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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Mikayla Blakes scored 35 points and Justine Pissott came up with a big defensive play late to help No. 5 Vanderbilt edge 16th-ranked Kentucky 81-79 on Sunday.

Kentucky Vanderbilt Basketball

Trailing by one, Kentucky's Clara Strack had the ball with 4 seconds left and made a move to the basket from the wing when Pissott deflected it out of Strack's hand. Blakes gained possession and then was fouled with less than a second left. She hit the first of two free throws and then the Wildcats couldn't get off a shot.

Aubrey Galvan, who finished with 20 points, hit the go-ahead jumper with 7.9 seconds left to lift Vanderbilt (25-3, 11-3 SEC). Pissott finished with eight points, including two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. One of those 3's tied the game with 2:21 left.

The victory ties Vanderbilt with No 4 Texas for second place in the SEC with two games left in regular-season play.

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Strack led the Wildcats (20-8, 7-7) in scoring, finishing with 17 points and seven rebounds. Amelia Hassett added 15 points, hitting five 3-pointers.

Up next

Kentucky: At Auburn on Thursday.

Vanderbilt: Hosts No. 25 Alabama on Thursday.

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- After hanging around on the porch for much of the past year, Jacob Bridgeman stormed through the front door Sunday, earning his first career PGA Tour victory by holding on for a one-shot win in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

Bridgeman played it safe, shooting 1-over-par 72 in the final round to finish 18-under 266 at the finale of the season-opening West Coast Swing. After holding a seven-shot lead at one point early in his final round he needed a 5-foot putt at 18 to make the win official.

Rory McIlroy (67) closed with birdies on the final two holes to finish tied for second with Kurt Kitayama (64) at 17 under, while Australia's Adam Scott (63) finished fourth at 16 under. Scott, the tournament winner in 2005 and 2020 who entered on a sponsor's exemption, had two rounds of 8-under 63.

South Africa's Aldrich Potgieter (68) was alone in fifth at 15 under and Jake Knapp (66) was sixth at 13 under.

During an emotional week, as the tournament returned to the Los Angeles-area neighborhood that was devastated by a wildfire last January, Bridgeman fought back tears on the 18th green when his breakthrough was complete.

Content to play it safe after starting the day with a six-shot lead, Bridgeman was even par through 15 holes after two birdies and two bogeys. His bogey at No. 16, dropped him to 18 under and allowed Kitayama to pull within a stroke.

Nine strokes back at the start of the day, Kitayama's charge included four birdies over his first five holes of the final round. He had four more birdies on the back nine to deliver his first top-five finish since winning the 3M Open in July.

It was almost one year to the date when Bridgeman started to show that his first trophy was near. He was runner-up at Cognizant Classic last February and delivered four top-five finishes in just over four months.

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The run continued this season with a fourth-place finish at the Sony Open at Hawaii and a tie for eighth at Pebble Beach last week. After never holding an overnight lead since joining the PGA Tour, he was in the top spot all four days this weekend, including a tie for first after each of the first two rounds.

Playing in the final round with Rory McIlroy, Bridgeman held his own against the world's No. 2 player. McIlroy was merely even par on the front nine, before collecting four birdies after the turn. McIlroy made it interesting with a long birdie putt from the fringe at the final hole.

Bridgeman, a South Carolina native and Clemson alum, who reached 21-under par early in his round, finished off the victory with a pars at 17 and 18.

An infrequent visitor to the West Coast until joining the PGA Tour, Bridgeman not only earned a hefty payday, he did it while playing on the legendary Riviera layout for the first time.

For the third consecutive week, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (65) turned a poor start into a solid finish. He finished 11 under for the weekend and in a tie for 12th after scrambling to make the cut on the number.

"I think after Thursday I did some pretty good stuff," Scheffler said. "... I think I was in dead last after Thursday, battled just to make the cut and think I had two solid (rounds) over the weekend."

Collin Morikawa (65), who ended a victory drought of over two years last week at Pebble Beach, was in a group of five, along with Tommy Fleetwood and Xander Schauffele, that finished tied for seventh place at 12 under.

In the middle of a rough round, Max Greyserman had a hole-in-one at No. 12 after he was 4 over on the day to that point. He finished in a tie for 24th place at 7 under.

--Doug Padilla, Field Level Media

North Carolina's Henri Veesaar went frombarely practicing or working outdue to a nagging lower-body injury to playing nearly a full allotment of minutes in his return to action at Syracuse.

North Carolina Syracuse Basketball

"It feels great, it feels much better than it did before," the 7-footer said after posting 19 points and three blocksin Saturday's 77-64 road win.

The16th-rankedTar Heels desperately need things to stay that way, too.

The junior had missed two straight games alongside freshman star Caleb Wilson, who isout indefinitely with a hand fractureand due to be re-evaluated next week. The uncertainty surrounding both had threatened to throw a season coming off the high ofa last-second win against rival Duketwo weeks ago into disarray.

Veesaar's return was a stabilizing step with No. 21 Louisville set to visit Chapel Hill on Monday night.

"It's easier because he's a guy that can consistently score in the paint," UNC coach Hubert Davis said. "He can shoot from 3. He can pass. And there's a lot of (defensive) attention on him.

Veesaar saw 25:58 of game action, "a little bit more than I wanted to play him," Davis added. "But he kept saying he felt good. It was nice to have him back in the lineup."

Veesaar entered as the team's No. 2 scorer (16.4) and rebounder (9.0), forming a potent frontcourt tandem with Wilson as the leader in both categories and a high-end NBA prospect. But things had gone awry for the Tar Heels since the Duke thriller, first with Wilson suffering his injury in the first half of a Feb. 10 loss at Miami.

Then Veesaar suddenly popped up with an illness as well as what was described only as an injury to a "lower extremity." He missed last weekend's home win against a Pittsburgh team near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.

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He recovered from the illness but was still outfor Tuesday's loss at N.C. State, with UNC falling by 24 for its most lopsided loss in the longtime rivalry since 1962.

"I feel like it was just kind of something that was kind of nagging, and then just building on that," Veesaar said. "After Miami, it kind of flared up in that game and I was able to get through that game. But then it felt like we needed to take a little bit of time off for me to get back to the form I need to play at, and just be able to go 100%."

His first running drills came Wednesday. He did more individual work Thursday. Then Davis said Friday that Veesaar would go through a limited team practice, though he called him questionable for the Orange.

Davis wanted to see how Veesaar responded overnight, then again during warmups. Veesaar ultimately started as he had for his previous 24 games, finishing 9 for 13 from the field with a 3-pointer and three rebounds while being within range of his typical 31-minute average.

"I felt good, it didn't hurt at all," he said. "So just being able to do that kind of gave me confidence to play today."

AP freelancer Mark Frank in Syracuse, New York, contributed to this report.

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By Phil Stewart and Laura Gottesdiener

Vehicle fires and roadblocks following security operation in Mexico

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A new U.S.-military-led task force specializing in intelligence collection on drug cartels played a role in the Mexican military raid on Sunday that killed the Mexican drug lord known as 'El Mencho,' a U.S. defense official told Reuters.

The Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, which ‌involves multiple U.S. government agencies, was formally launched last month with the goal of mapping out networks of drug cartel members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico ‌border, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not offer further details on any information that the U.S.-military-led task force may have offered Mexican authorities. The official stressed the raid itself ​was a Mexican military operation.

A former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity without referring specifically to the task force, said the U.S. compiled a detailed target package for El Mencho and provided it to the Mexican government for its operation.

This detailed dossier included information provided by U.S. law enforcement, U.S. intelligence, the former official said.

The former official added El Mencho was very high, if not at the top, of a list of U.S. targets in Mexico.

Mexican authorities killed drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as 'El Mencho,' during an operation designed to capture him in the western state of ‌Jalisco. The operation set off a wave of violence, with torched ⁠cars and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.

Mexico's defense ministry said U.S. authorities had provided "complementary information," but offered no details. A Mexican government source familiar with the operation said the Mexican government designed and executed it, and that no U.S. military personnel were physically involved.

An ⁠ex-police officer, Oseguera, 60, was the shadowy leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an international criminal enterprise widely viewed as one of Mexico's most powerful. He managed to evade arrest for years despite a $15 million bounty from the U.S. for information leading to his arrest or capture.

The kingpin's killing notches a major victory for Mexico's war on drug cartels that are responsible for smuggling billions of ​dollars ​in cocaine and fentanyl into the U.S.

President Donald Trump's administration has waged a pressure campaign on Mexican President ​Claudia Sheinbaum's government to ramp up its crackdown on drug trafficking, including ‌U.S. threats to intervene directly in Mexico.

U.S. MAPPING OUT CARTELS

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There is little information publicly available about the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, or JITF-CC. Its website says its goal is to "identify, disrupt, and dismantle cartel operations posing a threat to the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border."

U.S. Brigadier General Maurizio Calabrese, who leads the task force, spoke to Reuters this month about how the U.S. military is channeling its experience battling groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State to map out cartel networks.

"The cartels operate differently than al Qaeda or ISIS, different motivations, which makes it even more important for us to identify entire networks so that we can disrupt and dismantle (them)," Calabrese told Reuters, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Calabrese noted that estimates vary ‌widely but said there were possibly a few hundred core cartel members "at the top."

"But then you have ​anywhere from 200,000 to 250,000 independent contractors that will help you move these drugs," Calabrese said.

Jack Riley, a former ​senior official at the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Trump's designation of Mexican cartels as ​terrorist organizations last year unlocked new kinds of U.S. military assistance.

He said that could be helpful when it comes to U.S. military intelligence, surveillance ‌and reconnaissance resources.

"Our surveillance capabilities are going to be probably unlimited, and ​that will really help with real-time stuff," Riley ​told Reuters.

"But these guys are extremely astute at being able to cover their tracks, cover who's in charge and where those people are."

A second U.S. defense official, speaking to Reuters ahead of the Mexican operation, said the new task force fit into a broader U.S. strategy to combat drug trafficking that has seen the U.S. military take ​increasing operational control of the border with Mexico.

It also includes now-regular ‌U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats in Caribbean and Pacific waters, the legality of which has been challenged by Democratic lawmakers and legal experts.

"The whole idea ​of creating an interagency effort is to not have stray voltage, is to bring it all together, synchronize it," the second official said of the task ​force.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington and Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey, Mexico; Editing by David Gregorio)

After spending years evading authorities worldwide, apowerful Mexican cartel leaderwas killed during a military operation, Mexican officials announced on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, commonly known as "El Mencho," rose through the ranks and launched a deadly coup to become the leader of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). The criminal enterprise rapidly grew into a continent-spanning empire that rivaled its former allies in the Sinaloa Cartel, run by kingpinJoaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is serving life in prison.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of State offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Oseguera's arrest and/or conviction. After reports of his death surfaced, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau described "El Mencho" in asocial media postas "one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins."

Here's what to know about the Mexican drug lord:

What was his real name?

He was bornRubén Oseguera Cervanteson July 17, 1966, in the small farming city of Aguililla in the western state of Michoacán, according toThe Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. He later adopted the name Nemesio, some say to honor his godfather. It was shortened to "El Mencho" and has no other known meaning.

Why was 'El Mencho' so dangerous?

A powerful drug kingpin with 5,000 members spread across every continent except Antarctica, Oseguera's brutal cartel is blamed for kidnappings, torture, murders, cannibalism, and the spread of fentanyl — which surpassed heroin as America's deadliest illicit drug.

"More recently, CJNG operatives, allegedly under Oseguera Cervantes' direction, were involved in assassination attempts of Mexican government officials," the State Department said in December 2024.

Targeting 'The Last Frontier':Mexican cartels send drugs into Alaska, upping death toll

How did 'El Mencho' rise to power?

Unlike some cartel leaders who inherited leadership positions from family dynasties, his parents were farm workers who carved out a living in Aguililla, a city of fewer than 20,000 people in Michoacán, known as the world's avocado capital. Oseguera dropped out of school after the sixth grade to pick avocados.

"El Mencho" eventually made his way to Tijuana, the prominent border town for American tourists and feuding Mexican cartels. There, he grew his drug-smuggling business in San Diego. Court and prison records show he has entered the United States at least three times and was repeatedly deported.

After being ordered to leave the area by another organization, "El Mencho" joined the police force in Tomatlán, a small city south of Puerto Vallarta in the western state of Jalisco.

Eventually, Oseguera returned to his native Michoacán, where he joined the Milenio Cartel, an entrenched criminal organization operating since at least the early 1990s. Milenio eventually tapped "El Mencho," a skilledsicario— or assassin — to lead one of its cells in Guadalajara as a cartel lieutenant.

As Oseguera rose through the ranks of Milenio, he expected to be rewarded with the top position. But when some of the cartel's leaders were arrested or killed in 2008 and 2009, "El Mencho" wasn't promoted.

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Incensed, Oseguera plotted revenge in 2009 and 2010 with others who were unhappy with Milenio's new leadership and spearheaded a deadly coup. He emerged victorious in early 2011, and his new cartel was christened the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación.

What did 'El Mencho' control?

Oseguera controlled several key drug trafficking routes and hubs in Mexico and gave orders to the "capo," or plaza boss, similar to a mafia lieutenant.

His cartel dominates much of Guadalajara and controls the outskirts of Jalisco, as well as other states such as Colima and Michoacán. CJNG has spread to most of Mexico's 32 states, with an increasing presence in Tijuana and Mexico City.

As the boss, "El Mencho" set thepiso, or tax, that business owners and independent drug traffickers had to pay the capos for protection. Oseguera also assumed control of corrupt police officers and politicians.

"El Mencho's Jalisco New Generation Cartel was one of the biggest buyers of politicians and political campaigns, which has given it an enormous social base," Edgardo Buscaglia, an organized crime expert at Columbia University, toldReuters.

What was 'El Mencho' charged with in the United States?

Oseguera was the lead defendant in a federal indictment returned in the District of Columbia in 2017, accusing him of leading a continuing criminal enterprise. He was also charged with conspiring to send large amounts of drugs into the United States and using firearms during these drug trafficking crimes.

Oseguera also faced meth trafficking charges from a 2013 federal indictment in Gulfport, Mississippi.

'That level of violence is terrifying':Mexican cartel targets tranquil Puget Sound city

How did 'El Mencho' avoid capture for so long?

Despite a $15 million bounty, Oseguera stayed on the move for years and dodged manhunts that began within a year of his rise to power in 2011. He was rarely seen, staying in remote compounds that made it harder for police to breach, and didn't do drugs or drink alcohol to avoid slip-ups, the Courier Journal reported in 2019.

U.S. drug agents and Mexican authorities teamed to root out El Mencho's hiding spots at least three times. Police raided his secret compounds in 2012 and 2018, but he escaped, the newspaper reported.

According to the Courier Journal, the Mexican military also learned Oseguera's hiding spot and headed to get him in two military helicopters in May 2015. But his menshot down one of the helicopterswith a Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'El Mencho' killed in Jalisco, Mexico. Who was the cartel leader?