UCLA can’t slow Purdue’s best down the stretch in loss

• March 1, 2025

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The UCLA men’s basketball team had hoped to secure a top-four seed and a coveted double bye for the Big Ten Tournament, but that goal likely vanished Friday night.

Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 29 points and Braden Smith added 23 to help No. 20 Purdue beat UCLA, 76-66, a defeat that essentially ends the Bruins’ chances for a top-four finish in the regular-season standings.

The Bruins (20-9 overall, 11-7 Big Ten) came into the night in a three-way tie with Purdue and Maryland for fourth place in the league. UCLA fell a game behind the Boilermakers and is a half-game behind Maryland, with both Purdue and the Terps now owning the head-to-head wins over the Bruins, who have two games left next week.

Tyler Bilodeau had 15 points and seven rebounds and Sebastian Mack scored 10 points off the bench for the Bruins, who could not keep up with a Purdue team that shot a torrid 11 for 22 from 3-point range and used a 12-0 run to pull away in a game that had been tight throughout.

Kaufman-Renn shot 11 for 15 from the field and 7 for 10 from the free-throw line as the Boilermakers (20-9, 12-6) snapped a four-game losing streak. Fletcher Loyer scored 11 points.

Purdue shot 52% from the field while UCLA hit 48% in a game that went back and forth until the final six minutes.

Trailing 56-55, Kaufman-Renn scored six consecutive points to put Purdue ahead 61-56 with 5:35 left. Camden Heide and Loyer then made 3-pointers to cap a 12-0 run that had the home crowd erupting and UCLA calling a timeout with 3:38 left.

UCLA missed six of seven shots before Aday Mara hit a turnaround jumper to make it 67-58 and end the Bruins’ scoring drought, but Smith helped Purdue to effectively seal it with two 3-pointers – the first with 2:54 left and the second about a minute later, with plenty of time to set up before his swish elicited another eruption from the home fans. UCLA went the final 2:33 without a field goal.

Smith finished 6 for 10 from behind the arc, had eight assists to break the program’s career assists mark and added four steals. Kaufman-Renn added three steals and a blocked shot.

The Bruins finished with a 31-23 rebounding advantage and a 30-8 margin in bench scoring, but they shot just 5 for 18 from long range and had trouble slowing Purdue’s top scorers.

Purdue shot 60% in the first half to take a 37-35 lead at halftime. UCLA made 46% from the field but held a 20-7 edge in rebounds, including 10-1 on the offensive boards.

Purdue built a 29-19 lead, only to see it nearly erased by an 8-0 surge from UCLA. Purdue’s Loyer hit a 3-pointer to give Purdue a 32-27 lead, but the Bruins outscored Purdue 8-5 to end the half.

UP NEXT

UCLA plays at Northwestern on Monday at 6 p.m. PT.

​ Orange County Register 

JSerra boys soccer defeats Loyola to claim CIF-SS Open title for second time in three years

• March 1, 2025

ORANGE – A senior scored his 20th goal of the season. A freshman scored the second goal of his high school life.

Those two second-half goals stood up for JSerra in a 2-0 win over Loyola in the CIF Southern Section Open Division boys soccer championship game Friday at El Modena High.

Senior Gavin Allegaert scored the first goal, his team-leading 20th. Freshman Finn Wilkins scored the second goal, his second of the season.

It is JSerra’s second CIF-SS boys soccer championship over the past three years. The Lions were champions in 2023. They also won the CIF-SS championship in 2010, the school’s first CIF-SS title in any sport.

JSerra improved to 17-0-1 and it was Loyola’s first loss of the season. The Cubs went into Friday’s final 20-0-4.

The season continues for both teams in the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs that begin Tuesday. The brackets will be released Sunday.

Allegaert said the Lions just might add a regional title to their CIF Southern Section and Trinity League championships.

“We’re a hungry team,” Allegaert said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to win.”

JSerra coach Erik Kirsch said his team did not play a perfect game, but maybe perfect games don’t happen in a game with so much at stake.

“It never goes the way you picture how you want to play,” Kirsch said. “But the guys got it done. When you’re trying to win a title sometimes it’s not pretty.

“That was a typical final. It’s scrappy, it’s hard to find rhythm, because you’ve got two titans, two defensive teams fighting it out.”

On his goal Allegaert battled two Loyola players for possession of the high-bouncing ball. He won it and a quick dribble later Allegaert’s blast rocketed to the right of Loyola goalkeeper Christopher Stillwell and into the net with 20 minutes left in the second half.

“It was a miscommunication between their center-back and their goalkeeper,” Allegaert said. “I kind of poked it out in the middle of them, the ball was bouncing and I just put it in the top corner.”

Allegaert, who signed with UC San Diego, came close to a second goal seven minutes later. Jake Tatch made a perfect crossing pass, Allegaert made a diving effort to try to header it in but the ball sailed left of the goal.

Wilkins made it 2-0 by scoring on a header from in close with 10:38 remaining in the game. The goal came shortly after he entered the game as a substitute.

“I had just come on,” said Wilkins, who is 14 years old. “The ball was kind of already in play.  I jogged to the other side of the field and the ball came to me and I just tried to get my head on it.”

Allegaert had a couple of other chances, including a breakaway with four minutes to go. He made a nifty move around a Loyola player who then caught up with him before Allegaert fired a shot that Stillwell thwarted with a diving stop.

Loyola’s Will Hoshek, one of Friday’s better offensive players, had an excellent scoring chance with 23 minutes left in the second half. He slid behind the Lions back line, took a shot at the lower left corner but JSerra goaltender Liam Johnston hit the turf to send the ball the opposite direction.

After an evenly played first half JSerra was in control throughout the second half. The ball spent most of the second half on the Lions’ offensive side of the field.

The first half ended 0-0, although both teams had a handful of scoring chances. JSerra’s Angels Reyes took a fine pass from Brody Martinez, blasted a left-footed kick but the ball went directly into the chest of Stillwell who held on.

Johnston made more sharp stops in the first half. Hoshek got behind the Lions defense, Johnston came out quickly to cut down the angle and Hoshek’s kick rolled just wide of the left goalpost.

Loyola’s Josh Gallagher had a quality chance midway through the first half, but his kick bounced wide left. A few minutes later a header attempt by Allegaert popped over the top of the crossbar.

​ Orange County Register 

Iowa’s governor signs a bill removing gender identity protections from the state’s civil rights code

• March 1, 2025

By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa became the first U.S. state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code on Friday when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that opponents say will expose transgender people and other Iowans to discrimination in all aspects of daily life.

The new law, which goes into effect July 1, follows several years of action from Reynolds and Iowa Republicans to restrict transgender students’ use of such spaces as bathrooms and locker rooms, and their participation on sports teams, in an effort to protect people assigned female at birth. Republicans say those policies cannot co-exist with a civil rights code that includes gender identity protections.

The law passed quickly after first being introduced last week. It also creates explicit legal definitions of female and male based on their reproductive organs at birth, rejecting the idea that a person can transition to another gender. Reynolds proposed a similar bill last year, but it didn’t make it to a vote of the full House or Senate.

Reynolds posted a video on social media explaining her signature on the bill and acknowledging that it was a “sensitive issue for some.”

“It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls,” she said, adding that the previous civil rights code “blurred the biological line between the sexes.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to formalize a definition of the two sexes at the federal level, leading several Republican-led legislatures to push for laws defining male and female. Trump posted in support of the Iowa bill on his Truth Social platform Thursday after it got final approval from the Iowa House and Senate.

Five House Republicans joined all Democrats in the House and Senate in voting against the bill. Iowa state Rep. Aime Wichtendahl was the final Democrat to speak before the vote, wiping away tears as she offered her personal story as a transgender woman, saying: “I transitioned to save my life.”

“The purpose of this bill and the purpose of every anti-trans bill is to further erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence,” Wichtendahl said. “The sum total of every anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bill is to make our existence illegal.”

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ advocates streamed into the Capitol rotunda on Thursday waving signs reading “Trans rights are human rights” and chanting slogans including, “No hate in our state!” There was a heavy police presence, with state troopers stationed around the rotunda. The few protesters who lingered for final passage of the bill were emotional.

Not every state includes gender identity in their civil rights code, but Iowa is now the first in the U.S. to remove nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity, said Logan Casey, director of policy research at the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.

Sexual orientation and gender identity were not originally included in the state’s Civil Rights Act of 1965. They were added by the Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2007, also with the support of about a dozen Republicans across the two chambers.

The House Republican moving the bill Thursday, Rep. Steven Holt, said that if the Legislature can add protections, it can remove them.

As of July 1, Iowa’s civil rights law will protect against discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin or disability status.

Iowa’s Supreme Court has expressly rejected the argument that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity.

Advocacy groups promise to defend transgender rights, which may lead them to court.

Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for LGBTQ+ advocacy group One Iowa, said the organization is still analyzing the text of the bill and that its vagueness makes it “hard to determine where the enforcement is going to come from.”

“We will pursue any legal options available to us,” Crow said.

​ Orange County Register 

Rams extend LT Alaric Jackson with 3-year, $57 million deal

• March 1, 2025

LOS ANGELES — Left tackle Alaric Jackson has agreed to terms on a three-year, $57 million deal to stay with the Rams, a person with knowledge of the deal tells The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because the Rams haven’t formally announced the deal with Jackson, their starting left tackle for the past two seasons.

Jackson is a former undrafted free agent who was a backup on the Rams’ Super Bowl championship team as a rookie in 2021. He became a starter at guard and tackle during the 2022 season despite struggling with injuries, and he seized the starting job at left tackle from Joseph Noteboom before the 2023 season.

Jackson has started 29 games over the past two seasons, establishing himself as a capable protector of Matthew Stafford’s blind side and an effective run-blocker. Jackson, who missed the first two games of last season under suspension for an undisclosed violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy, played last season on his restricted free agent tender at $4.89 million.

He was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this spring, but the Rams instead locked him up through the 2027 season.

Jackson was the most important player on the Rams’ list of potential unrestricted free agents in the offseason, and he would have been among the NFL’s top echelon of free-agent offensive tackles.

Earlier Friday, the Rams also wrapped up several weeks of speculation about Stafford’s future by agreeing to a restructured contract with the Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

Jackson is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada who grew up both in Detroit and in Windsor, Ontario. He was a four-year starter at Iowa before signing with the Rams.

​ Orange County Register 

Hot Homes redirect

• March 1, 2025

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​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Saturday, March 1, 2025

• March 1, 2025

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, March 1, 2025.

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​ Orange County Register 

Oscars: A look at how the trend of blockbuster movies continued in 2024

• March 1, 2025

Blockbuster box office

The 97th Academy Awards are Sunday, March 2 in Los Angeles. Here’s a look at how high-grossing movies continue to dominate and whether women are increasing their impact in Hollywood.

Best and biggest picture

As with last year, two best picture nominees stand head and shoulders above the rest in box office receipts. As of late January, “Dune: Part Two” and “Wicked” had grossed $715 million and $710 million, respectively, as the only nominees to break $100 million.

Box office success doesn’t always translate to winning best picture, though. Here are this year’s nominees and what they’ve grossed so far. Some, like “A Complete Unknown,” were released as late in the year as December, giving them less time to earn.

Best picture Oscar nominees

Film/release month Global box office (as of Feb. 1)

“Anora,” October $33 million

“The Brutalist,” December $12 million

“A Complete Unknown,” December $75 million

“Conclave,” October $84 million

“Dune: Part Two,” Feb. 2024 $715 million

“Emilia Pérez,” November $13 million

“I’m Still Here,” November $15 million

“Nickel Boys,” January $1.9 million

“The Substance,” September $76 million

“Wicked,” November $710 million

10 biggest in 2024

Disney was the distributor with the highest box office sales.

1. “Inside Out 2” Disney $1.7 billion

2. “Deadpool & Wolverine” Disney $1.34 billion

3. “Moana 2” Disney $1.05 billion

4. “Despicable Me 4” Universal $970.1 million

5. “Dune: Part Two” Warner Bros. $715 million

6. “Wicked” Universal $710 million

7. “Mufasa: The Lion King” Disney $697 million

8. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” Warner Bros. $572 million

9. “Kung Fu Panda 4” Universal $548 million

10. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” Paramount $483 million

“Inside Out 2” surpassed “The Lion King” to become the highest-grossing animated film ever and is currently the ninth-highest grossing film of all time. It reached $1 billion gross faster than any other animated film.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” became the 55th film to gross $1 billion worldwide. It had the highest-grossing opening weekend of any R-rated film and surpassed “Joker” (2019) as the highest-grossing R film.

“Despicable Me” became the first animated franchise to gross $5 billion with the release of “Despicable Me 4.”

“Wicked” became the first musical to gross over $164 million worldwide on its opening weekend, making it the highest opening worldwide gross for a film based on a stage musical since “Les Misérables” (2012).

Women in film

For 23 years, Martha Lauzen, founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, has conducted research on the representation and employment of women on screen and behind the scenes in film and television.

In front of the camera

Lauzen released the report “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top Grossing U.S. Films of 2024” in January. For the first time in recent history, the percentage of top-grossing films featuring female protagonists equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists at 42%, while 16% of films featured ensembles. Protagonists were defined as the characters from whose perspective the story is told.

You can find the full report here.

Behind the camera

Lauzen’s 2024 report noted the following: “70% of films employed 10 or more men in key behind-the-scenes roles, but only 8% employed 10 or more women. Women directed and wrote some of the year’s buzziest films, including ‘The Substance’ and ‘Babygirl.’ But their directors, Coralie Fargeat and Halina Reijn, remain exceptions, not the rule. The stunning successes enjoyed by high-profile women in the last few years — including Greta Gerwig, Jane Campion and Chloé Zhao — have not translated into opportunities for greater numbers of women. Visibility for a few has not generated employment for many.”Sources: Investopedia; Martha M. Lauzen, “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top Grossing U.S. films of 2024” and “The Celluloid Ceiling 2023 Report”; Box Office Mojo; Nielsen

​ Orange County Register 

LAFC gets reacquainted with New York City FC

• March 1, 2025

The Los Angeles Football Club can turn 2025 into the year it ran the table and claimed victories over every team in Major League Soccer.

That attempt starts Saturday at BMO Stadium against New York City FC, which ranks with the Fire, who are on LAFC’s schedule Aug. 9 in Chicago, and expansion San Diego as the one percent of MLS teams that remain unbeaten against the league’s benchmark organization since 2018.

Beginning its eighth year in MLS, LAFC has the most points (392), most wins (113) and scored the most goals (439) over that span, outpacing second-best Philadelphia by a decent margin in each category.

NYCFC sits fourth on the list, 36 points and 15 wins behind LAFC, but thus far the Pigeons avoided Olly the falcon’s talons.

The fourth installment between the clubs comes after a four-year pause. It’s been so long that Spaniard David Villa remains NYCFC’s leader for the most shots on goal in the series with three, all of which came in the first meeting, a 2-2 draw during the expansion year when visiting head coach Patrick Vieira lamented about the lack of a new stadium in New York after experiencing the Banc of California Stadium.

(Currently under construction, that will finally become a reality in 2027, when Etihad Park, a soccer-specific stadium in Willets Point, Queens, opens its doors.)

In 2019, LAFC traveled east and shared points on a crisp spring afternoon at Yankee Stadium punctuated by record-setting Carlos Vela, who celebrated the first of his two goals on the day with a home-run swing standing in center field.

Two years later, Bob Bradley’s last as LAFC head coach, New York City grabbed three points as visitors, rallying late to win 2-1 during their MLS Cup championship season.

In his ninth year with NYCFC, 38-year-old Maxi Moralez is the lone player on the current roster with a goal contribution against LAFC.

The Argentine midfielder started and played 78 minutes versus Miami for the club’s new head coach, Pascal Jansen, in the regular-season opener last Saturday, a gut-wrenching draw at Miami that hinged on the late brilliance of Lionel Messi.

“This team is excellent with some rotation in position and exposing teams in space behind, setting teams up, drawing defenses out, getting defenses caught in what we call no-man’s land and getting stretched between lines to then expose team in behind,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo noted of Jansen’s group.

“I’d love to see our team play with higher intensity and more speed” this Saturday, Cherundolo said.

For LAFC players, the match is their fourth in 12 days, with another pair of midweek games coming after advancing in the CONCACAF Champions Cup over Colorado on Tuesday.

“Going to the next round feels great,” said midfielder Timothy Tillman, who started alongside Tuesday’s series-winning scorer Mark Delgado and Igor Jesus in each match so far.

The heavy schedule has been a bit of a comfort zone for LAFC during the Cherundolo era, as the club learned to thrive with the demands of success.

“I think finding a good mix between building a functioning team but still managing minutes is a very tough part,” Tillman said. “I’m happy I’m not the one who has to decide about that. We all came out of a preseason that was really good. We worked really hard and we knew what was coming towards us, so we were ready for that and trained for that.”

NEW YORK CITY FC AT LAFC

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: BMO Stadium

TV/Radio: Apple TV (MLS Season Pass)/710 AM, ESPN LA App, 980 AM

​ Orange County Register