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FORT IRWIN >> An Army AH64 Apache helicopter crashed about 1 a.m. Saturday during pre-deployment training operations at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, killing two soldiers aboard, an Army spokeswoman said Saturday night.

Both soldiers were assigned to the 4th Infantry Division in Colorado. Fort Irwin is in San Bernardino County outside Barstow.

Names and service information for the deceased are being withheld pending next-of-kin notification, said Brandy Gill, a spokeswoman for Fort Carson in Colorado, where the division is based.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of two 4th Infantry Division soldiers at the National Training Center today,” said Maj. Gen. Randy A. George, commanding general of the 4th Infantry  Division and Fort Carson.

“Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to their families and friends during this difficult and painful time.  The loss of any soldier truly saddens everyone here at the Mountain Post and it is a tremendous loss to the team,” George said.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

As soon as additional details become available, they will be provided, Gill said.

The sprawling training center at Fort Irwin hosts live-fire training scenarios for Army units from around the country.

Often they stay there for weeks, using artillery and tanks brought in by rail and truck.

Many of these units come to Fort Irwin for their final training before deployment overseas.

Mater Dei’s girls water polo team finally got past nemesis Laguna Beach on Saturday.   The second-ranked Monarchs used strong play in the second and third periods to defeat the No, 1 Breakers, 6-5, in a nonleague match at Mater Dei.

Laguna Beach, the reigning CIF-SS Division 1 champion, led, 3-1, after the first period but the Monarchs outscored the Breakers 4-1 in the middle quarters to take a 5-4 lead into the fourth.

Mater Dei (11-2) snapped Laguna Beach’s 44-match winning streak.

The Monarchs lost to the Breakers in the finals of the Holiday Cup this season and four times last season.

Alex Peros scored twice for Laguna Beach (13-1) while Thea Walsh added 13 saves.

SANTA BARBARA — For nearly 34 minutes Saturday night, the UC Irvine men’s basketball team was positioned to do something no visiting team had done all season at UC Santa Barbara – win.

The three minutes that followed put an end to that opportunity, as UCSB used a dominant run down the stretch to break open a close game and wrap up a 70-58 victory.

Gabe Vincent had a season-high 21 points and Jalen Canty added 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Gauchos (14-5 overall, 3-2 Big West). Max Heidigger had 14 points, five rebounds and five assists and Leland King II added six points and 14 rebounds.

UCI’s Tommy Rutherford scored eight points during a 12-4 run that tied the score at 47-47 when he made back-to-back baskets with 6:48 to play. King answered with a 10-foot jumper with 6:07 left, then Rutherford missed a three-point attempt and UCSB rebounded. On the other end, Canty was fouled by Rutherford while making a jump-hook from the side of the key. He made the free throw, pushing the advantage to 52-47.

Evan Leonard missed a well-guarded jumper for the Anteaters and Vincent made them pay, hitting a step-back jumper on the other end to make the score 54-47 with 5:03 remaining. After a steal by Vincent, Heidegger took a pass in the key from King and was fouled while making a nifty, double-pump jumper. He made the free throw to give the Gauchos their first double-digit lead of the game, 57-47 with 4:27 on the clock.

On the Anteaters’ next possession, Elston Jones missed a jump-hook and Vincent came down with the rebound. Vincent was fouled while attempting a dunk and hit the free throws, making it 59-47 with 3:50 left.

Canty capped what was a 15-2 run with another 3-point play to make it 62-49 with three minutes left. The Anteaters (8-14, 3-3) trailed by double figures the rest of the way.

“Obviously that was big,” said UCSB coach Joe Pasternack, whose team improve to 9-0 at the Thunderdome, their home start since 1989-90. “To put them away late says a lot about our team. I thought we played well defensively all night, and we’ve been getting better and better on that end, but during that stretch, we did it offensively and defensively.”

Rutherford was 7 for 10 from the field and scored 17 points and grabbed five rebounds before fouling out with 3:22 to play. Eyassu Worku added 10 points for UCI, which led by one at halftime.

UCI entered the game leading all of NCAA Division I in rebounds, but the Gauchos easily won the rebounding battle 42-30.

“They are one of the best rebounding teams in the country,” Pasternack said. “Our effort tonight, up and down the lineup. Leland, Jalen, Max, Gabe, everyone went hard to the boards.”

Vincent, who made had four assists, four rebounds and three steals to go with his season-high 21 points, had reconstructive knee surgery just over 11 months ago. He was playing with a brace on his surgically repaired left knee until a week ago.

“I am starting to feel better and better,” said Vincent, who scored 15 of his points in the second half. “My knee feels good and tonight I really started to feel like myself. It was a lot of fun. The brace just snapped in two in the game at Hawaii and I tossed it. I’ve played without it since and it feels good.”

Neither team shot well in the first half, but after shooting just 33.3 percent before the break, the Gauchos went 15 for 28 in the second half (53.6 percent). UCI was held to 39 percent for the game (23 for 59).

UCI has just one game next week – home on Wednesday against UC Riverside (5-14, 0-5), while UCSB plays at Cal State Fullerton (11-7, 4-2) on Thursday night then at UCR on Saturday.

BOSTON -— Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou had a violent history of first-round finishes.

By the time their heavyweight bout reached the fifth round, Miocic and Ngannou huffed, puffed and trudged around the cage without a knockout in sight. Miocic set the UFC heavyweight record with his third straight successful title defense, turning the anticipated slugfest against Ngannou into a methodical and masterful ground-and-pound bout to win the main event of UFC 220 at TD Garden.

Miocic won 50-44 on all three scorecards early Sunday and was never seriously tested by the raw and unrefined Ngannou.

Miocic (18-2) and Ngannou (11-2) had UFC fans buzzing with perhaps the most-hyped heavyweight title bout since Brock Lesnar was the class of the division. Both fighters built their reputations on the strength of nasty knockouts, and Ngannou was coming off a GIF-worthy KO just seven weeks ago.

Both fighters were winded by the third round and Ngannou looked sleepy as he whiffed on a few blows in the fifth.

In the first round, the fight seemed like it could reach epic slugfest proportions. Miocic and Ngannou tagged each other several times, leaving each fighter staggered and seemingly on the brink of trouble.

“He’s a tough dude. Caught me in the first round but I took control,” Miocic said.

The fight never really picked up from there. Miocic spent the rest of the fight just banging away as Ngannou mostly covered up, hoping for one last desperate knockout punch.

Ngannou, a Cameroon native, never found that reserve power.

“I think I underestimated (him) a little bit,” said Ngannou, whose rise from homeless to heavyweight contender captivated a sport eager for a new star.

Miocic beat Fabrício Werdum to win the heavyweight title in May 2016, and followed with wins against Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and now Ngannou to slug his way into the record book.

Miocic could lay claim as UFC’s greatest heavyweight.

“I mean I’m not the scariest, but I’m the baddest,” he said.

CORMIER DEFENDS

Daniel Cormier locked a choke hold on Volkan Oezdemir with such force that the crowd exploded when the horn sounded to end the first round, thinking the fight was over.

Not yet.

Oezdemir was saved from submission briefly. But the inevitable defeat was just moments away.

With a Boston crowd roaring and chanting his initials, Cormier showed why he’s the best active light heavyweight fighter in UFC and dominated Oezdemir via TKO to retain the 205-pound belt.

Cormier raised his hands in triumph as UFC President Dana White wrapped the title belt around his waist. Cormier dropped to his knees on the canvas and said this fight was the validation he needed to prove he was worthy of being called champion.

The 38-year-old Cormier was awarded the light heavyweight title after Jon Jones was stripped of the championship when he failed his latest doping test. Cormier has failed to beat Jones in two bouts and could not shake the stigma of those outcomes.

Against Oezdemir, Cormier proved worthy of the title.

Cormier pinned Oezdemir against the canvas early in the second and finished him off with a series of shots to the face.

“I’ve lost twice to Jon Jones,” Cormier said. “I said coming in here that I felt like I was fighting for a vacant title again. I got the job done, so I’m the UFC champion again. I can’t ignore what happened in July. I’m a competitor. Even though I came in here as a champ, I needed a win to feel like one.”

UFC stripped Jones of the title after the California State Athletic Commission changed the result of Jones’ stoppage of Cormier at UFC 214 in July to a no-contest. Jones tested positive for the banned steroid Turinabol.

Cormier lamented leading up to the fight that he would never again fight Jones.

“I’ve done everything right and I’ve just been dragged down by this guy constantly,” Cormier said.

White suggested Cormier return to the heavyweight division and fight Stipe. But Cormier said he had little interest in the bout and friend and training partner Cain Velasquez should be next in line for a title fight.

Oezdemir got almost no reaction from the Boston crowd as he walked out draped in the Swiss flag. Cormier, known for getting split reactions, had fans standing on their feet, snapping pics and cheering. He took a lap around the canvas with his right arm raised in triumph, backed by “Let’s go DC!” chants.

“I proved I’m worthy of being called champion, but Volkan’s on that level,” Cormier said. “Every guy who makes it to this point is on the level. Volkan Oezdemir, I leave a piece of myself with every opponent. I’m glad you can take a piece back with you to Switzerland.”

UNDERCARD FUN

The TD Garden was packed and lit from the opening preliminary bout and the card was sprinkled with Massachusetts fighters to pander to the local crowd.

UFC grabbed hold of the Boston sports scene for a few hours Saturday night on the eve of the New England Patriots’ appearance in the AFC title game with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. The bars that surrounded the arena had UFC banners waving on a windy night. White, who lived in Boston for 10 years, is a die-hard city sports fan and attended a Celtics game this week and was set to attend the Patriots game Sunday. But for White, the main event of the week clearly took place inside the octagon, where the undisputed light heavyweight and heavyweight championships were defended on the same card for the first time since 2003.
UFC 220 featured two quick contenders for KO off the year — remember, Ngannou’s spectacular KO of Overeem happened in early December.

Abdul Razak Alhassan caught Sabah Homasi flush with a right uppercut in the first for one of the more spectacular knockouts in recent UFC history to win a welterweight bout. Razak Alhassan knocked Homasi cold with a vicious right that brought a gasp from the crowd and left Homasi motionless on his back for a couple of minutes. He eventually needed assistance to sit on a stool in his corner. Trainers placed bags of ice on his back and neck.

Razak Alhassan already beat Homasi in a controversial stoppage at UFC 218. The outcome of the immediate rematch left no doubt.
Calvin Kattar, a New England fighter who gave a shoutout to the Patriots, broke open a close fight against Shane Burgos and won via TKO in the third. Kattar staggered Burgos with a series of blows and nailed an uppercut that put Burgos on his back. Burgos absorbed more blows and briefly escaped until referee Dan Miragliotta stopped the fight.

An edge emerged in Katie Chung’s first solo show. “There’s a lot of big change of our muse,” she said backstage before the display, explaining he no longer is a classical artist but one of today — with multifaceted pursuits.
“They’re interested in sports. At the same time they are interested in vintage,” continued Chung, ticking off, as well, the likes of suiting, tailoring and streetwear, calling these guys — and the collection — “the new romantic bohemians.” “I tried to mix them altogether.”
Still, Wooyoungmi’s aesthetic remained consistent. Chung maintained the label’s traditional slouchy silhouettes for some fall looks, including the opener — an oversize sartorial suit — plus topcoats, blazers and shirting. On the other end of the spectrum were the leather trousers and jeans, creating a healthy tension between what’s refined and rougher.
Much was on trend, such as the retro tracksuit worn over an oversize flannel shirt and paired with pointy white cowboy boots.
Though maybe a tad bipolar, this collection was fun and of the moment overall.

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For his third collection, Kiko Kostadinov plucked uniformed agents from the British railways of the last century and outfitted them for the future. Boxy jackets hailed from the Sixties, paired with straight trousers — not too snug — and thick-soled black shoes. Completing the look, a pen poked out of a front vest pocket.
Trousers of varying lengths and materials, including a soft, quilted pair in gray, had flapped pockets on the left thigh — a recurring theme throughout. Another lighter touch to the collection came in the form of a fanciful green faux-fur jacket. The same fabric turned up again but in the form of cropped pants.
Metropolitan police got a new cape, made with the rubberized cotton that is the house signature, and came in gray, orange and prune.
Influence came from Robert Morris, known for arranging industrial felt into pieces of art in the Sixties, inspiring a mottled gray flight coat.
Kostadinov used the softer elements to steer the brand into more interesting territory without betraying the label’s sparse, futuristic approach that veers on androgynous.

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ACTORS ROOM: Escaping the rain, guests including Robert Pattinson, Josh Hartnett, Future, Big Sean, Jhené Aiko and Bella Hadid flowed into the Grand Palais on Saturday for the Dior Homme show.
Clearly not feeling the chill, Hadid sported a black suit and black bra, accessorized with a choker and sneakers.
“The rain, it’s bad, makes me sad,” drawled Future, taking in the show set, with rows of aquariums filled with smoke and lights. French actor Pierre Niney shrugged it off, saying he was used to bad weather having grown up in Paris.
“My fiancé [Natasha Andrews] is from Australia so I think we’ll have to go to catch some rays soon, as she’s pretty depressed,” said the actor who chatted about the experience of working with Charlotte Gainsbourg on his latest film, “Promise at Dawn.”
“She has so much charisma, but at the same time, she has this shyness on set. She’s so humble and focused on the work, she’s an actress I have always dreamed of working with,” said the actor adding that his next project, a film directed by Frédéric Tellier, will be less uplifting. “I play a young guy who gets badly burned in a fire and has to rebuild his life.

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The knitted, pink “pussy” hats are back — at least for the weekend.
More than 120,000 protesters, clusters of which wore the ugly but eye-catching pink hats, gathered in New York and tens of thousands in dozens of other cities across the U.S. for the second Women’s March.
As in 2016’s march, which drew an estimated 2.4 million people in various major cities, anti-Trump sentiment was rife among those taking part in the New York, but with the recent spate of sexual harassment and assault claims against men in film, television and media, what’s now being called the #metoo movement was well represented, along with a range of other social issues, like Black Lives Matter, transgender rights and support for teachers unions.

Women’s March 2018, New York. 
Kali Hays/WWD

After police opened up a barricade on 62nd Street and Broadway in order to relieve a massive bottle neck of people trying to get to Central Park, a young woman came upon the main throng of slow-moving protesters with an excited, “This is lit!”
In a city where shoulder checking is a typical part of the daily commute, marchers were nothing if not polite. There was bonding over pins and signs; gentle “excuse me’s” and apologies

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A&K and Chord are both experts in digital-to-analog conversion, so which product gets the edge?

How his work in and out of the kitchen has influenced generations of chefs.