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Akshay Bhatia found several sources of late-day momentum, which led to another victory on the PGA Tour.

Bhatia used a late-round eagle to help secure a 3-under-par 69 before winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in a playoff Sunday in Orlando, Fla.

His par on the extra hole was enough when Daniel Berger missed a putt from about 7 1/2 feet.

They both were at 15-under 273 for the tournament at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.

"Everyone knows when you show up to Bay Hill it's going to be a test and to play one of the hardest golf courses," Bhatia said. "And to succeed is really cool."

Bhatia won for the third time on the PGA Tour with his first victory since the 2024 Texas Open. It was the tournament's first playoff since 1999.

Berger, seeking his fifth tour victory and first in more than five years, shot 70 in the final round.

"Obviously it didn't go the way I wanted it to," Berger said. "But at the start of the week if you told me I would have a chance on the 18th hole to win Bay Hill, I would be ecstatic with that. So a lot of positives, a lot of things to learn from."

There was plenty of drama on the last hole in regulation. With his tee shot into the rough on No. 18, Berger chose to lay up rather than try to carry the lake guarding the green. Bhatia put his second shot within 19 feet of the hole and then needed a tap-in for par. Berger sank a 13 1/2-foot putt, with the ball curling into the cup, to match Bhatia's par and extend the tournament.

"You just never know what can happen in this game," Bhatia said.

Berger was in the rough off the tee again on the playoff hole, and this time he couldn't make a full recovery.

"It's tough to win (a tournament)," Berger said. "It's tough to battle. But I feel like I did a good job, and a shot here or there was the difference."

Cameron Young (69) and Sweden's Ludvig Aberg (67) tied for third place at 12 under and Collin Morikawa (70), seeking his second victory in four weeks, was fifth at 11 under.

Hours earlier, Berger's lead dipped to one stroke on Bhatia after they were among a few groups completing the weather-interrupted third round Sunday morning. Bhatia posted birdie on No. 18 to finish the third round.

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Berger and Bhatia were in the final pairing for the second round in a row.

Bhatia drew even briefly with an eagle 3 -- courtesy of a 3-foot putt -- on the 16th hole. The approach shot came from what Bhatia called the best 6-iron shot of his life.

Berger, however, left the green with a one-stroke lead after making birdie. He relinquished the final-round lead with a bogey on the following hole.

Berger dodged early trouble when his tee shot on the par-5 fourth hole went into a shallow creek off the fairway. He took a risk by powering his second shot out of trouble with water spraying, and he managed to produce a birdie on the hole.

Bhatia got back in it with four consecutive birdies to begin the back nine after a three-bogey, one-birdie front side. He said a bogey on No. 9 led to a change of mindset.

"I played with some anger for those couple holes," he said.

His birdie splurge included a 58-foot birdie putt on No. 11.

"That putt on 11 was a huge bonus for me," he said. "That really switched my momentum."

Young liked being near the top of the leaderboard.

"I got myself in a place where I hit a bunch of good shots and sometimes the putts just don't go in," Young said.

Sahith Theegala had the final round's best score with 66, allowing him to share sixth place at 10 under with Russell Henley (68) and Australia's Min Woo Lee (70).

"This week was big," Theegala said. "I played some really, really nice golf. Just got to figure out how to get one of the really bad round."

World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler's 73 marked his worst round of the tournament. He tied for 24th place at 2 under, yet he was far from discouraged.

"I hit a lot of really, really nice iron shots," Scheffler said. "Some worked out, others got some wind shifts, but overall, I felt like I struck it really nicely."

--Field Level Media

All four of the Power 4 Conference Women's Tournament champions from last season had a chance to defend their titles on Sunday.

Half got the job done asDukepushed past Louisville in overtime in the ACC and UCLA pummeled Iowa in the Big Ten. TCU fell to West Virginia in the Big 12 and South Carolina lost to Texas in a rematch of last season's SEC championship.

The Gamecocks' loss also likely knocks them down to the fourth No. 1 seed, having lost to the Longhorns ― who would move into the three after UConn and UCLA, respectively.

As winners of their conference tournaments, the Blue Devils, Bruins, Longhorns and Horned Frogs earn automatic bids into March Madness. While the runners-up in each Power 4 conference will also be shoo-ins, every other team will have to sweat it out on Selection Sunday on March 15 to see if they received at-large bid.

Here are the winners and losers from ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC women's tournaments.

Winners

Texas coach Vic Schaefer

Vic Schaefer was 0-8 against Dawn Staley in the postseason entering this year's SEC Tournament. He put a tally in the win column on Sunday as his Longhorns led wire-to-wire in a double-digit win over the Gamecocks, giving Texas its first SEC Championship. The Texas victory will likely vault the Longhorns to the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, giving them a good chance to play in their home state — at Fort Worth's Dickies Arena — in the regional round during the second weekend of March Madness. With SEC Tournament MVP Madison Booker leading the way, few teams will want to land in Texas' quadrant of the bracket. In addition to two wins over South Carolina, Texas also already owns a win over fellow national title contender UCLA.— Mitchell Northam

More:Texas supplants South Carolina for SEC women's basketball championship

Dukeshowsresilience

Duke winning back-to-back ACC Tournament championships and punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament is a massive win for head coach Kara Lawson and the program. The Blue Devils were gritty when it counted most, despite losing two of their last three games prior to the tournament. They grinded out wins against Notre Dame and Louisville to hoist another ACC trophy. Duke also started the season 3-6, something Lawson says she'll probably think about for the rest of her life. "It's very special for this group to kind of complete the journey in the ACC because everyone knows about our start, Lawson said. "But I'm very proud of that. I'm proud of where we started, even though it was hard, and I'm proud of where we got to. And when you look at this team, we had to figure out who we were. We didn't know that at the beginning."— Meghan L. Hall

UCLA marches into tournament on hot streak

The one-loss Bruins will enter the tournament on a 25-game win streak after defeating Iowa, 96-45, in the Big Ten championship game. The No. 2 team in the nation went 21-0 in conference play, winning 20 of those games by double digits. The Bruins also have 18 Quad 1 wins this season. Led by its five upperclassmen starters (Gianna Kneepkens, Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Lauren Betts), UCLA has been on a mission to return to the Final Four. Coach Cori Close's team will have momentum on its side and redemption on its mind after suffering a blowout loss to UConn in the semifinal last year.― Josh Heron

More:UCLA blows out Iowa in the Big Ten championship for back-to-back-titles

West Virginia securing NCAA Tournament hosting duties

West Virginia's first Big 12 championship since 2017 all but secures its place in the top 16, which earns them the right to host the first and second rounds of March Madness in Morgantown. The Mountaineers entered the Big 12 Tournament teetering around the top 16 seeds due to their lack of Quad 1 wins, but West Virginia didn't leave the decision up to the selection committee. The Mountaineers took their destiny into their own hands and picked up a huge Quad 1 win against TCU on Sunday. West Virginia hasn't hosted at the NCAA Tournament since 2014. The team is 14-3 at home this season.

"Hopefully this got us over the hump," WVU coach Mark Kellogg said. "I can only imagine… how electric Hope Coliseum would be if we were able to host some NCAA Tournament games. So come on NCAA, do what you're supposed to do and get that thing to Morgantown for us."— Cydney Henderson

Arizona State coming off the bubble

Arizona Statewas one of the teams with the most to gain at the Big 12 women's tournament. The Sun Devils entered the tournament on the bubble as one of the first four teams out, according to USA TODAY Sports' bracketology, but they likely did enough to go dancing for the first time since 2019. Arizona State secured wins over Arizona and Iowa State before falling short against West Virginia in the quarterfinal round. The Sun Devils improved to 24-10 on the season, the team's most wins since the 2015-16 season (26). No power 4 conference women's basketball team with 24 or more wins has been left out of March Madness. "Out of all the bubble teams, we've had the most good wins. We've won 24 games … half of those games, 12 of them are top 100 wins and we've won nine on the road. So we can win anywhere," first-year head coach Molly Miller said.— Cydney Henderson

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Clemson's NCAA Tournament hopes

Before the ACC tournament, Clemson was a bubble team. After beating Virginia in the second round of the ACC Tournament, the Tigers effectively punched their ticket to March Madness. "We kind of took this as our season is on the line. We felt like a win [against Virginia] would get us in the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens the rest of the way out, " Clemson head coach Shawn Poppie said after the Tigers defeated the Hokies in the second round of the ACC Tournament." That's how they focused and fought and competed. But ultimately that's just basketball. How you start and how you finish quarters."— Meghan L. Hall

Kansas State and Jordan Speiser

Call Kansas State women's basketball the comeback kids. Kansas State pulled out a comeback upset win against Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals on Friday to become the first No. 12 seed to advance to the semifinals in Big 12 Tournament history.

One day earlier, Kansas State went on a 21-0 run to defeat Texas Tech 58-51 in the second round on Thursday. The day before that, Kansas State set a new Big 12 Tournament record with 17 made 3-pointers against Cincinnati on Wednesday.

They couldn't muster another comeback against No. 1 TCU, but Kansas State put the league on notice and freshman guard Jordan Speiser emerged as a breakout star. Speiser was 16-of 33 from the 3-point line through four games at the tournament.

"This team has had a knack for the dramatic wins," head coach Jeff Mittie said on Friday. It feels great to be playing basketball in March."— Cydney Henderson

Duke guard Taina Mair

If anyone was unfamiliar with Taina Mair's game before the ACC Tournament, she just put the whole country on notice. Mair was the go-to player for Duke in crunch time, often settling the team down or providing a much-needed score. She also crashed the glass, despite being one of the smaller players on the court, and she was a pest defensively, totaling eight steals in the tournament. Mair was rewarded with ACC Tournament MVP honors. "Before this conference [tournament], I knew I'd play a big pivotal role if we wanted to get to this championship, we wanted to win," Mair told USA TODAY Sports. "I was in the gym, early in the morning and late at night, just trying to get shots up and trying to be the player that I can for everybody."— Meghan L. Hall

Losers

Vanderbilt and Mikayla Blakes

The Commodores entered the SEC Tournament with a chance to play their way into a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was also an opportunity for Mikayla Blakes to make her case for National Player of the Year. Vanderbilt did neither of those things as they were blown out in the quarterfinals by Ole Miss, a game in which Blakes opened by shooting 0-of-10 from the floor before recovering in the second half to finish with 24 points. The Commodores didn't play with any fire until SEC Coach of the Year Shea Ralph was ejected early in the fourth quarter after delivering a curse-word-laced message to a referee. Vanderbilt will be stuck on the two-line in March Madness now, and their path to a Final Four will likely have to go through UConn or UCLA.— Mitchell Northam

Iowa without one of its 'main' threats

Iowa missed Taylor McCabe in its 96-45 Big Ten championship loss to UCLA on Sunday. The senior guard was averaging 8.1 points per game before she tore ACL in her left knee in a late January matchup against Ohio State. McCabe's 40.7% career 3-point shooting average is tied for the best in program history. Iowa shot 22% from beyond the arc against the Bruins. After Sunday's defeat, Iowa coach Jan Jensen acknowledged the impact of not having McCabe. "[McCabe] was my main outside scoring threat," Jensen said. "Every play call was pretty much designed around her."― Josh Heron

Louisville in the ACC title game

For the 12th consecutive season under Jeff Walz, the Cardinals reached the quarterfinals or better in the ACC Tournament ― something no other conference team has achieved. The overtime loss to Duke, in what would have been the program's first championship since 2018, is going to sting for a while. The Cardinals controlled Sunday's game but could not sustain their defensive consistency in the final two minutes of regulation, when the Blue Devils made them pay. The Cardinals ran out of steam in overtime allowing Duke to dictate the game. Riley Nelson sank a dagger triple to put the Blue Devils up five in the final moments. The Cardinals defense all honed in on one side of the court, leaving Nelson alone to end their title hopes. That has to feel like a gut punch for a team that expected to win the ACC Tournament championship.— Meghan L. Hall

More:Duke holds off Louisville in overtime for ACC women's championship

TCU and its chance at a No. 2 seed

TCU failed to defend its Big 12 title against West Virginia and missed a prime opportunity to snag a No. 2 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. TCU was held to 53 points in the title loss, the team's second-lowest point total of the season, and some glaring concerns emerged. Ball security is one. The Horned Frogs committed 16 and 11 turnovers in the semifinal and final, respectively. The 11 turnovers against West Virginia led to 15 points for the Mountaineers. The Horned Frogs were also hampered by foul trouble. Olivia Miles picked up three fouls in the first half and Marta Suarez fouled out with 1:30 left in the final. TCU needs both players on the court during March Madness.— Cydney Henderson

Michigan State and Maryland home hopes

The Spartans and Terrapins entered the weekend looking like they would be among the top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament and host the first two rounds of March Madness. Instead both teams were upset in the second round of the Big Ten tournament, with No. 13 Maryland losing to Oregon and No. 17 Michigan State to Illinois. The early exits left the door open for West Virginia, in the finals of the Big 12 Tournament, and North Carolina, to host.— Heather Burns

Iowa State and Audi Crooks

Iowa State got bounced in its Big 12 tournament opening matchup by Arizona State, a team the Cyclones soundly  defeated 90-64 just two weeks prior. Iowa State was held to 68 points in the loss, nearly 15 points below their average, and shot a dismal 7-of-36 from the 3-point line (19%), well below the team's 34.7% average. Arizona State's suffocating defense deserves credit. They held Audi Crooks to four first-quarter points and forced the Cyclones into 14 turnovers, which could serve as a playbook for the rest of the nation. Crooks said the Cyclones wanted to be monsters in March, but they looked toothless against the Sun Devils.— Cydney Henderson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Winners and losers from women's college basketball conference tournaments

Nashville journalist Estefany Rodriguez frequently reports on Immigration and Customs Enforcement action, becoming familiar with the sudden arrests that have become hallmarks of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

But when trucks surrounded her and her husband's car Wednesday and agents approached the windows, she was confused, her husband Alejandro Medina said.

Medina realized it was ICE before his wife did, he said. "We really couldn't understand why we're being surrounded."

"We're definitely shocked," he told CNN.

Rodriguez, who was born in Colombia, entered the United States legally, one of her lawyers said. She is a journalist for Spanish-language news outlet Nashville Noticias and has reported stories "critical of the practices" by ICE and was covering immigration arrests the day before her detainment Wednesday, a petition filed by her lawyers for her release stated.

It's the latest instance of journalists being caught up in the Trump administration's nationwidecrackdown on immigration. Mario Guevara,a Salvadoran journalist, was deported in October after being arrested while covering a "No Kings" protest in Atlanta.

The agents swarming the car to detain Rodriguez knew a lot about her and her husband, Medina said. They knew he was born in the US, and they knew they had applied for a green card, he said.

Rodriguez also has a pending political asylum claim and a valid work permit, according to court documents. A spokesperson for ICE told CNN in a statement Rodriguez "currently has no lawful immigration status."

"A pending green card application and work authorization does NOT give someone legal status to be in our country," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN.

Rodriguez was at a detention center in Alabama as of Friday before she was set to be sent to Louisiana, according to her lawyer, Joel Coxander.

There is still no evidence she has been transferred from the Alabama detention center, Coxander told CNN on Saturday, adding a federal judge in her habeas corpus case has ordered DHS to show cause in response to the petition challenging her detention.

When she worked for a large broadcaster in her home country of Colombia, she reported on government agencies and instances of corruption, her dad Juan Rodriguez and Coxander said.

But then she started receiving threats, Juan Rodriguez said. She reported them to the police and the country's prosecutor's office, and a security detail was assigned to her for a while, but that later changed to routine check-ins, her father said.

"There are a lot of problems, including armed groups, guerrillas, corrupt politicians. When you report, you'll find that some of these people don't like what you're reporting on, and they'll get bothered and think they have to get rid of the reporter because the reporter is making too much noise and informing the public," Juan Rodriguez said.

When her daughter turned 1, Estefany Rodriguez decided to try to find safety in the US, he said. She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2021, according to court documents. Before it expired, she applied for political asylum, it said.

However, according to ICE, "she failed to depart the country and is in violation of the conditions of her visa and currently has no lawful immigration status. She will remain in ICE custody pending her immigration proceedings."

While Coxander said Friday he asked the court to let him amend his initial petition to release Rodriguez to "specifically address that this is a First Amendment violation and retaliation" for her coverage of ICE activities, the agents said they were detaining her because she had failed to show up for two immigration appointments.

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Rodriguez received a letter from ICE on January 8 asking her to come to the Nashville field office for "processing and additional information," according to court documents. She and her lawyer collected paperwork and were ready for the appointment, Coxander said, but the city was shut down by an ice storm and the office closed.

She soon received a second letter, rescheduling the appointment for February 25, Coxander said.

Three days before the rescheduled meeting, Rodriguez's husband and another attorney visited the ICE office to see if the office could mail the immigration charging documents to Rodriguez's legal team rather than her appearing in person, the petition said.

The lawyer asked the ICE agent directly if she needed to be there on February 25, and the agent said they couldn't find Rodriguez in their computer system for appointments "and could find no sign of an appointment for her on February 25," according to the petition. The agent then said Rodriguez should come on March 17 instead, according to Coxander. The agency gave her another notice that had the March 17 date on it.

Dispute emerges over warrant shared by DHS

DHSposted Saturday on X a photo of what it saidwas a "warrant for arrest of alien" for Rodriguez, dated March 4, purporting to show an immigration officer determined there was probable cause she was removable from the United States.

However, Rodriguez's attorney disputed DHS's version of the document, saying the actual version the department submitted to the court is dated March 2, lacks an Alien Registration Number for Rodriguez, and the section of the warrant where officials are supposed to indicate the warrant was served is blank.

CNN has reviewed the version of the warrant Coxander said was submitted in court filings.

A spokesperson for DHS told CNN the lower section of an immigration arrest warrant is typically completed after an arrest, while the top portion reflects approval to make the arrest.

The document DHS posted on X appears to be different from what Coxander says is the actual document and indicates it was issued following a deferred inspection with ICE that occurred that day. Coxander argues the warrant posted on X could not have been the basis for Rodriguez's initial arrest.

The version of the warrant DHS posted on X appears to cite factors including an alleged "failure to establish admissibility subsequent to deferred inspection" and statements made by Rodriguez to immigration officers as the basis for probable cause she is removable from the United States — boxes that were not checked on the version of the warrant Coxander says was submitted to the court.

In their Friday court filing responding to the government's preliminary documents, Rodriguez's legal team notes that, along with the blank certificate of service on the warrant, ICE's own report of the arrest shows from the moment agents approached Rodriguez in the parking lot until she was taken to the Nashville holding room, she was never presented with a warrant.

This means, the court filing claims, Rodriguez was effectively arrested without a warrant. The documents suggest ICE agents seized her in the parking lot and transported her to the office, bypassing the formal process of serving a warrant.

This distinction is central to her lawyers' argument.

The X post from DHS appeared to come in response to criticism from Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, whowrote on XFriday that ICE had arrested the journalist "without a warrant" and called her detention part of "the Trump Admin's machine of cruelty that is attacking the free press and violating our rights."

"She's a tough person. Obviously, she's been through a lot and kept being a journalist despite everything that's happened, and despite, you know, obviously, the inherent risk of just being near ICE and while she's covering other arrests," Coxander said.

Medina said his wife "cares about her community, and she cares about her job, and she's really good at it," adding that her work in journalism is only "a piece of her life."

"She is a mother, she's a wife, she's someone that makes her friends feel close," he said.

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By Andrew Hay

STANLEY, N.M., March 8 (Reuters) - Two brothers of one of Jeffrey Epstein's most prominent accusers visited the sex offender's former New Mexico ranch ‌on Sunday for the first time to demand the Trump administration release ‌unredacted documents to reveal the identities of men their late sister alleged sexually abused her at the ​property.

With Epstein's hacienda-style mansion in the background, the brothers of Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life in April, joined hundreds of protesters at a roadside rally to mark international women's day near the gate of the ranch located 30 miles (48 km) south of ‌state capital Santa Fe.

Giuffre's brother ⁠Sky Roberts, 37, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to release documents showing, among other things, names of visitors to Epstein's ⁠Zorro Ranch where he and his acquaintances are accused of sexually abusing women and girls.

"All those names are in the files and right now the government is covering those up," ​said Roberts, ​flanked by Giuffre's older brother, Daniel Wilson, ​47, and their families.

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The release of ‌millions of records on Epstein has exposed the financier's social connections with politicians, business people and scientists who he invited to the ranch.

The files have become a persistent political problem for U.S. President Donald Trump, who was named in FBI records released on Thursday in which an unidentified woman made accusations against him related to an alleged sexual ‌encounter.

New Mexico in February became the first U.S. ​state to launch a legislative "truth commission" into how Epstein ​was able to operate in ​secrecy at Zorro Ranch for 26 years.

"New Mexico is setting the example ‌and we expect other states to follow ​behind," said Amanda Roberts, ​37, Sky Roberts' wife, citing New York and Florida where Epstein had residences where similar probes needed to occur.

Americans generally view the Epstein case as ​an example of wealthy and ‌powerful people rarely being held accountable and believe the U.S. government is ​still hiding information about Epstein's clients, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay ​in New Mexico; Editing by Michael Perry)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States began alarge military exercisewith South Korea involving thousands of troops Monday while also waging an escalating war in the Middle East.

North Korea Party Congress

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff has said about 18,000 Korean troops will take part in Freedom Shield, which runs through March 19. U.S. Forces Korea hasn't confirmed the number of American troops participating in the training in South Korea.

The allies' combined exercise comes amid South Korean media speculation that Washington is relocating some assets from South Korea to support fighting against Iran.

U.S. Forces Korea said last week it would not comment on specific movements of military assets for security reasons. South Korean officials also declined to comment on the reports that some U.S. Patriot anti-missile systems and other equipment were being moved to the Middle East, but they said there would be no meaningful impact on the allies' combined defense posture.

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Freedom Shield may trigger an irritated response from North Korea, which has long described the allies' joint exercises as invasion rehearsalsand used them as a pretext to ramp up its own military demonstrations and weapons tests. The allies say the drills are defensive in nature.

North Korea has suspended all meaningful dialogue with Washington and Seoul following the 2019 collapse of a summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term. Tensions rose in recent years as Kim used Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a window to accelerate the development of his nuclear arsenal and increase his leverage by aligning militarily with Moscow, which has received thousands of North Korean troops and large weapons shipments to help fuel its warfighting.

The allies' drills follow a major political conference in Pyongyang last month, where Kim confirmed his hard-line view of "enemy" Seoul but leftthe door open to talks with Washington,calling on the United States to drop its demand for North Korea's denuclearization as a precondition for dialogue.

Freedom Shield is one of two annual "command post" exercises conducted by the allies; the other is Ulchi Freedom Shield, held in August. The drills are largely computer-simulated and designed to test the allies' joint operational capabilities while incorporating evolving war scenarios and security challenges. As usual, the March drill will be accompanied by a field training program, called Warrior Shield, but the number of field exercises during the Freedom Shield period has declined to 22 compared to last year's 51.

While U.S. and South Korean militaries say field exercises are often spread out throughout the year, there's speculation that the allies are seeking to tone down the spring drills to create conditions for dialogue with North Korea. Liberal South Korean PresidentLee Jae Myunghas expressed a desire for diplomacy, and some of his top officials have voiced hope that Trump's expected visit to China in late March or April could possibly create an opening with Pyongyang.