Mikayla Blakes scored an NCAA freshman record 53 points after making 16 field goals and 16 free throws to help No. 23 Vanderbilt beat Florida 99-86 on Thursday night in Gainesville, Fla.

Blakes, who scored 33 in a win over then-No. 19 Alabama last time out and whose previous season high was 36, broke the previous freshman mark of 51, set last season by USC’s JuJu Watkins.

Blakes is the only player in Division I — men’s or women’s — to score at least 50 points in a game this season.

NO. 7 LSU 107, NO. 13 OKLAHOMA 100: Mikaylah Williams scored 37 points, including a 3-pointer to start a game-closing 6-0 run, and the host Tigers (22-1, 7-1 SEC) No. 7 LSU outlasted the Sooners (16-5, 4-4).

MLB

Max Scherzer is joining the Toronto Blue Jays, agreeing to a 15.5 million, one-year contract, multiple sources reported. The agreement had not been announced and was pending a physical.

Scherzer, 40, was limited to nine starts with Texas last year, going 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA. The three-time Cy Young Award winner opened the season on the injured list while he recovered from lower back surgery. He also was on the IL from Aug. 2 to Sept. 13 because of shoulder fatigue, and he missed the end of the season because of a left hamstring strain.

NFL

The NFL will look into allegations that Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker behaved inappropriately toward massage therapists at four spas and wellness centers in the Baltimore area, a league spokesman said.

The Baltimore Banner detailed the accusations in a report Thursday. The paper said it spoke to six massage therapists who recounted firsthand experiences with Tucker from 2012-2016. Several therapists said they ended Tucker’s sessions early or refused to work on him again, and managers from two spas said they banned him from returning.

“We first became aware of the allegations from the reporter investigating this story as they were not previously shared with the NFL,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement. “We take any allegation seriously and will look into the matter.”

Tucker is accused of exposing his genitals, brushing two therapists with his exposed penis and leaving what they believed to be semen on the massage table after three treatments, according to the Banner.

Tucker posted a statement on social media calling the allegations about him in the Banner story “unequivocally false.”

“In accusing me of misconduct, the article takes innocuous, or ambiguous, interactions and skews them so out of proportion they are no longer recognizable, and it presents vague insinuations as fact,” he said.

Tucker, 35, just finished his 13th season in the NFL, all with the Ravens. He’s achieved stardom league-wide and among Baltimore fans in a way that’s rare for a kicker, and his 66-yard field goal in 2021 remains the longest made kick in NFL history.

In 2022, Tucker agreed to a four-year contract extension through the 2027 season. That deal included $17.5 million guaranteed.

“We are aware of the Baltimore Banner’s story regarding Justin Tucker as well as his response,” a Ravens spokesman said. “We take any allegations of this nature seriously and will continue to monitor the situation.”

SKIING

Mikaela Shiffrin finished 10th in a World Cup slalom race on her injury comeback, with Croatian Zrinka Ljutic winning in style under floodlights at Courchevel, France.

Ljutic, 22, has won three of the past four slaloms. She was 1.26 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Sara Hector and 1.28 clear of Germany’s Lena Duerr.

Shiffrin was 2.04 seconds adrift. Chasing a record-extending 100th World Cup win, the 29-year-old American was fifth after the first run but struggled with her timing on both runs.

“I didn’t come into this race expecting that I was going to win,” Shiffrin said. ”I have to be at my top, top level. Now we build from here.”

Shiffrin crashed on Nov. 30 in a giant slalom in Killington, Vt., and was injured sliding down the mountain. A couple of weeks later, the two-time Olympic gold medalist had abdominal surgery to clean out a puncture wound.

Shiffrin said before this race that she was prioritizing her recovery ahead of chasing the magic 100.

“It was a very important step in my recovery to see how I’m stacking up with the top skiers in the world, and to see what I can work on to improve my skiing,” Shiffrin said. “Also before the world championships it was so important to get this start.”

The worlds in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, are next month.

WNBA

The chairman of the NHL’s Nashville Predators and his wife want to bring the WNBA to Music City and have teamed up with a star-filled investor group including Candace Parker, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and entertainers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

The group led by Bill Haslam, a former Tennessee governor, submitted its bid to the WNBA for a franchise that would start playing in 2028. The team would be named the Tennessee Summitt in honor of the late Pat Summitt.

SOCCER

Neymar confirmed he will sign what is expected to be a short-term contract with his boyhood club, Santos, as the Brazil striker aims to recharge his career ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Neymar, 32, said that he’s returning to the Sao Paulo club, and local media reported that the deal will extend only to June 30.

The striker’s return follows the termination of his contract with Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal. Neymar had returned in October from an ACL injury sustained while playing for Brazil only months after he joined Al-Hilal. He played only seven matches and scored once for the Saudi team.