Chattanooga's Team NLP (Next Level Performance) went undefeated and won the AAU Division I under-17 national basketball championship in late July in Orlando, Fla., according to the city's Youth & Family Development's August "Nooga Gram." The Team NLP program began in Chicago, founded by Dickey Simpkins, who was part of three NBA titles with the Bulls. Steve Cook Jr. coached the Chattanooga Team NLP 17s, assisted by E'Jay Ward. The players were Jason Jitoboh from Hamilton Heights, K.K. Curry and Dionte Ware from Cleveland, Da'Vae Hughley from East Hamilton, Jessie Walker from Brainerd, Isaiah Sulack from Believe Academy in Knoxville and Tre Jackson, Boris Ristanovic, Jacoby Niko Simpkins and Patrick Urey from Baylor. They defeated the Miami Runnin' Rebels 61-56 in the national final.
Golf
* University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore golfer Will Porter qualified for match play in the Scottish Men's Amateur tournament this week in Prestwick and took two 1-up wins to reach the round of 16 before falling 2 and 1 to qualifying co-medalist Sandy Scott on Thursday afternoon. Porter is from Arbroath, Scotland, and plays out of Carnoustie Golf Club. He tied for 14th out of 260 in qualifying at 142 (73-69); his match-play victories were against Lewis Irvine and Jeff Wright.
* Christine Wolf, a 2016 Olympian from Austria and UTC, shot an even-par 72 in the first round of the British Women's Open on Thursday. That put her in a tie for 73rd place.
* The 2017 Brainerd Invitational tournament will run Saturday and Sunday at Brainerd Golf Course. Mikey Feher won the 2016 event with a pair of 65s. Mitch Hufstetler won the senior division with two 66s and will be in the first group teeing off Saturday at 8 a.m.
Auto Racing
* Camping World Truck Series rookie driver Austin Cindric will be in Chattanooga today on a promotional tour for NASCAR's Aug. 16-19 run at Bristol Motor Speedway, and one of his stops will be at the Creative Discovery Museum downtown. He'll be visiting with STEAM campers from 2 to 2:30 p.m. and with other young guests from 2:30 to 3. He'll also throw the ceremonial first pitch for the Lookouts' 7:15 game against Jackson. Cindric, 18, drives for Brad Keselowski's Ford truck team and is the son of Tim Cindric, president of Team Penske in the Cup Series.