The Sports Report: Super Bowl matchup is set

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Sam Farmer: History awaits the Kansas City Chiefs.

Standing in their path? The mighty Philadelphia Eagles.

The Chiefs, looking to become the first NFL franchise to win three consecutive Super Bowls, made it back to the league’s biggest stage Sunday with a 32-29 win over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game.

Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third. Harrison Butker made a 35-yard field goal with 3 minutes, 33 seconds remaining to put the Chiefs up for good.

That’s when Kansas City’s defense took over, applying heavy pressure to Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, whose backpedaling heave on fourth and four fell through the arms of diving tight end Dalton Kincaid on the ensuing possession.

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From Gary Klein: Just one touch.

That’s all it took for Saquon Barkley to break free for a sensational first-quarter touchdown run that put the Philadelphia Eagles ahead in the NFC championship game.

One more touch.

That’s all it took for Barkley to increase the lead with another touchdown.

Barkley’s first two early scoring plays Sunday helped the Eagles build an advantage that held up in a 55-23 victory over the Washington Commanders at Lincoln Financial Field. The 55 points are the most scored in a conference championship game since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

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Super Bowl LIX: Start time, teams, how to watch and halftime show

NFL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE

Conference championships
All times Pacific
Sunday
NFC
No. 2 Philadelphia 55, No. 6 Washington 23

AFC
No. 1 Kansas City 32, No. 2 Buffalo 29

Super Bowl 59
Sunday, Feb. 9
at New Orleans
Philadelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs
3:30 p.m., Fox

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: Alaska Airlines Arena had mostly cleared out late Friday night, a few fans lingering to take photos with players and coaches on the court.

Outside UCLA’s locker room, a group of family and friends gathered around forward Tyler Bilodeau, their expressions reflecting concern over the ankle he had turned during the game.

Having completed his radio interview after the Bruins’ hairbreadth victory over Washington, coach Mick Cronin asked a colleague where he could find the one reporter traveling to cover the team. The coach turned a corner to find the reporter and a team videographer waiting for him down a nearby hallway.

“Do you think they played the game late enough?” Cronin cracked before taking the first question. “What time is it?”

The clock was pushing 11 p.m. The night was far from finished. There was a 25-minute bus ride to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, followed by a roughly 2½-hour flight back to Los Angeles.

“We’re going to get home at 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning,” said Cronin, whose Bruins (14-6 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) had just won a third consecutive game to nudge their conference record over .500. “We should have just had this game at midnight. When you sell your soul to television, that’s just the way it is, and that’s college sports — we’ve sold our soul to television, so we’ll get home in the middle of the night, get some rest and prepare as best we can to play a team [USC] that played on Wednesday, took Thursday off and was focused on us while we’re up here, so there’s a lot of inequities in this thing.”

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Lauren Betts scored a career-high 33 points, Kiki Rice added 19, and No. 1 UCLA defeated No. 8 Maryland 82-67 on Sunday.

The Bruins (20-0, 8-0 Big Ten) have won their last 19 games by double figures and are 20-0 for the first time in program history.

Saylor Poffenbarger had 18 points for the Terrapins (16-4, 6-3), who have dropped three in a row. Maryland played without second-leading scorer Shyanne Sellers, who sat for the second consecutive game with a knee injury.

Betts shot 14 of 15, a school-record 93.3% with a minimum of 15 attempts. That surpassed the 88.9% Denise Curry shot against Louisiana State in 1979. Betts added seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Against Baylor on Jan. 20, Betts had a school-record nine blocks.

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UCLA box score

Big Ten standings

AP top 25 rankings

SPARKS

Kelsey Plum is headed to the Sparks as part of a three-way trade that will send Seattle’s Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The Sparks traded the No. 2 pick in the draft and Li Yueru to Seattle. The Sparks also received the No. 9 pick. The Aces got the 13th pick in the draft. The person spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday night because no official deal has been announced.

Plum helped the Aces win consecutive WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023. She was designated as the team’s franchise player on Jan. 11. She averaged 17.8 points and 4.2 assists last season.

Loyd requested a trade last month out of Seattle, where she had spent her entire career since getting drafted by the Storm in 2015. The 31-year-old averaged 19.7 points and 4.5 rebounds last season and is a six-time All-Star. Loyd helped Seattle win two WNBA championships in 2018 and 2020 as well as a scoring title in 2023

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1937 — Tris Speaker and Cy Young are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1973 — UCLA, led by Bill Walton, sets an NCAA record for consecutive victories with its 61st win, an 82-63 victory over Notre Dame. UCLA breaks the record of 60 set by San Francisco in 1956. Walton scores 16 points, grabs 15 rebounds and blocks 10 shots.

1982 — Geoff Houston of the Cleveland Cavaliers hands out 27 assists, two short of the NBA record and scores 24 points in a 110-106 victory over the Golden State Warriors.

1991 — The New York Giants survive the closest Super Bowl ever when Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field goal attempt with 8 seconds left in the game goes wide. The Giants win their second Super Bowl in five years, 20-19 over the Buffalo Bills.

1993 — American Chad Rowan is awarded the highest rank in sumo wrestling, the ancient Japanese sport, making him the first foreign “yokozuna.” The 6-foot-8, 455-pounder from Honolulu, becomes the 64th person to hold the top rank in the sport’s history.

1996 — The U.S. Golf Assn. elects Judy Bell as the first female president in its 101-year history.

2001 — Jennifer Capriati upsets three-time winner Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3 to win the Australian Open and her first Grand Slam tournament title.

2003 — Hermann Maier wins a World Cup super giant slalom in Kitzbuehel, Austria, a victory he ranks among his finest triumphs. The win comes 18 months after he almost loses his leg in a motorcycle crash.

2007 — Serena Williams wins her third Australian Open singles title, routing Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2. Unseeded and ranked 81st, Williams wins her eighth and most improbable Grand Slam. She is the second unseeded woman to win the Australian title in the Open era.

2008 — Novak Djokovic fends off unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the Australian Open final, earning his first Grand Slam title.

2008 — Eric Staal wins the most valuable player award in the NHL All-Star game, registering two goals and an assist in the East’s 8-7 win over the Western Conference. Staal helps set up Marc Savard’s winning goal with 20.9 seconds left.

2010 — Washington’s Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton are suspended without pay for the remainder of the season by NBA commissioner David Stern. Both players admit to bringing a gun or guns into the Wizards’ locker room — a violation of the collective bargaining agreement — after a dispute stemming from a card game on a team flight.

2011 — Roger Federer, the 16-time Grand Slam winner, is knocked out of the Australian Open by Novak Djokovic in a semifinal match, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-4. Federer’s loss marks the first time since 2003 that he wouldn’t hold any of the four major titles.

2013 — Novak Djokovic beats Andy Murray 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 to become the first man in the Open era to win three consecutive Australian Open titles.

2013 — Little-known Max Aaron wins his first title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Three-time men’s champion Jeremy Abbott finishes in third place.

2013 — Speedskater Heather Richardson edges Canada’s Christine Nesbitt in the final women’s race to become the first American woman to win the World Sprint Championships since 2005.

2018 — Australian Open Women’s Tennis: Caroline Wozniacki beats Simona Halep 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 to win her first Grand Slam title.

Compiled by the Associated Press