Jackson Jr. scores 38, Bane has 31 as Grizzlies top Suns 117-112

PHOENIX (AP) — Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 38 points to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 117-112 victory over the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night.

Desmond Bane scored 31 as the Grizzlies, playing without injured Ja Morant (right shoulder strain) and Zach Edey (concussion protocol), never trailed. Reserve Luke Kennard scored 17 points and John Konchar grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds as Memphis moved to 23-11, second in the Western Conference.

Devin Booker returned for Phoenix after missing five games with a left groin strain and had 16 points and nine assists. Kevin Durant led the Suns with 29 points and 10 rebounds.

The Suns, who lost for the sixth time in seven games, played without Jusuf Nurkic, serving the second of his three-game suspension for his involvement in a fight with the Dallas Mavericks on Friday. Bradley Beal left the game in the first half with a left hip contusion.

Though no one fouled out, there were 54 fouls called in the game and 58 free throws attempted. Jackson Jr. was 10 of 17 from the line and also finished with 10 rebounds.

Booker last played Dec. 19 in a loss to Indiana. The Suns lost four of the five games they played without Booker, who entered Tuesday’s game against Memphis averaging 25.1 points and 6.4 assists per game.

Grizzlies: Jaylen Wells filled in with 11 points as the Grizzlies won without two starters.

Suns: Booker started slow but got back in the rhythm by scoring the Suns’ first five points of the second quarter.

Konchar’s three-point play with 1:05 left gave Memphis a 113-106 lead after the Suns had come within one point earlier.

Jackson was outscoring the Suns 19-18 at one point late in the first quarter.

The Suns play Saturday at Indiana. The Grizzlies are at Sacramento on Friday.

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Phoenix Suns center Mason Plumlee (22) dunks against Memphis Grizzlies players John Konchar, left, Jaren Jackson Jr., middle, and Luke Kennard, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. Memphis won 117-112. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) loses the ball as Memphis Grizzlies guard John Konchar, left, reaches in during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, left, passes the ball to Kevin Durant, right, as Memphis Grizzlies guard John Konchar, middle, watches during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. Memphis won 117-112. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns forward Ryan Dunn, center, holds back Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., right, as Jackson goes after Devin Booker (1) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, center, loses the ball while being pressured by Memphis Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr., left, and center Colin Castleton (8) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal (3) Kevin Durant (35) slap hands during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) gets to the ball in front of Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns guard Monte Morris (23) shoots over Memphis Grizzlies guard Cam Spencer (24) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) and Memphis Grizzlies guard Cam Spencer (24) have words during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) celebrates hitting a 3-pointer during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Phoenix. Memphis won 117-112. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)