To keep its “Drive for Five” alive, the Minnesota Lynx will need to rebound once again — and then again.

Following Friday’s 84-76 loss in Phoenix, top-seeded Minnesota trails 2-1 in the best-of-five WNBA semifinal series. Game 4 is Sunday in Arizona.

Coach Cheryl Reeve did not see the end of the game in person.

The Lynx boss was assessed her second technical foul of the game with 21.8 seconds left — and had to be restrained by other coaches — after Alyssa Thomas stole a ball from Napheesa Collier and drove in for an uncontested layup to, basically, ice the game.

On the collision between each team’s superstar, Collier badly rolled her left ankle and was lying on the floor and slapping it with her hand as Thomas made her drive.

Reeve’s first technical was being upset with the officials for the physicality being used on Collier in the second quarter.

Natisha Hiedeman scored 19 points off the bench and reserve Maria Kliundikova added eight, including a trio of big shots in the fourth. But it wasn’t enough because the Lynx shot just 3 for 16 in the final frame and were outscored 20-9.

Before the game, Reeve spoke about getting more from Lynx reserves.

“They were big part of our identity,” she said. “Not getting production from them is something that’s on our minds and we need to get them going. We’ve talked about, collectively, how we can help them and make sure our play-calling represents the ability to get them some opportunities. We need them, for sure.”

Collier led the Lynx starters with 17 points, Courtney Williams added 14 and Kayla McBride had 12.

This was the second straight game that Minnesota did not finish strong. Neither Collier nor Hiedeman scored in the final quarter.

The Lynx, who blew a 20-point third-quarter lead in Tuesday’s 89-83 overtime Game 2 loss, had a defensive meltdown early in the fourth as the Mercury scored the first seven points, including four at the rim, for a 70-67 lead.

Phoenix outscored Minnesota 42-28 in the paint.

A 3-pointer by McBride gave Minnesota a 74-72 lead, but Sabou Sabally drained a pair of 3-pointers around a Kliundikova basket to make it 78-76 Phoenix.

Locking down on interior defense, Minnesota outscored Phoenix 23-13 in the third quarter for a 67-63 heading into the final 10 minutes. The largest lead for either team to that point was seven.

Bolstered by a 12-2 run over about a four-minute span, the Mercury led 48-44 at the break. Collier had 13 points and Hiedeman 11 to lead Minnesota through 20 minutes.

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East Ridge High School’s football stadium was a riot of color and noise early Friday evening, a near-capacity crowd excited to see the host Raptors meet Metro East Conference rival Mounds View.

Fewer than three hours later, however, most of that throng trickled out of the stadium in disappointment after watching the Mustangs break a scoreless game at halftime en route to a 21-0 victory. East Ridge fell to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play, while Mounds View improved to 2-3 and 1-1.

Mounds View running back Cayden Tran carried eight times for 46 yards and his first two touchdowns of the season, which came on runs of 7 and 4 yards. Quarterback Beckham Wheeler completed 5 of 7 passes for 81 yards. He rushed 10 times for minus-10 yards but scored on a 1-yard plunge.

East Ridge took the second half’s opening kickoff but had to punt, and Mounds View took over at its 47-yard line. The Mustangs needed seven plays to open the scoring on a 1-yard run by Wheeler, his feet churning and his body turned as he backed into a pile and across the goal line.

The hosts punted on their next possession and Mounds View again drove for pay dirt. Tran ran on four of the 63-yard drive’s six plays, including the last carry, a 4-yard touchdown effort.

The Raptors turned the ball over on downs had a punt blocked on their next two possessions. Liam Berlien was credited with smothering the ball, giving his team a first down at the East Ridge 7-yard line.

Tran took a handoff on the next play and, after spinning out of a tackle, sprinted into the end zone. Tran has rushed for 289 yards this season. Finn McArthur kicked his third extra point of the night and is perfect on 11 such boots this fall.

East Ridge’s Ben Knaup ran 14 times for 79 yards. Junior quarterback Leo Stalsberg — substituting for senior starter Cedric Tomes, who’s out with a broken finger — completed 2 of 10 pass attempts for 25 yards. Both completions were to Akeed Ali, who briefly moved into the quarterback role late in the game, as did Logan Tretter.

The latter threw two incompletions and had his third attempt intercepted by Ben Mugisa with 39 seconds to play.

East Ridge is at Forest Lake next week and Mounds View is at Woodbury.

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Surprising South St. Paul may have been off to its best start since 2016, but that didn’t phase sophomore running back Grady Buettner and his Hill-Murray teammates on Friday night.

Buettner rushed for just over 100 yards and three touchdowns as the Pioneers handed the Packers their first loss of the season, posting a 35-14 victory on Homecoming night at Mary Queen of Victory Stadium.

Hill-Murray improved to 4-1 this season — its lone setback coming against Byron, the top ranked team in Class 4A, on Sept. 12. South St. Paul — tied for No. 8 in the most recent Class 4A poll — fell to 4-1.

Things couldn’t have started in worse fashion for the Packers. After receiving the opening kickoff, they fumbled on their first play from scrimmage when senior quarterback Sincere Casarez-McCampbell was tripped up after taking the snap.

Four plays later, facing a 4th-and-1, Buettner scored on a 7-yard run to put the Pioneers on top 7-0.

On its next possession, Hill-Murray struck again on 4th-and-5 at the South St. Paul 28-yard line. Freshman quarterback Brayden Hartmann connected with sophomore Brady Reeves on a 28-yard scoring strike that extended the lead to 14-0.

Then, after his team got the ball back at the Packers’ 48, Buettner made it 21-0 on a 2-yard touchdown run with 9:29 to play before halftime.

But South St. Paul didn’t fold.

One play after recording an interception, Casarez-McCampbell found senior Ben Thrun breaking free on a 40-yard touchdown catch. The 2-point conversion attempt failed, but the Packers cut the gap to 20-6.

The Pioneers had a chance to widen their lead just before halftime after recovering a fumble at the South St. Paul 21. But a 38-yard field goal attempt with under a second remaining came up short.

Yet, the Hill-Murray offense continued to pile up points in the second half, first on a 3-yard touchdown run by Buettner, then on a 1-yard run by senior Levi Grigson that put the Pioneers on top 35-6 with 46.5 seconds to play in the third quarter.

Senior Jake Baldus added a final South St. Paul touchdown on a 55-yard run with 1:01 left to play.

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PHILADELPHIA — Joe Ryan started on Friday night and put his team in a decent position to earn a win. Innings later, Jhoan Duran’s familiar intro played on the stadium scoreboard and the closer trotted in to nail down the save.

Just as the Twins drew it up, right?

Not quite.

Duran, of course, was traded at the July 31 trade deadline, along with many of his teammates. The flame-throwing closer, instead, was in sealing up a 3-1 Phillies’ win over the Twins on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Not much has gone to plan for the Twins this season, but Ryan’s season — which officially concluded on Friday night — was one of the things that has. Though he was outdueled by Aaron Nola, whose bid for perfection was broken up by Christian Vázquez’s solo home run with two outs in the sixth inning, Ryan turned in one final strong start to cap the best season of his career.

On Friday night, he limited the Phillies to two runs on five hits in his five innings pitched, featuring some of his best stuff of the season. His four-seam fastball, for example, was up nearly 2 mph from his season average.

Ryan pitched in 31 games (30 starts) and posted a 3.47 ERA across a career-high 171 innings pitched.  While his second half of the season was rockier than the first — he had a 2.72 ERA before the all-star break and a 4.92 ERA after it — Ryan’s season represented another step forward as he was named an all-star for the first time in his career and established himself amongst the game’s best.

He took the loss Friday against Nola, who was virtually unsolvable for the Twins all night. Nola threw a season-high eight innings in the Phillies’ win, striking out nine. Aside from Vázquez’s home run, he gave up one other hit, a Kody Clemens leadoff triple in the eighth. Clemens ended the inning standing on third.

The Twins later mounted a challenge against Duran with both Vázquez and Ryan Jeffers collecting ninth-inning hits before he got Trevor Larnach to fly out to end the game.

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