Canton to host 1st Black College HOF Classic

Canton to host 1st Black College HOF Classic

CANTON

Alabama A&M and Morehouse College will play Labor Day weekend at the campus of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the first Black College Hall of Fame Classic.

The season opener on Sept. 1 at 4 p.m. will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, which seats 23,000, in the Hall of Fame village.

Alabama A&M competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Morehouse plays in the Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The Black College Football Hall of Fame was founded in 2009. It has honored players such as Walter Payton and Jerry Rice, who played for historically black colleges and universities.

It became part of the Hall of Fame village in Canton in 2016.

Controversial OT goal lifts Sharks over Blues

ST. LOUIS

Erik Karlsson scored 5:23 into overtime after the officials missed a hand pass by Timo Meier, and the San Jose Sharks rallied to beat the St. Louis Blues 5-4 to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference final.

Meier used his right hand to knock a loose puck toward the front of the net. Gustav Nyquist then passed it over to Karlsson, who beat Jordan Binnington for his second goal of the game.

Binnington and the Blues complained immediately about Meier’s pass. The officials huddled while Karlsson and the Sharks celebrated, but the play wasn’t reviewable and the goal stood.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Friday night in St. Louis.

The Blues led 4-3 before Logan Couture tied it with 61 seconds left in regulation. Joe Thornton scored twice for San Jose, and Martin Jones made 28 saves.

Bucks rally for victory, series lead on Raptors

MILWAUKEE

Brook Lopez scored 13 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo added 24 and the Milwaukee Bucks rallied in the final minutes to beat the Toronto Raptors 108-100 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Lopez had a dunk with 2:20 left to put the Bucks ahead for good, added a 3-pointer on the next Milwaukee possession to push the lead to four and the team that finished the regular season with the NBA’s best record — after trailing for the overwhelming majority of the game — did just enough in the final minutes to grab the series lead.

Malcolm Brogdon scored 15 and Nikola Mirotic had 13 for Milwaukee, which closed the game on a 10-0 run.

Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points and Kyle Lowry added 30 for the Raptors, who led by as many as 13 early and took an 83-76 lead into the final quarter.

Lopez added 11 rebounds for the Bucks, who had three players post double-doubles.

Rivals to get Lifetime Achievement Award

NEW YORK

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, whose coast-to-coast rivalry in the 1980s propelled the NBA to a new level of popularity, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The league and Turner Sports announced Wednesday that the Hall of Famers and 1992 U.S. Olympic teammates will receive the award on June 24 at the NBA Awards.

The honor comes on the 40th anniversary of their meeting in the 1979 NCAA championship game, when Johnson’s Michigan State team beat Bird’s Indiana State squad.

That is still the highest-rated game on television in college basketball history.

The two would see plenty more of each other across the next decade after Johnson went to the Los Angeles Lakers and Bird to the Boston Celtics.

The Lakers won five championships in the 1980s and the Celtics won three.

Both players won three MVP awards, earned spots on the league’s list of 50 greatest players and were two-time Hall of Fame inductees, first as individuals and then with the Dream Team that captured the gold medal in Barcelona.

Staff/wire report