GREEN MAG

Amen Thompson and Kevin Durant combined for 59 points to pace a blistering shooting effort, and the Houston Rockets rolled to a 117-98 victory over the visiting Phoenix Suns on Friday.

Durant scored 17 of his 28 points in the second quarter to turn the tide, while Thompson scored a season-high 31 points on 12-for-17 shooting from the field. The Rockets excelled despite the absence of Alperen Sengun (illness), who leads the team in rebounds and assists and is second behind Durant in scoring.

Durant added eight assists to his ledger and became the eighth player in NBA history to eclipse 31,000 career points.

Dillon Brooks paced the Suns with 23 points while Jamaree Bouyea scored a career-high 18 and Collin Gillespie chipped in 13. Phoenix was without leading scorer Devin Booker (groin) and shot 39% from the field, including 5-for-36 on 3-point attempts (13.9%).

Brooks keyed a hot start for the Suns, and his three-point play at the 4:17 mark of the first quarter lifted Phoenix to a 20-15 lead. Brooks scored 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the opening period to help the Suns carry a 31-24 lead into the second.

The Rockets committed six turnovers and shot 40.9% in the first. Halfway through the second quarter, Durant almost singlehandedly reversed the hosts' fortunes by converting back-to-back three-point plays that fueled a 17-2 rally.

When Durant completed his second three-point play, the Rockets grabbed a 46-44 lead with 5:47 left in the first half. Durant fed Thompson for a dunk that extended that advantage to 54-46, and when Durant assisted a Josh Okogie baseline dunk that closed the first half, the Rockets led 68-58. Durant missed only one of eight shots in the second period and added three assists as the offensive linchpin for the Rockets, who shot 78.3% in the quarter.

The Rockets pulled away from the start of the third, with Durant finding Thompson for a dunk after passing out of a double team before Jabari Smith Jr. (16 points) added a pull-up jumper. When Durant and Thompson combined for an alley-oop fastbreak dunk, Houston led 74-58.

Houston led by as many as 30 in the fourth quarter before both teams cleared their respective benches.

--Field Level Media

Tulane can start prepping for the College Football Playoff.

The No. 20 Green Wave took down No. 24 North Texas34-21to win the American Conference title on Friday night. Tulane was the better team on Friday. That's not in dispute. However, you also can't dispute the Green Wave got a little help from the officials in their blowout win.

Tulane went up 24-7 before halftime thanks to a blown call by the officiating crew. The Green Wave punted the ball back to North Texas with less than a minute to go and a 17-7 lead. But Tulane receiver Landon Sides — who was back to receive the punt — got hit by a Tulane player as the ball was in the air.

Sides was knocked down and unable to get to the vicinity of the ball. The punt then bounced off the back of gunner Baron Tipton and was recovered by Tulane. No kick-catch interference penalty was called.

As time expired in the second quarter, Tulane QB Jake Retzlaff then snuck the ball into the end zone for a 17-point lead. And even then it wasn't totally clear that Retzlaff scored.

RETZLAFF SNEAKS IT IN TO END THE FIRST HALF!pic.twitter.com/UAViziRMJo

— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB)December 6, 2025

The Green Wave missed a field goal to start the second half and North Texas had the chance to cut the lead back to two scores. But Drew Mestemaker's pass was tipped and intercepted by Chris Rodgers, who returned the ball 35 yards for a TD.

FUMBLE AND TULANE PICKS IT UP BUT WAIT THE BALL IS FORCED OUT AND IS IT A TOUCHBACK?????????pic.twitter.com/ecaJeIKeoQ

— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB)December 6, 2025

Or what was called a TD, anyway. Mestemaker hit Rodgers just before he got to the goal line and Rodgers fumbled the ball out of the back of the end zone. However, the play was called a touchdown on the field and, somehow, upheld on replay review even as it was obvious that Mestemaker made contact with Rogers before the goal line.

Heck, you can even tell that the ball is being fumbled before the end zone in this picture below.

Again, Tulane was the better team. The Green Wave deserved the win. But the officiating was a clear sign that it was simply not North Texas' night. As was the play that happened in the fourth quarter after UNT had cut Tulane's lead to 10. A pass went right through linebacker S'Maje Burrell's hands and ended up as a completion and first down for Tulane.

The North Texas VS Tulane game summarized in one play 😂pic.twitter.com/i47elkd3a3

— The cfb lliason (@realfbllliason)December 6, 2025

The Mean Green turned the ball over four times and also lost star running back Caleb Hawkins after just seven carries. Hawkins, who entered the game with over 1,500 total yards and 26 total touchdowns, appeared to suffer a shoulder injury on North Texas' first drive of the game. He then left the game after fumbling on the second drive as he walked off the field favoring his shoulder again.

It was a game that was reminiscent of the disaster that happened in Denton on Oct. 10 for North Texas. The Mean Green started the season 5-0 and hosted a No. 24 South Florida team that beat Florida in Week 2. The Bulls scored four touchdowns in the span of five minutes and 37 seconds in the third quarter as the Mean Green turned the ball over five times in the 63-36 loss.

Outside of the games against South Florida and Tulane, North Texas went undefeated. UNT led college football with nearly 47 points per game and averaged 7.4 yards per play. It just committed nine of its 16 turnovers across two of the biggest games of the season.

Tulane will either be No. 11 or No. 12

Whoever won Friday night's game would enter the College Football Playoff with a coach heading to a new school in 2026. Tulane's Jon Sumrall is the new coach at Florida while North Texas' Eric Morris is the new coach at Florida.

Tulane is likely heading for a road trip against either Oregon, Texas A&M or Ole Miss depending on the results of Saturday's conference title games. If Virginia beats Duke in the ACC title game, Tulane will be the No. 12 seed in the CFP. If Duke wins that game and James Madison is the fifth-highest ranked conference champion, the Green Wave will be the No. 11 seed.

If Tulane can pull an upset win in a playoff game, it will tie the school record for victories in a season. Just two Tulane teams — the 12-2 team that went to the Cotton Bowl in 2022 and the 1998 team that went 12-0 — have won 12 games in a season and the 2025 team is just the sixth Tulane team to have at least 10 wins in a season.

Coach Doug Gottlieb was not thrilled with the way his Green Bay team's game against Robert Morris played out.

Gottlieb was caught on camera throwing a chair on his way back to the locker room following the Phoenix's 80-78 loss to the Colonials.

Green Bay was up by as many as 11 points with 3:54 left in the second half. But the Colonials cut Green Bay's lead down to two points with 35.7 seconds left, when the Phoenix were called for a 10-second violation after not advancing the ball past midcourt.

Robert Morris hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and Green Bay made just one of two free throw attempts to leave the game tied. Nikolaos Chitikoudis provided Robert Morris with the victory after making the winning layup with 2.4 seconds left to play.

Doug Gottlieb chair throw! 🚨pic.twitter.com/2wX3BpNWhy

— Ryan Borrmann (@BorrmannRyan)December 5, 2025

Gottlieb said postgame the 10-second call came down to "a lack of communication" and said it "was just embarrassing how we lost the game."

The coach was encouraged by his team's effort, defense and execution.

The former basketball player-turned-media personality was hired by Green Bay before the 2024-25 season and led the team to a 4-28 record. Gottlieb's squad has already matched its win total from last season, having won four of its first 10 games this season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Doug Gottlieb throws chair after Green Bay loses to Robert Morris

Two people who survived an early September U.S. attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean were waving overhead before they were killed in a now-controversial second strike, according to two sources familiar with a video that wasshown to lawmakers this week.

One of the sources said the action could be interpreted as the survivors either calling for help or trying to wave off another strike.

The additional details were first reported byThe New York Times.

The Sept. 2 operation was the first ofmore than 20 attackson alleged drug-carrying vessels by the Trump administration in recent months — a campaign that officials argue is necessary to stem narcotics trafficking, but critics believe is legally unjustified. More than 80 people have been killed in the strikes, including 11 people on Sept. 2, the military has said.

The operation has drawn fresh scrutiny since areport last weekthat the U.S. military carried out a follow-up strike on the vessel, killing two people who survived the initial attack. Some Democrats and legal experts have argued a strike to kill shipwrecked survivors could constitute a war crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitthas confirmedthere was a second strike, but argued it was lawful and warranted to "ensure the boat was destroyed."

Members of Congress watched a video of the strikes — including the strike that killed the two survivors — duringclosed-door testimonyon Thursday with the operation's commander, Adm. Mitch Bradley, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

But lawmakersoffered starkly differing interpretationsof the video after the hearing.

Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut told reporters the survivors appeared to be "in clear distress without any means of locomotion," calling it "one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service." Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said the survivors were "trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they could stay in the fight," concluding the four strikes on Sept. 2 were "entirely lawful and needful."

Multiple lawmakers said Bradley testified that there was no order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill everybody onboard.

President Trump said Wednesday he would supportreleasing a videoof the strikes to the public. When asked by a reporter if he would support killing survivors, the president responded: "No, I support the decision to knock out the boats."

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Anovernight exchange of firebetween Afghan forces and Pakistani troops along the two countries' tense border killed five Afghan civilians and wounded five others, while three civilians were also wounded on the Pakistani side, officials from the two countries said Saturday.

Each side has blamed the other for triggering the clash in violation ofa tenuous two-month ceasefire.

Those killed in the border area near the Afghan city of Spin Boldak, in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, included three children and one woman, said Ali Mohammad Haqmal, the head of information of Spin Boldak District.

Pakistani police and a hospital official in the Pakistani city of Chaman, Mohammad Awais, said three people, including a woman, were wounded in the shooting and shelling that came from the Afghan side. The clashes lasted until dawn Saturday, police said.

Tension between the two countries has been high since October, when deadly border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants, and wounded hundreds on both sides. The violence erupted afterexplosions in Kabul,the Afghan capital, on Oct. 9 that the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan and vowed to avenge.

The fighting has been the worst between the neighbors in recent years. AQatar-mediated ceasefirebegan in October and has largely held, but peace talks have so far failed to produce an agreement.

Pakistan has suffered several militant attacks inside its country, and has blamed most of them on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. Though separate from the Afghan Taliban, the TTP is closely allied with it, and many of its fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power there in 2021, further straining relations.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have both blamed each other for the cross-border exchange of fire that broke out Friday night.

Haqmal said the Afghan side didn't respond for 10-15 minutes after Pakistani forces began shooting, and that once the Afghan side responded, it stopped firing "within an hour." The shooting by the Pakistani side continued until Saturday morning, he said.

However, Mohammad Sadiq, a local Pakistani police official, claimed the shooting started from the Afghan side and that Pakistani troops returned fire near the Chaman border crossing, a key transit route.

The exchange came a day afterPakistan said it would allow the United Nationsto send relief supplies into Afghanistan through the Chaman and Torkham border crossings, which have been mostly closed for nearly two months amid escalating tensions.

Abidullah Farooqi, a spokesman for the Afghan border police, said Friday night that Pakistani forces first threw a hand grenade into the Spin Boldak border area on the Afghan side, prompting a response. He said Afghanistan remains committed to the ceasefire.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said on X that earlier in the evening, the "Afghan Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing along the Chaman border." He added that Pakistani forces remain fully alert and committed to ensuring the country's territorial integrity and the safety of its citizens.

Separately, Pakistan's military said Saturday that its security forces had killed nine Pakistani Taliban militants during two intelligence-based operations Friday in Pakistan's northwestern districts of Tank and Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

Ahmed reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.