🎥 Fla frustrate fans early but make amends and take a strong lead — and more

Flamengo was the target of part of the crowd that attended Maracanã on Sunday night (22).

The team had total control from the start, but only managed to score in the second half.

And beat Madureira 3-0, regaining the support of many Flamengo fans.

This was the first leg of the Carioca Championship semifinal, ahead of the upcoming decisive match against Lanús. 

The scoreline left their spot in their eighth State final very well within reach. 

Pressure even before the ball rolled

Part of the Flamengo supporters protested due to the team's less-than-ideal form at the start of the season.

There were chants of "shameless team" and "we want grit."

Flamengo did what was expected: took control of the game.

But the dominance seen before halftime did not result in goals. 

Madureira, on the other hand, posed no threat. Standing out for their good positioning without the ball.

The end of the anxiety

Flamengo, which went into halftime as the target of the fans, returned for the second half repeating the pressure seen before. Now with Arrascaeta and Samu Lino on the field.

And took the lead at the eighth minute, with De La Cruz picking up a rebound and finishing with no chance for Neguete.

The lead doubled at the 20th minute after VAR confirmed a penalty by Isaías on Samuel Lino.

Arrascaeta converted it, scoring his 100th goal in the Flamengo shirt.

Flamengo's superior quality still resulted in a third goal by Luiz Araújo at 46'.

And now❓

The return leg will be on March 2, a Monday. Once again at Maracanã, but with Madureira as the home team.

Flamengo can even lose by one goal and still advance to the final against Fluminense or Vasco.

Meanwhile, Tricolor Suburbano will need to win by four goals to qualify in regular time.

Before that, Flamengo will play the second leg of the Recopa Sudamericana final against Lanús.

They will host the Argentine team next Thursday (26) with the obligation to win, no matter what.

A victory by one goal will take the decision to penalties.

The title will only be secured in regular time with a win by at least two goals. 

Photo: Adriano Fontes/Flamengo

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

On Sunday afternoon at The Finn, Marquette women’s basketball gave up a 12-0 run to Villanova over about seven minutes of game time. That left the score at 14-2, and at the end of the period, it was 16-5 favoring the Wildcats.

One of two things was then going to happen:

1. Marquette punches back and it turns into a competitive game at some point and eventually one team or the other wins.
2. Marquette has no answer for anything from Villanova on this day and the Wildcats just hold them at arm’s length at best or blow them out at worst.

Friends, it was Option #2.

Marquette got it within seven points in the second quarter for a moment but ultimately went into the locker room down 11, effectively not moving at all from the end of the first. Then the Wildcats scored the first four points of the second half and never led by less than 12 after that, but also never more than 16. 12 was the margin heading to the fourth, and after two Kennedi Perkins free throws to start the frame, Villanova went on a 17-2 run to really establish who was the better team here.

Your final: Villanova 64, Marquette 39.

That was not an encouraging performance after keeping it fairly competitive against #1 UConn just eight days ago.

To be clear: This was a failure of Marquette’s offense. They had allowed just 29 points at halftime and just 43 points through three quarters. Heck, 64 through four quarters isn’t exactly bad. Villanova didn’t shoot over 50% in any of the first three quarters and were under 40% in the middle two quarters of the game. This contest was there for the Golden Eagles to grab it even though they were down double digits almost immediately…

….. They just never did.

22 turnovers didn’t help their case, that’s for sure. However, nine of those came in the first quarter. That means just 13 the rest of the game, and five of those were in the fourth quarter as Villanova blew the game open. Maybe things go a lot different if there’s just four turnovers in each of those bookend periods because that’s really where VU did their damage here, but that also means that Marquette’s offense was just anemic for the middle 20 minutes when they were actually getting shots up.

Up Next: One final home game before one final road game to end the season. Marquette’s home slate wraps up this coming Wednesday night when Xavier comes to Milwaukee. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30pm Central time, and ESPN+ will have the broadcast. It will be Senior Night, so expect the pre-game festivities to get started pretty early before tipoff because Marquette has eight seniors listed on the roster. As for the Musketeers, they suffered a 76-67 loss to DePaul on Sunday to drop to 11-16 overall and 4-14 in the Big East.

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Feb. 22—GRAND FORKS — UND put itself in an early deficit in each quarter of

Saturday afternoon's 70-58 loss to St. Thomas

at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

The Fighting Hawks trailed 9-0 in the first quarter and stormed back for a 16-14 lead.

They were behind by eight points in the second quarter before graduate guard Mackenzie Hughes made a layup and hit two free throws as the frame wound down.

They fell behind by 10 points in the third quarter, though they cut the deficit in half with a 5-0 run in the final two minutes.

When the Hawks fell behind early in the fourth quarter, though, they were unable to mount a last-minute surge.

Here are five takeaways from the loss.

Lauren Hillesheim was not at 100% on Saturday.

The freshman guard suffered from the flu this week and was not at practice on Friday.

As a result, Hillesheim came off the bench for UND for the first time since Jan. 24.

She played an average of 23.4 minutes per game in seven games as a starter from Jan. 29 to Feb. 15.

Hellesheim played for 13 minutes against the Tommies. She shot 1-for-5 from the field and scored two points.

"She wasn't even remotely (100%)," Hutter said. "It was all related to her just getting healthy. I just didn't really feel like running her into the ground was going to be a good thing for her when we've got to play again on Wednesday."

Senior guard Mikayla Aumer slotted into the starting lineup with Hillesheim on the bench. It was her first start since Jan. 24.

Hutter said Aumer earned the return to a spot in the starting five.

"Mikayla has been phenomenal," Hutter said. "Mikayla has done things the right way all year long. She's never really strayed away from what we've done. Obviously took her out of the starting lineup and she handled that extremely well. She was still a great teammate, did all the right things. And so when there's a chance that you can honor them, even if it's before Senior Night, especially at home, I wanted to do that for her because I thought it was something that she had earned and rightfully deserved as well."

Aumer logged 27 minutes against St. Thomas. Only Hughes and sophomore guard Sydney Piekny had more minutes.

She scored nine points, hitting two triples and shooting 3-for-4 from the free-throw line.

Piekny has a quick release on her 3-point shot. She seems to be able to get the ball out almost as soon as she catches it.

Piekny showed off a bit of that ability against the Tommies. She shot 3-for-5 from beyond the arc on an afternoon when the Hawks hit just seven triples total.

"I think I've got pretty quick feet," Piekny said. "I can get set in my shot pretty fast. I know that even if someone is trailing me out, if they're a step behind me, I know I have the time to get it off. So it helps me with confidence in that way."

Piekny has hit at least two 3-pointers in seven of her last eight games. She was a perfect 5-for-5 against Denver on Jan. 31.

Piekny also nailed four triples en route to her career-high 18 points against Kansas City on Feb. 7.

UND's average turnover margin this season is -7.

That ranks among the worst in all of Division I basketball. According to the

NCAA's statistics

, the Hawks went into Saturday's game ranked 355th in turnover margin.

UND committed 19 turnovers to St. Thomas' 14. That margin is a bit better than the season average, but the Tommies still managed to score 21 points off of turnovers.

It might not have been the driving force in the Hawks' loss, but it certainly didn't help.

"That's what good teams do, they take care of the ball," Hutter said. "We just talk about taking care of the ball and shot making, that 's really what this comes down to. When you are taking care of the ball and you get good looks, you've got to make enough of them to keep yourself in the game or keep the lead."

The Summit League women's basketball tournament begins on March 4 with a contest between No. 8 seed and No. 9 seed. The winner will advance to the quarterfinals to play the No. 1 seed.

If the tournament started today, UND would play in the opening round as the No. 8 seed.

The Hawks are 3-11 in conference play with two games left in the regular season, just ahead of last-place Omaha.

The Mavericks are 2-12 with two games remaining.

Denver is sixth in the league standings and Kansas City is seventh. They are both 4-11 in conference play with one game left on their regular-season schedules.