Sports briefs Sunday

HOCKEY

Former Wisconsin star Brianna Decker scored twice to help the U.S. women’s team open its pre-Olympic exhibition schedule with a 5-2 victory over Canada in Quebec City.

Hilary Knight and Annie Pankowski, who are former Badgers, and ex-Boston College star Alex Carpenter also scored for the Americans.

Meghan Agosta and Jillian Saulnier scored for Canada.

The teams will meet again Wednesday night in Boston. Canada has won four straight Olympic titles, and the U.S. has claimed seven of the last eight world championships.

GOLF

Justin Thomas beat Marc Leishman on the second playoff hole Sunday to win the inaugural CJ Cup in in Jeju, South Korea.

Thomas sealed his fifth PGA Tour title in 2017 — and his first of the new 2017-’18 PGA season — when he birdied the second extra hole and Leishman made bogey after finding the water.

The pair went to a sudden-death playoff after completing the first U.S. PGA Tour regular-season event in South Korea tied at 9-under 279.

LPGA Tour: Eun-Hee Ji fired a 7-under-par 65 to win the Taiwan Championship in Taipei.

Ji, who had a six-stroke lead heading into the final round, carded seven birdies to finish at 17-under 271, six strokes ahead of Lydia Ko, who also closed with a 65.

Top-ranked So Yeon Ryu also shot a bogey-free 65 to move into a tie for third place with Lizette Salas and Carlota Ciganda.

Champions Tour: Bernhard Langer made a 15-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole to overcome a mediocre round of 70 and win the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Va., the first event in the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

Langer, even par for the day before getting to the easiest hole, beat Scott Verplank by one shot.

Fox Point native Skip Kendall had a 68 but was well off the pace.

RUNNING

Italian Eyob Faniel won the Venice Marathon after a bizarre incident in which the leading six runners took a wrong turn.

Favorites Abdulahl Dawud, Gilbert Kipleting Chumba, Kipkemei Mutai and David Kiprono Metto were among the leading group which followed a motorcycle off the course after 16 miles, covering several hundred meters before being made aware of their error and turning back. They lost about two minutes.

Faniel was around a minute behind the leaders at the time but found himself leading the race along with Mohammed Mussa, who he immediately dropped. The 25-year-old Faniel went on to become the first Italian to win the race in 22 years.

SKIING

World champion Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia is almost certainly out of next year’s Winter Olympics after seriously injuring her knee in a training incident.

The 26-year-old Stuhec tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during a crash while training on the glacier in Pitztal, Austria.

TENNIS

Third-seeded Karolina Pliskova cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over fifth-seeded Venus Williams at the WTA Finals in Singapore.

In the day’s other match, second-seeded Garbine Muguruza posted a 6-3, 6-4 win over seventh-seeded Jelena Ostapenko.

SOCCER

Carrie Madden had two goals and the Marquette women’s team knocked off Creighton, 3-0, at Valley Fields to lock up a Big East tournament quarterfinal berth.

Abby Hess also tallied for the Golden Eagles (11-6-1, 4-4-0 Big East).

From Journal Sentinel wire reports