The Chargers and quarterback Trey Lance agreed to a one-season contract, the team announced Friday. Lance’s deal is worth up to $6.2 million, according to an ESPN.com report. He and Taylor Heinicke will serve as backups to starter Justin Herbert, giving the Chargers options in case of injury.

Herbert sat out most of training camp last summer because of a foot injury and then was limited for several early-season games because of a sprained ankle. Heinicke, who signed a one-season contract to return to the Chargers last month, won a battle of backups with Easton Stick.

The Chargers did not re-sign Stick.

The San Francisco 49ers picked Lance third overall in the 2021 NFL Draft out of North Dakota State, one year after the Chargers selected Herbert sixth overall from Oregon. Lance played eight games over two seasons with the 49ers, making four starts, losing his job to Brock Purdy after an ankle injury

The 49ers traded Lance to the Dallas Cowboys on Aug. 25, 2023, in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick in 2024. Lance didn’t take a snap during the 2023 season with Dallas but played four games, starting one, this past season. He completed 25 of 41 passes for 266 yards with one interception.

In his lone start of the 2024 season, Lance, 24, completed 20 of 34 passes for 244 yards during the Cowboys’ regular-season finale, a 23-19 loss to the Washington Commanders on Jan. 5. He did not throw a touchdown or an interception. He also ran the football six times for 26 yards.

— Elliott Teaford

The Chicago Bears finalized a one-year, $3 million contract with quarterback Case Keenum on Friday, adding a veteran to back up Caleb Williams.

Keenum, 37, spent the past two years in Houston with another prized quarterback in C.J. Stroud. He was also behind Baker Mayfield in Cleveland and Josh Allen in Buffalo before that.

Keenum has thrown for 15,175 yards over 12 years with Houston, the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota, Denver, Washington, Cleveland and Buffalo. He has 79 touchdown passes and 51 interceptions.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Duke’s Cooper Flagg was named The Associated Press men’s national player of the year, becoming only the fourth freshman to win the award in its 64-year history.

The 6-foot-9, 205-pound forward from Newport, Maine, won a two-man race with Auburn star Johni Broome. Both players were unanimous first-team AP All-Americans with teams at the Final Four, and they were the only two to receive player-of-the-year votes — though Flagg earned 41 of 61 votes from AP Top 25 voters.

Flagg joins Duke’s Zion Williamson (2019), Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas star Kevin Durant (2007) as freshman winners. Each went either No. 1 or No. 2 overall in the NBA draft a few months later. Flagg is the eighth Duke player to win the award, most of any program.

Bruce Pearl has turned Auburn into a basketball school and may have his best team yet. Rick Pitino has done what he does best at St. John’s, ushering in a quick turnaround. Their successes this season led to the first tie in the 58-year history of The AP men’s coach of the year award.

Pearl and Pitino each received 20 votes in balloting from the national media panel that picks the AP Top 25 during the season.

Former Michigan State forward Xavier Booker wrote that he’s transferring to UCLA, confirming earlier reports with a post on his social media account.

The Spartans expected big things from the 6-foot-11 Booker when he arrived on campus in 2023-24. He was a five-star recruit and a McDonald’s All-American as a senior at Indianapolis Cathedral High School in Indiana.

But Booker didn’t get much of a chance to show what he could do. While he appeared in 60 games, he started only five and averaged just 11.3 minutes in two seasons in East Lansing. He averaged 4.3 points and 2 rebounds while blocking 36 shots in his career.

Booker was one of two Spartans players to enter the transfer portal after Michigan State’s season ended with a loss to top-seeded Auburn in the Elite Eight.

Former Iowa forward Owen Freeman, the 2023-24 Big Ten freshman of the year, has signed with Creighton.

The 6-foot-10 Freeman averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in 19 starts this season for the Hawkeyes before missing the final two months following finger surgery. He shot 63.8% from the field and blocked 35 shots. Freeman has two years of eligibility remaining.

The Bluejays also secured a transfer from Nik Graves, a junior guard who averaged 17.5 points per game this season with Charlotte.

GOLF

Brian Harman found the range with his iron shots and converted eight birdie putts, none outside 12 feet, for a 6-under 66 that gave him a four-shot lead over Keith Mitchell going into the weekend at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.

Harman has his first 36-hole lead since Bay Hill a year ago, and this is the largest lead he’s had at the midway point since he led by five at Hoylake in 2023 when he won the British Open.

“Just know that I’ve done it before and that it is possible,” Harman said of his experience with a big lead. “You get on big leads sometimes — and I’m sure Keith is going to make a few birdies coming in. Look, man, it’s just left foot, right foot and just take your time getting finished.”

Harman was at 12-under 132 at the TPC San Antonio.

Mitchell, who needs a victory to get into the Masters next week, had an up-and-down day that added to an even-par 72. He did make some birdies coming in, holing a pair of 12-foot putts, only to take bogey from a bunker on the par-3 seventh hole and close with two pars.

“I’m still in there,” Mitchell said. “I wish I was closer to Brian than I am, but glad to make par on 9 so I could stay in the last group. ... Thankfully, I played great yesterday and have two more rounds.”

Ryo Hisatsune and Matt Wallace each shot 67, while Sam Ryder stumbled to a 74 — 11 shots worse than his opening round to take the lead — while feeling some pain in his neck.

Ryder took only 21 putts in his opening round, when he tried not to do too much with a neck injury that caused him to miss the pro-am. The second round caught up with him, especially finishing late Thursday and then having an early tee time.

“I could sit here and make excuses, but I just didn’t play well,” Ryder said. “It’s definitely my neck — back is kind of bothering me a little bit — but it’s just tough with the quick turnaround. I think. But I kind of got off to a bad start and just didn’t really get in a good rhythm.

“All in all, if you told me I was going to be in this position going into Saturday, then I would have taken it on Thursday.”

Patrick Pockels, a Long Beach State product from Huntington Beach, was a Monday qualifier playing in his first PGA Tour event. He shot 76-74 Thursday and Friday and missed the cut.

Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked player, won’t be around this weekend to defend her T-Mobile Match Play championship.

She needed to defeat Ariya Jutanugarn, but lost 1-up on the final day of round-robin play and failed to qualify for the round of 16 in North Las Vegas, Nev.

Korda’s struggles typified the week for the world’s top 10 players. Eight played in this tournament, but only second-ranked Jeeno Thitikul advanced to the knockout stage. She will play Nataliya Guseva.

“I don’t think it’s because of the top players not playing well, but I think because it’s not a matter of the ranking here,” said Thitikul, who described her approach this week as “pretty chill.” “Maybe the top players are playing well, but other players just play a little better, which is like hold the win.”

The winners of the 16 groups in round-robin play qualified for the beginning of elimination play this morning. The quarterfinals will be in the afternoon, which will narrow the field to four for Sunday for the semifinals and championship.

Korda appeared poised to put herself in that company, taking the lead on the par-3 13th despite missing the green. She got up-and-down and Jutanugarn bogeyed.

The advantage didn’t last long.

The roles reversed on the par-4 15th when Jutanugarn got up and down with a 40-foot putt to within 2 feet.

“That putt to me is quite hard because of the slope and it’s like downhill and it’s slope left to right pretty good,” said Jutanugarn, who will face Narin An in the next round. “I just told myself I just need to get the speed right, and that’s all I focus on.”

Korda had a similar shot, but delivered an overaggressive chip that went 5 feet past the cup and then missed the comebacker. The match was tied, which was the equivalent of a loss for Korda.

Then it became an outright loss when she missed another short putt on No. 16 and failed to make up the difference over the final two holes.

Thitikul rolled into the elimination format, defeating Hye-Jin Choi 5 and 3. Thitikul, who is from Thailand, won all three round-robin matches. She will play Guseva, who advanced out of the same group with Rose Zhang, who has been battling a neck injury.

Zhang conceded her match to Meghan Khang a day after doing the same with Albane Valenzuela with three holes left. The decision by Zhang, who lives in Las Vegas, to pull out wound up not affecting that group. Guseva would have advanced anyway, securing the 1-up victory over Valenzuela by making a 55-foot putt on the 18th green.

Brooke Henderson won first two matches in routs and then advanced when her third-round round opponent, Jin Young Ko, conceded after nine holes. Henderson, who was 2-up at the time, said Ko did not feel well.