past Canadian moguls star Mikaël Kingsbury (two golds and three silvers) as the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history.

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Born in San Francisco, to an American father and Chinese mother, Gu began skiing at three years old.

A quantum physics student at Stanford University who is fluent in English and Mandarin, Gu has three million followers on Instagram and more than seven million on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

In December, Forbes magazine listed her as the fourth-highest-earning female athlete in 2025 — behind tennis players Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek — with off-field income of US$23 million thanks to lucrative endorsements from the likes of Red Bull, Porsche, IWC Schaffhausen and addition, TCL electronics.

The competitors did three runs, with only their best effort counting.

Canadian Rachael Karker, a bronze medallist four years ago in Beijing, placed seventh at 79.50. A chronic knee injury limited her training and competition in advance of the games and two falls Sunday didn’t help.

The 28-year-old from Erin, Ont., who now makes her home in Calgary, required the help of two ski poles as she slowly left the competition site alongside fiancé Brendan Mackay, who won bronze in the men’s halfpipe final Friday.

“I’m quite sore, but I’ll be all right,” said Karker, fighting to control her emotion. “I can’t really handle that many heavy runs in a row. Nearing the end of training I was feeling pretty sore and then that first run, I couldn’t take that heavy landing.”

“I’m very proud I did everything I could with what I had today,” she added.

Paynter said it was heartbreaking to see Karker “in that much pain.”

“It’s also just so impressive that she was out there, going for it, putting it all on the line like that,” he said. “And she knows the risks. It’s what she wanted to do and we, of course, supported her through it.”

He marvelled at her performance.

“She wasn’t just skiing injured. She was charging as hard as she could injured.”

The final, rescheduled due to poor weather Saturday evening, was held late morning Sunday in glorious sunshine. It was 5 C with not a cloud in the sky, with some spectators stripping down to a T-shirt for the final event in Livigno.

Competitors soared high above the halfpipe, which measures some 198 metres long, 22 metres wide with walls 7.2 metres high.

Fraser led the first run with an 85.00 before Atkin, skiing last as the top qualifier, recorded a 90.50.

Karker’s second effort was clean, earning a 79.50 for the third-best score of the run. But Gu and Li stole the show with runs of 94.00 and 91.50, respectively, taking over the No. 1 and 2 spots with Atkin and Fraser — who did not improve their scores — dropping to third and fourth. Karker was seventh.

While Karker fell on her third run, Fraser improved her score to 88.00. But it was not enough to move up.

Gu also bettered her score, laying down a 94.75, with Li and Atkins still to come. Both improved their scores but remained in the same spot on the podium.

Fraser, who was eighth in Beijing, started skiing at age two but didn’t take up freestyle skiing until she was 21. Fraser, who holds a degree in biology from the University of Calgary, won bronze at the X Games in Aspen before the Olympics.

Canadian Cassie Sharpe, who won gold in 2018 in Pyeongchang and silver four years ago in Beijing, had to withdraw after a heavy crash in qualifying Thursday. The 33-year-old from Comox, B.C., was not cleared to compete, still dealing with a heavy concussion, facial contusion and some lingering dizziness after two nights in hospital.

Sharpe still qualified third with Fraser seventh and Karker ninth. Dillan Glennie of Courtenay, B.C., missed the final in qualifying 14th.

“I’m so proud of how she was skiing,” Fraser said of Sharpe. “I haven’t see her ski like that in years. And I’m glad she’s OK.”

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2026.

We’ve not only reached the finale of these Winter Olympics, it’s the marquee hockey matchup of the century.

USA and Canada will play for gold in men’s hockey Sunday morning, marking the highly anticipated 4 Nations Face-Off rematch from last year.

The Canadians are favored at -125 on the moneyline, with a total set at 5.5 goals.

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What our Post expert thinks about USA vs. Canada

The United States enter this game having only one scare against the Swedes in the quarterfinal. They prevailed on Quinn Hughes’ overtime game-winner and went on to drub Slovakia, 6-2.

Canada has had a rockier trip through the knockouts, trailing both Czechia and Finland before rallying with its unprecedented scoring depth.

The Canadians roster the two leading scorers of the tournament with Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini’s 13 and 10 points, respectively.

But the Americans have five players who are producing six or more points.

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Twins right-hander Joe Ryan has gone down with a back injury which could jeopardize his participation in this year’s World Baseball Classic.

Ryan, 29, was scratched from his scheduled spring training start on Saturday because of lower back tightness, and was set to undergo an MRI exam to find out more about his condition.

“It happened during his prep work,” Twins manager Derek Shelton told reporters, according to The Athletic. “We sent him for imaging just to be sure. … There is day-to-day soreness with everybody, but this is something that came up.”

The exact details of Ryan’s injury and a potential timeline to return still remain unclear.

Ryan’s apparent injury also raises concern about if he would be able to pitch for Team USA in the WBC in March. He is expected to join the team in Houston at the end of the month.

Despite Ryan needing to be ready earlier in the offseason to account for the WBC, he has previously said that he did not make many changes to his preparation.

“It didn’t feel like this crazy overhaul in any way,” Ryan told reporters earlier this month. “We just started things a little bit earlier and let the program and the process take care of the rest.”

Ryan is coming off of his best season in the MLB in which he pitched to a 13-10 record with a 3.42 ERA and 194 strikeouts through 30 starts, earning him his first career All-Star appearance.

His injury also comes just a day after fellow Twins righty Pablo Lopez announced that he will be undergoing season-ending Tommy John surgery.

“I don’t think its hit me yet,” López told reporters on Friday. “It’s sitting definitely heavy. … I think it’s going to hit me harder next week when (surgery) happens and all of that. We knew what we were looking at. I think I’m a pretty realistic person.

“I know what’s in front of me.”

MILAN — Sidney Crosby skated Saturday morning with Team Canada, but no determination has been made yet on his status for the gold medal game Sunday against Team USA, coach Jon Cooper said.

Team Canada closed its practice to reporters, so there was no chance to see what Crosby looked like on the ice or with whom he skated with.

“I haven’t spoken to him yet,” Cooper said. “We’re gonna meet tonight and have a determination of what’s gonna happen tomorrow. He won’t put himself in harm’s way and he’s not gonna put the team in harm’s way. Obviously, we’d love to have him. That determination will be made tonight.”

Cooper said Crosby will not dress in a limited role, or to serve as an inspiration, a la Victor Hedman in Sweden’s quarterfinal game.

“It’s too important,” Cooper said. “We don’t want to have somebody in there as an inspiration when we could have a player that could be capable of helping. You never know if guys are gonna get hurt in the game. He wouldn’t want to do that either.”

He also fielded a question about whether it was allowed for Crosby to be behind the bench as a de facto assistant coach, saying he didn’t know, but it won’t happen.

Cooper did confirm that Canada will be without defenseman Josh Morrissey, who suffered an upper-body injury in the first game of the tournament.

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

He deflected when asked whether Morrissey — who practiced fully before Canada’s preliminary-round finale against France and looked set to return — suffered a setback.

“Josh, in the end, he just wouldn’t be able to perform at what he could,” Cooper said. “We made the decision.”

Joe Salandra scored two third period goals for the Barrie Colts to put the game away, as Barrie defeated the London Knights 5-1 on Feb. 20 at Canada Life Place on Don Brankley London Knights Hall of Fame night.

Rocky Farr, Jim Sandlak and Brandon Prust were all officially inducted earlier in the day and honoured before puck drop with a ceremony at centre ice.

Henry Brzustewicz sent a beautiful pass up the right win side of the ice to Brody Cook. Cook went hard to the net and scored his fifth goal of the year, giving the Knights a 1-0 lead just 3:05 into the first period.

Barrie tied the game at 11:31 on a goal by Nick Desiderio and then went ahead 2-1 just 1:16 later when Calvin Crombie tipped in a pass from Carter Lowe.

Before the end of the opening period the Colts increased their lead to 3-1 as Lowe snagged a puck inside the Barrie blue line and fed it ahead to Dallas Stars prospect Brad Gardiner who scored on a short-handed breakaway.

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London held Barrie to just three shots in the second period and went to the power play on four different occasions. However, they could not sold Arvin Jaswal and the game headed into the final 20 minutes with Barrie still ahead by two.

The Knights kept the pressure up to begin the third period. However, they ould not find a hole in Jaswal and Joe Salandra took advantage of a puck that was chipped out of the Colts zone as he caught up to it and went in alone to score, making it 4-1 Barrie with under nine minutes remaining in the game.

Salandra added a second goal with 2:57 to go in the game to finish the scoring at 5-1.

The Colts outshot London 24-20.

The Knights were 0-for-6 on the power play.

Barrie was 0-for-2 on the man advantage.

The Colts are now 20-1-1 in their last 22 games and have won nine straight games.

‘Use your backhand’

Former London Knight Mitch Marner was instrumental in helping Team Canada make to to Sunday’s gold medal game in Men’s Hockey at the Winter Games in Italy.

Marner scored the overtime winner over Czechia in the quarterfinals to send Canada to the semis where they defeated Finland 3-2 to advance to the final.

Mitch Marner’s father Paul admitted that Mitch’s skating coach dating back to when he was a young kid has been telling Mitch how great his backhand is and to use it. It produced one of the most memorable goals for Canada at the tournament.

Up next

London will continue their six-game home stand with a game against the Sudbury Wolves on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m., at Canada Life Place.

Sudbury defeated the Knights 6-3 on Nov. 21 in the only other meeting between the clubs.

Coverage of London and Owen Sound will begin at 1:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

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