TOKYO -- The Hanshin Tigers of Japan's Central League are set to acquire major league free agent Justin Bour.

Per the Kyodo News agency, Tigers general manager Osamu Tanimoto said this week the team has reached a basic agreement with the 31-year-old Bour, who played first base for the Los Angeles Angels last season.

Hanshin officials were not available for comment on Saturday.

Bour has a career .253 batting average with 92 home runs, 303 RBIs and 433 hits over six seasons in Major League Baseball. He started his career with the Miami Marlins in 2014 and had a brief stint with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018 before joining the Angels for the 2019 season.

Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith left Friday's 5-2 loss to the visiting Colorado Avalanche with a groin injury midway through the second period after logging 9 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time.

Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said Keith wouldn't travel to Denver for Saturday's rematch with the Avalanche, but Colliton didn't know the severity of the injury to the 36-year-old who's likely to become a Hall of Famer.

"Hopefully he'll be back soon,'' captain Jonathan Toews said. "Not used to being out there without a guy like him."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Marquette guard Markus Howard joined elite company Friday, scoring 51 points in a victory over USC in the Orlando Invitational to become only the third major conference player to record a 50-point game in three consecutive seasons. The other two: sharpshooters Wayman Tisdale (Oklahoma, 1982-85) and Pete Maravich (LSU, 1967-70).

Howard is the only Division I player in the past 20 seasons with multiple 50-point games.

He became only the fourth player in major conference history with 40 points on consecutive days. He joins Maravich, Johnny Neumann (Ole Miss) and Bob Pettit (LSU).

Howard set a tournament record for the second consecutive game after a 40-point performance in a 73-63 victory over Davidson in the first round on Thursday in Florida. The previous mark was 38, set by Marquette's Matt Carlino against Georgia Tech in 2014.

This was Howard's first 50-point effort in a game that didn't go into overtime. He played only 32 minutes, the fewest in a 50-point game by a major conference player in the past 25 seasons. Howard scored No. 50 with 5:36 left when he made a free throw following a layup to complete a 3-point play.

Marquette (5-1) advanced to the Orlando Invitational championship game with the victory. The Golden Eagles will meet No. 5 Maryland on Sunday.

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – A special night full of legendary guests is coming to Brownsburg, Ind., on Dec. 12.

Moderator W. Patrick Sullivan will welcome Duane “Pancho” Carter, Innes “Buzzy” Dobbins and Steve “Bopper” Stapp to a special Sprint Car 101 hosted by Hoosier Tire Midwest/Allgaier Performance Parts and presented by the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum.

The event is free and open to the public.

“Anyone who has been in the presence of Pancho, Buzzy and Bopper knows we are in for a great evening of laughs and entertainment,” said National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum Coordinator Bill Wright. “We are excited that Pat Sullivan will be on hand to moderate the events as well. He does an outstanding job. We hope that anyone in the area for the PRI show in Indianapolis can make it over for a great evening.”

Carter is a 1991 inductee of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum.  He is one of six USAC Triple Crown winners. He won two USAC National Sprint Car titles (1974 and ’76), teaming with Stapp and Dobbins. He won the 1972 USAC National Midget title, and the 1978 USAC Dirt Champ championship. He was also inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1990. The 1974 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year competed in 17 500’s in his career.

Stapp joined his father, Babe, in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame with his induction in 1999. If there was a storytelling Hall of Fame, he may also be in that. Stapp won USAC sprint car titles in 1974 and ’76 as an owner, and can lay claim to hundreds of wins in cars he has built. Johnny Rutherford, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Larry Dickson, George Snider, Joe Saldana, Robbie Stanley and Pancho are just a few that drove for Stapp.

Dobbins brought his Chevrolet dealer sponsorship to Pancho and Stapp’s team and the combination was a formidable one. Stapp continues to support the sport in many ways.

The event will be Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. at Hoosier Tire Midwest/Allgaier Performance Parts, located at 4155 North 1000 East, Suite A in Brownsburg, Ind.

New Zealand 248 for 5 (Watling 29*, Mitchell 26*) v England

A fascinating morning of nip-and-tuck ended with New Zealand's sixth-wicket partnership once again pulling them clear of danger, having seen off an energetic morning burst from England's seamers to lift the score to 248 for 5.

Only 75 runs were added in an extended two-and-a-half session, but with BJ Watling once again looking steadfast on 29, and the debutant Daryl Mitchell growing in confidence on 26, New Zealand were setting their sights on the sort of 350-plus total that may well make Joe Root regret giving them first use of an unusually grassy pitch on the first day.

When play resumed on 173 for 3, after Friday's final session had been washed out, the manner of England's early breakthrough perhaps came as something of a surprise, for throughout his first-day century, Tom Latham's judgement of his off stump had been the defining feature of his innings.

But it's not for nothing that Stuart Broad's round-the-wicket-to-the-left-handers tactic caused David Warner sleepless nights during the Ashes, and Latham was soon served his own measure of indecision as he shouldered arms and heard the death rattle - his off stump pegged back by the perfect inducking angle.

Latham was gone for 105. His only scoring shot of the morning had come one ball before his dismissal, a glorious on-drive as Broad fractionally over-pitched. But as one centurion left the field, another joined the fray in Watling, New Zealand's immoveable object in the first Test at Mount Maunganui.

At the other end, Henry Nicholls, 5 not out overnight, picked off two boundaries to get his day's work up and running, but was soon undone by an energetic burst from Sam Curran. After a rather floaty first-day's work, Curran set out to hit the deck with more intent in his morning spell, and soon earned his reward when an excellently directed bouncer got big on Nicholls' pugnacious pull. Broad at backward square swallowed the chance with glee, and at 191 for 5, the innings was there for the taking.

Mind you, that's what England had thought at Mount Maunganui as well - New Zealand's had been tottering at 197 for 5 on that occasion, before Watling and Co. cranked their innings up to a monstrous 615 for 9 declared. And while such riches are still a while away yet, the glimmer of an opportunity that Watling offered at the top of his innings today may yet prove to be crucial.

Ollie Pope hadn't arrived in New Zealand expecting to be the Test wicketkeeper, but for the most part he has looked the part behind the stumps - diving well to intercept some occasionally wayward fare, and gathering with a well-honed technique that, as he reminded Sky Sports before the start of play, he has been practicing since the age of eight.

Nevertheless, there was perhaps just a fraction of culpability on Pope's part when, on 1, Watling grazed a low edge off a superb stump-threatening outswinger from Curran. The ball died on Pope as he stooped forward - perhaps a man with more than five first-class appearances would have stayed lower from the outset and bought himself those extra few inches. Either way, the moment was lost, and as we've already seen in this series, he resolves not to offer too many in the first place.

At the other end, the new boy Daryl Mitchell took his time to get going. A handful of cameos in the T20 series were scant preparation for the emotion and pressure of a Test debut innings, but with his mum filming every ball on her phone, he dug deep for eight scoreless deliveries before lumping a rare Woakes long-hop through midwicket for a very cathartic first boundary.

With the new ball looming, and the match very much in the balance, England successfully persuaded the umpires to sanction a ball-change, and with the prospect of a colder, harder lump of leather to get things moving again, Root tossed the ball to his favourite enforcer, Stokes - a man whom many people had assumed would not bowl again on this tour after aggravating a knee problem on the first afternoon.

He was unable to breach New Zealand's defences - though not for want of trying - and nor was Joe Denly, whose perfectly serviceable legbreaks were nevertheless treated to one monstrously dismissive swipe - a huge golf-swing of a straight drive from Mitchell that travelled the best part of 110m, and which was then followed up by an almost comically obdurate defensive block next ball.

For defence was the watchword of a burgeoning sixth-wicket stand, particularly when the new ball duly arrived, and was seen off without too much alarm - save one vociferous appeal for lbw from Broad against Mitchell, who was pinned in front of off by a late inducker, but umpire Dharmasena rightly adjudged it was going over the top. England might well have reviewed, but they'd already burnt their last for an lbw appeal from Curran against Watling that took a big inside-edge.

Unranked Michigan arrived in the Bahamas as an afterthought in an eight-team tournament featuring four AP Top 25 teams. Now, the Wolverines are commanding everyone's attention.

Michigan knocked off its second top-10 team in 24 hours Friday, beating No. 8 Gonzaga 82-64 to win the championship of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

"It's gratifying to be able to hold up that trophy and say, you know what? All that sacrifice we put through, all the hard work we put in, it was well worth it,'' Michigan's first-year coach, Juwan Howard, said.

"Well, I'm sure we're on the map now,'' Howard said with a big grin.

Jon Teske scored 19 points with 15 rebounds and 4 blocks as the tournament's most valuable player for the Wolverines (7-0).

Yet the story was more about the way Michigan won the title than any stats. The Wolverines handled Iowa State in Wednesday's opener, then led No. 6 North Carolina by 24 at one point during Thursday's victory before beating the Zags (8-1) on Friday. And that secured a pair of early marquee wins for Howard, the longtime NBA player and member of Michigan's "Fab Five'' a quarter-century ago.

This one had a similar feeling to the UNC win, too, with Michigan's offense kicking into a hot-shooting gear midway through the second half to take control and build a huge lead.

"We're having fun together,'' Teske said. "We're sharing the ball. We know where we're going to be on the court at all times."

Michigan led just 38-36 when the shots started falling from just about everywhere: a 3-pointer from Zavier Simpson, two drives from freshman Franz Wagner, a 3 from Isaiah Livers and two more from David DeJulius.

It was a burst of 10 consecutive scoring possessions -- with Michigan moving the ball to get good looks on just about every one -- that put the Wolverines up 62-43 midway through the second half.

Gonzaga never got the lead below double figures again.

Killian Tillie scored 20 points for the battered Bulldogs, who dealt with numerous injury concerns over the three-day tournament. Gonzaga just couldn't keep up with the Wolverines and finished the game shooting 40%.

"Every time we made a mental breakdown, they scored,'' Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "They literally made us pay on every one of our assignments that we screwed up -- a switch or we screwed up a coverage. And they made us pay, so they deserve a lot of credit for that.''

Michigan shot 54%, including 12-of-23 from 3-point range. And by the end, there was even the sight of Howard breaking out dance moves for his players as they held a sign proclaiming Michigan the Atlantis champs.

"We work hard as a group,'' Howard said. "Why not have some fun?''

Howard took over for John Beilein and inherited a team that lost its top three scorers to leave uncertainty even with several experienced players returning. But the Wolverines shot 50% or better in every game in the Bahamas, handled two top-10 teams with ease -- and likely secured themselves a debut in next week's latest AP Top 25 poll.

"We don't really pay attention to all the media stuff,'' Livers said as Howard nodded next to him. "We want to play Michigan basketball and that's all we're going to be focused on.''

If Michigan lands a spot in the AP's top 10, the Wolverines would be the sixth team since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989-90 to go from unranked one week to the top 10 the next. The previous instance was 2010-11 UConn, which jumped to No. 7 after winning the Maui Invitational. That team went on to win the national championship.

Michigan might join 1989-90 Kansas as the only team to jump from unranked to the top five since the poll expanded.

The top-10 opponents keep coming. On Tuesday, the Wolverines visit No. 2 Louisville in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in what has become a very big game on the national schedule.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Seymour Siwoff, the statistics maven who turned the Elias Sports Bureau into the place to go for exact information on teams and athletes for more than a half-century, died Friday. He was 99.

Siwoff owned Elias for more than 70 years before selling it to his grandson in March 2018. He started as an accountant in 1938 and purchased the company in 1952.

Elias was started in 1913 by brothers Al Munro Elias and Walter Bruce Elias and became official statistician of baseball's National League in 1919. It is now the official statistician for MLB, NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLS and the NBA G-League.

Elias also works with broadcasters and sports networks such as ESPN, MLB Network, NFL Network, Turner Sports, Comcast and NESN.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WHEATLAND, Mo. – Winning never gets old for Kris Jackson, who certainly is an authority on the subject after another championship season.

Jackson, a 35-year-old from Lebanon, earned his fourth track championship at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2019 with eight feature wins in the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod division. That performance was key in propelling him to a second straight USRA B-Mod National Championship.

“The car count at Lucas – being as national points are based off car count so much – for our area it’s the place that you have to race,” Jackson said. “It’s so hard if you go somewhere else and don’t have a full field of cars. It makes it almost impossible to beat a person who’s running against a full field.

“Plus the place is great and the people are great,” Jackson added of Lucas Oil Speedway. “I don’t feel like they’re ever biased. They run a race track the right way and that’s why I like racing there.”

Just about any place Jackson goes he is a contender. In 48 USRA-sanctioned starts this season, he won 28 features and had 45 top-five finishes. It was remarkably similar to 2018 when he had 29 wins and 44 top-fives in 48 starts. Six of his feature wins that year came at Lucas.

So how does he compare the two national-title seasons?

“I feel like the ’18 season was maybe even a little better,” he said, noting a few more big-money wins around the country that year. “This year, we still did a lot of traveling, we just didn’t race for as much big money this year it seemed like.”

One thing that didn’t change was the consistency that it takes to win over the long haul. Points racing, whether on the local or national level, is a grind. Getting caught up in an accident or suffering a mechanical failure can be devastating.

“It’s hard to do,” Jackson said. “You’ve got to make sure, for one, when you do drive somewhere to race that you’re not gonna break once you get there. For me, it’s harder to keep my truck going than it is my race going.

“I’ve got really good equipment and a lot of great people that help me,” he added, mentioning engine builder Jim Ruble and wife Sally, cousin and fellow racer Tony Jackson Jr. and Rage chassis.

“Rage helped us out a lot this year. They really stepped up what they do for me,” he said. “All my sponsors … it all comes together and makes for a great organization. It’s taken a lot of years to get to this point. Most of my sponsors have been on the car with several years.”

Sponsors include Ruble Racing Engines, Joe’s Pharmacy, TJR Motorsports, VANS Motor Sales, East 32 Meat Processing, 3 Link Innovations, Rage Chassis and Starnes Excavating

Jackson said a new Rage car is coming for 2020, but he’s engineered an interesting swap in the interim. He traded his 2019 car to rising teen B-Mod racer Dillon McCowan, who had purchased Jackson’s 2018 car. Jackson is in the process is refurbishing the older car for some winter outings, which include his first trip to the Wild West Shootout in Arizona during January.

“It’ll (eventually) be a backup car. I might even entertain selling it,” Jackson said of the 2018 car. “Rage has stepped up this year and they are giving us a car to drive. We should be getting it around the first of the year and get it put together and make it my actual every-day car.”

After back-to-back outstanding seasons, Jackson knows that 2020 will find competitors giving him their best shot more than ever before. He said the challenge of being the man to beat is something that he accepts and simply part of the territory.

“I try not to think about it too much,” he said. “I just pay pretty close attention to my little circle – my wife, my kids – and several friends that I help out. Other than that, I focus on what I need to do and don’t worry about anything else. Just day-to-day stuff.

“We’ll do close to the same thing,” he added of the anticipated 2020 schedule. “I don’t know if I’ll race for points. If there’s a bigger-paying B-Mod race, that’s feasible in winning, that’s what I want to do. I want to hit every bigger-paying race that I can. If it ends up we can race for points at Lucas, we will.”

The Bruins rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime on Friday in Boston.

But not everyone on the team was completely happy.

Left wing Brad Marchand appeared dazed by an elbow from the Rangers' Jacob Trouba late in the second period but wasn't pulled from the ice by the league's concussion spotter until the start of the third.

Afterward, Marchand questioned what took so long.

"That's embarrassing,'' Marchand told reporters. "Guy's up there busy eating pizzas and cheeseburgers and can't watch the game. Maybe next time he'll pull his head out of his butt and watch the game.''

Boston coach Bruce Caddidy also voiced his displeasure at the delay.

"This game's on NBC," he told reporters. "He gets hit at the end of the second period, and they pull him at the start of the third. To me, we're trying to market our best players. I thought it was fairly evident when he got hit, and they decided to do it at the start of the third. I don't know why they wouldn't do it between periods. There's an 18-minute intermission.

"I didn't like the timing of it at all."

Marchand did not suffer a concussion, according to Cassidy, and returned to the game midway through the third period.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.