Nelly Korda was in the afternoon wave Friday and started her second round at the 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup 10 shots back of Rose Zhang, who had just a few minutes before finished her second round at 13 under.

Korda then went out and promptly birdied her first two holes and four of her first seven to cut the lead to six. A couple of birdies on the back nine, including the 18th hole, got Korda to 9 under after 36 holes, four back of the lead held by Zhang and Madelene Sagstrom.

In other words: Game on.

Korda is one of only three in LPGA history to win five straight starts. She’s looking to be the first to claim six, and she’ll have a shot to do so this weekend at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey.

Korda has 10 birdies and just one bogey over two days. Zhang, who shot 63-68 in pursuit of her second LPGA win, led by as many at five strokes Friday but Sagstrom seems determined to not be left out of the fun this weekend as she has posted scores of 65 and 66. The three-time Solheim Cupper has one win on her LPGA resume, at the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA. Zhang also has one win, in the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open, next week’s event on the schedule.

The rain that started falling during Korda’s back nine didn’t seem to phase her in the least.

‘I think just lock in a lot more. I wish I locked in this much when the weather is really nice. Jay and I do a really good job going through everything and locking in,’ she said, crediting her caddie Jason McDede. ‘I hit 17 out of 18 greens and majority of the fairways today, so really happy with the way I played today.’

Korda, who insisted before the tournament started that she’s not thinking about the streak, also indicated she has not been scoreboard watching along the way.

‘I feel like I’m a lot behind the leaders. I think five shots, right? Five or four shots. I don’t know. Definitely more pressure on you when everyone is trying to get you, and there is something fun about trying to catch the leaders.

‘They’re both very different. I’m just going to stay in my bubble. This golf course is already hard enough, so not going to put that much pressure on myself trying to catch them. Wherever I can take advantage I will and see how it goes,’ Korda said.

Lydia Ko, who needs just one point to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, shot a Friday 71 and is 4 under, tied for sixth, through 36 holes.

Jin Young Ko, who won three of the last four Founders Cups, shot 72-69 and is tied for 15th after two days.

Former NBA player Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis seems to have a surefire plan on dropping some pounds while he is in prison.

On Thursday, Davis was sentenced to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to make $80,000 in restitution, plus participate in financial management classes and drug testing mandatory for his role in an insurance that milked $5 million from the league’s health and welfare benefit plan.

Davis was accused of submitting fake claims for dental work that was never done and lying about his whereabouts during the false procedure, which authorities quickly proved through his cell phone’s geolocation.

After his sentence, Davis addressed on Instagram Live and whoever was within earshot outside of a New York City courthouse, joking about his sentence and detailed his diet plan.

“Imma be swole, though. I swear to God I’m about to get in so much shape. On God,’ Davis said. ‘That’s what God say, I’m going to stop you eating hamburgers imma put you in jail. You don’t want to stop eating hamburgers and Cheetos? You’re going to jail. So now, imma become The Rock.”

During his playing NBA playing days, Davis, who played for the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic, and Los Angeles Clippers, regularly tipped the scale at 290 pounds on his 6-foot-9 inch frame.

The Florida Panthers built a four-goal lead and finished off a 6-2 win over the host Boston Bruins in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday.

Evan Rodrigues scored twice, Brandon Montour had a goal and an assist, while Vladimir Tarasenko, Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour also scored for Florida, which took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Matthew Tkachuk had three assists, while Aleksander Barkov added two assists as the Panthers went 4-for-6 on the power play.

Sergei Bobrovsky needed to make only 14 saves in Florida’s net in an impressive defensive effort, as Boston recorded half of its 16 shots in the third period.

After the Bruins accumulated only seven shots by the halfway mark of the game, Jakub Lauko and Jake DeBrusk each scored in a 3:30 span in the third period to break up Florida’s 10-0 scoring run in the series. DeBrusk added an assist.

Prior to Florida’s dominating run of goals, no team had scored more than seven straight in this postseason.

Jeremy Swayman stopped 27 shots for the Bruins.

Boston captain Brad Marchand did not return for the third period due to an upper-body injury.

Pavel Zacha’s blind backhand pass allowed Florida to maintain offensive-zone possession and score the opening goal 8:04 into the first period. Gustav Forsling took a shot from above the left circle that Rodrigues deflected over Swayman’s shoulder from the doorstep.

Boston defenseman Mason Lohrei’s double-minor penalty for high sticking in the second period proved costly, leading to two Florida goals in exactly a minute.

Tarasenko made it 2-0 when he snapped off a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Swayman upstairs at 16:14 of the middle period. A minute later, Verhaeghe redirected Matthew Tkachuk’s centering pass over Swayman’s blocker for a 3-0 lead.

After Lauko was called for a questionable goaltender interference penalty on a net drive early in the third, Montour took advantage on the ensuing power play and ripped a top-shelf shot from the center point at 3:09 for a 4-0 lead.

A delayed penalty helped Boston get on the board at 5:01, as Lauko tucked a wrister over Bobrovsky off a DeBrusk feed to the left circle.

Lohrei sent a pass to DeBrusk for a hard shot from the left dot that brought Boston back within 4-2 at 8:31.

Reinhart’s empty-netter with 1:24 left punctuated the Florida win, and Rodrigues added on with a power-play tally inside the final minute.

Oilers 4, Canucks 3 (OT)

Evan Bouchard scored in overtime to give the visiting Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday that evened their Western Conference semifinal series at one win apiece.

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid both scored once in four-point games for Edmonton. Mattias Ekholm added a goal, and Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner made 16 saves.

Building on a third period in which they outshot the Canucks by a 15-2 margin, the Oilers were rewarded when Bouchard joined a rush led by his team’s dynamic duo, took a drop pass and sent a long shot that banked into the net off the stick of Canucks defenseman Ian Cole at 5:38 of overtime.

McDavid and Draisaitl are the third-fastest players in NHL history to reach 90 career playoff points, both reaching the mark in 56 games. Their pace was eclipsed only by Wayne Gretzky (43 games) and Mario Lemieux (45 games).

Nikita Zadorov collected one goal and one assist for the Canucks, while Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser also tallied. Goalie Arturs Silovs stopped 27 shots and J.T. Miller collected two assists.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series will be played Sunday in Edmonton.

INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Nembhard’s 30-plus-foot 3-pointer with 17.1 seconds left and the shot clock running down put the Indiana Pacers in the lead after a rough second half and they held on to beat the New York Knicks 111-106 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The Pacers cut the Knicks series lead to 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Here are four observations:

Andrew Nembhard 3-pointer highlights gritty fourth quarter for Pacers

Tyrese Haliburton had nowhere to go with the ball when he was trapped at the top of the key with the game tied with 17.1 seconds to go. So he threw it to Andrew Nembhard who wasn’t in a great place either, 30 feet from the rim with no time to drive. But Nembhard pulled up from there and heaved a shot and drilled it, giving the Pacers a 109-106 lead after they’d trailed by as many as nine points in the second half. Nembhard scored all five of his points in the game’s final two minutes.

That lead held up as Jalen Brunson missed a 3-pointer that could have tied the game, Aaron Nesmith grabbed the rebound and hit two free throws to essentially clinch the game.

The Pacers had been outscored 32-22 and lost what had been a 12-point lead, but they rallied to win the fourth quarter 26-16, with numerous critical defensive stops at key moments to pull off the win.

Tyrese Haliburton regains old form

After the Pacers’ Game 1 loss in New York, Tyrese Haliburton said he didn’t feel like himself. He scored just six points and took just six shots, including one attempt in a scoreless second half. He said then he would be better, and he was for Game 2 and then even better for Game 3.

Haliburton has rediscovered his outside shot in the playoffs and he was much bolder than he has been in terms of getting to the rim. He cracked double figures by the end of the first quarter, scoring 10 points on 4 of 8 shooting, including 2 of 6 from 3-point range. In the second he went off even more, scoring 13 points to enter the half with 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range.

Haliburton again had a harder time getting rolling in the second half, but he finished with 35 points on 14 of 26 shooting, including 6 of 16 from 3-point range with seven assists.

Pacers switch Aaron Nesmith on to Jalen Brunson, see improvement

Nembhard and Nesmith, the Pacers’ 24-year-old defensive aces, always draw the toughest two defensive assignments on the board. Nembhard tends to get ball-handlers and Nesmith tends to take on bigger wings, but they have switched before.

Nembhard guarded Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson in Games 1 and 2 and didn’t have great results, so Pacers coach Rick Carlisle moved Nesmith on to Brunson for Game 3. It was still a tough assignment, but Nesmith had at least a little more success.

Brunson scored just two points in the first quarter on 1 of 5 shooting. In the second he started to find it with 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting, but Nesmith was in his face, fighting through screens and parrying his twists and turns and pivots in the lane.

Brunson still scored 26 points but was 10 of 26 from the field.

Myles Turner and Pascal Siakam were better

The Pacers starting 4 and 5 men had brutal performances in Game 2. All-Star forward Pascal Siakam scored 14 points but was 7 of 18 from the floor and 2 of 10 in the second half. Stalwart center Myles Turner had a brutal evening all around, making just 3 of 11 shots for six points.

In Game 3, both players performed a lot closer to their usual standards.

Siakam benefitted from the fact that Knicks All-Defensive team forward O.G. Anunoby, his long-time teammate in Toronto, was out with a hamstring strain. Siakam got to take advantage of his other former teammate, Precious Achiuwa, for much of the game and got more of a rhythm with his usual arsenal of spin moves to the rim, turnaround jumpers and fadeaways. He finished with 26 points on 9 of 14 shooting.

Turner, meanwhile, provided the necessary production Haliburton needs in a ball screen partner, scoring 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting, including 2 of 5 from 3-point range. He used his outside shooting to help him with his dribble drive game, utilizing shot fakes to get defenders to fly by him to give him a chance to get to the rim. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and had three blocks, including a critical one in transition in the fourth quarter.

Fired Michigan State University head football coach Mel Tucker has asked a judge to block media scrutiny of his pending divorce, saying he fears his estranged wife will make false allegations that will invade his privacy and hurt his chances of getting another job.

The court filings this week also make it clear that Tucker still plans to sue Michigan State for wrongful termination – and expects to win.

He asked Ingham County Circuit Court judge Carol Koenig to vacate the mutual restraining order she granted on April 25 at his wife’s behest that bars him from spending their joint funds on his legal fees. He argued he needs to keep paying them to win his ongoing litigation and that doing so would ‘potentially enhance the ultimate marital estate’ to his wife’s benefit.

‘Plaintiff’s allegations, and the resulting order, simply put, are cutting her nose off to spite herself,’ the filings say.

Michigan State suspended Tucker without pay in September hours after a USA TODAY investigation revealed sexual harassment allegations against him by prominent rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy, whom Tucker had hired in August 2021 to speak to his team about preventing sexual misconduct.

MSU fired Tucker for cause two weeks later, canceling the roughly $75 million remaining on his record 10-year, $95 million contract. Tucker’s attorneys indicated at the time that he would sue for wrongful termination but he has not yet done so.

Jo Ellyn Tucker filed a divorce complaint against Tucker on April 5 after 25 years of marriage. Her divorce complaint seeks, among other things, an equitable division of their marital assets ‘taking into account the cause(s) for the breakdown of the marriage.’

Three weeks later, Jo Ellyn was granted the restraining order, which alleged that her husband had spent more than $1.5 million from their joint funds on his personal legal bills – which she said is not a marital expense – and moved all the money from his retirement accounts to funds that she could not access just before she filed the divorce complaint.

Tucker disputed those allegations in the new filings, saying his wife never had access to his retirement accounts and knew of his plans to consolidate them. He also refuted his wife’s characterization of his legal fees as excessive, saying it ‘ignores the reality of the parties’ multi-million estate’ and the fact that his ongoing litigation could result in a windfall for both of them if successful.

Tucker took issue with news coverage of his wife’s allegations, which he cited as his basis for asking the judge to seal the record of the case. He is also seeking a protective order over discovery, noting his wife had requested information about his potential future employment and healthcare, credit card statements and bank records, and that he had requested similar information from her.

‘Disclosure of this information is annoying, embarrassing, oppressive and unduly burdensome to both parties if it is not kept confidential,’ Tucker’s attorneys wrote.

He filed the motion for the protective order and to seal the case after his wife’s attorneys rejected his attorneys’ requests to do so mutually, the filings say.

Tucker has employed attorneys to defend him in the sexual harassment case since at least December 2022, when Tracy filed a complaint against him with the school’s Title IX office, case records obtained by USA TODAY show.

After their initial meeting in August 2021, Tucker expressed interest in Tracy’s cause of engaging men as the solution to gender-based violence, and they struck up a professional relationship and friendship. Over the next year, Tucker twice invited Tracy back to East Lansing, first to be the honorary captain at a Spartans football game and again for a future training with coaches and players.

During that time, Tucker made a series of romantic overtures toward Tracy, who would later tell campus investigators that she walked a tightrope trying to set boundaries with Tucker while maintaining their business partnership. Each time, she said, he initially pulled back, then resumed advances that increased in severity. The pattern culminated in a phone call in April 2022 in which Tracy said Tucker masturbated and make sexual comments without her consent.

Tracy said the next – and last – time they spoke, in August 2022, Tucker threatened to ruin her career if she spoke out about his conduct.

After a seven-month inquiry by an outside investigator hired by MSU, a different outside hearing officer concluded in October that Tucker sexually harassed and exploited Tracy in the April 2022 phone call; made unwanted sexual advances toward her in the eight months before the call; and engaged in quid pro quo sexual harassment afterward when he ended their business relationship.

Another outside attorney hired by MSU denied Tucker’s appeal in January, affirming the hearing officer’s decision that Tracy’s version of events was more plausible, consistent and supported by the evidence.

Even Tucker’s version of events – that he and Tracy had been in a romantic relationship and had consensual ‘phone sex’ – constituted a fireable offense, the college’s athletic director, Alan Haller, wrote in his termination letter.

Tracy’s nonprofit, Set The Expectation, and her public speaking business sued Tucker in October to stop him from releasing private text messages he had obtained from the cellphone of her deceased best friend and business assistant, which she said contained a mix of personal and business information. She was granted a restraining order. That litigation is ongoing.

In March, Tracy and Set The Expectation also filed an intent to sue Tucker and the university – a mandatory precursor to filing a lawsuit against a government agency – accusing him of damaging her reputation and future earnings, hamstringing her charitable work and causing severe psychological and emotional harm. She is seeking damages of more than $75 million.

Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY covering sexual misconduct and Title IX. Contact him by email at kjacoby@usatoday.com or follow him on X @kennyjacoby.