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■BASKETBALL

Louisville crush Arizona

Earl Clark had 19 points and nine rebounds as top-seeded Louisville delivered one of the most crushing blowouts in regional round history — a 103-64 romp over Arizona on Friday. Goran Suton had 20 points and nine rebounds as Michigan State was steady from the foul line, rallying to defeat defending NCAA champion Kansas 67-62 in the Midwest Regional semi-finals. At Memphis, Tennessee, Blake Griffin bullied his way to 30 points and 14 rebounds and Tony Crocker added a career-high 28 points as second-seeded Oklahoma beat Syracuse 84-71 to reach its first regional final since 2003. Ty Lawson scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half as top-seeded North Carolina routed Gonzaga 98-77. Tyler Hansbrough added 24 points and 10 rebounds for North Carolina, which won its 99th NCAA tournament game, breaking a tie with Kentucky for the most by any school. Wayne Ellington scored 19 points and Danny Green added 13 for the Tar Heels (31-4), who reached the regional finals for the third straight year. Jeremy Pargo led Gonzaga (28-6) with 16 points.



■BOXING

Chambers beats Peter

Eddie Chambers outboxed former heavyweight champion Samuel Peter to win a majority decision at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on Friday. Chambers turned it up in the ninth round, landing several hard shots and cutting Peter (30-2, 23 KOs) on his lower lip in winning his fourth straight since a loss to Alexander Povetkin. Peter, who lost the WBC title to Vitali Klitschko last October, had trouble getting through Chambers’ defense and lost most of the rounds because he simply couldn’t connect. The fight could set up a future title shot for Chambers (34-1, 18 KOs), whose loss to Povetkin in January last year was an IBF title eliminator. One judge had the bout a draw, while the others had it 96-94 and 99-91 for Chambers.



■FORMULA ONE

Virgin to sponsor Brawn

British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has agreed to a substantial sponsorship deal with the new Brawn GP team, both sides announced at the Australian Grand Prix yesterday. Branson told a news conference at the Albert Park circuit that he had signed the deal only four hours before stepping on a plane for Australia and would use the Formula One team to promote a clean fuel revolution. “Over the years Virgin has had the great honor of partnering with technical geniuses and I truly believe that [team owner] Ross Brawn is to F1 what Burt Ratan is to space travel with Virgin Galactic,” he said. Brawn, taking over from departed Honda, will compete in today’s season-opening race among the favorites and with Virgin branding on their white cars.



■FOOTBALL

Johnson pleads guilty

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of disturbing the peace for separate incidents involving women at nightclubs last year. A Kansas City Municipal Court judge sentenced Johnson to two years probation on Friday. His guilty plea will be removed from public record if he finishes the probation without further incidents. Johnson will not be allowed to consume alcohol or be at any Kansas City bars or nightclubs after 9pm while on probation. He also must complete anger control counseling and 40 hours of community service. Johnson was originally charged with assault for allegedly shoving one woman and spitting a drink in the face of another. Those charges were changed to disturbing the peace.



■RUGBY SEVENS

Fifty in vicious street brawl

At least 50 people, including rugby players, were involved in a vicious street brawl on the eve of the Hong Kong Sevens, a report said yesterday, casting a shadow over the city’s biggest annual party. Police used riot shields, batons and pepper spray to subdue running battles through the Wanchai bar area in the early hours of Friday, the South China Morning Post said. Former Fiji Sevens player Paula Maisiri, who had been taking part in a 10-a-side tournament, was reportedly fined HK$500 dollars (US$65) for assaulting a police officer. “The fighting exploded like it would on a rugby pitch. There were so many people watching. I’ve never seen anything like it,” an eyewitness was quoted as saying. “There were police with shields and batons and blood everywhere,” another said. Despite widespread heavy drinking and rowdy behavior, serious violence is unusual at the Hong Kong Sevens, which attracts thousands of fans.



■SOCCER

World Cup tickets in demand

More than 1 million World Cup ticket applications have been received by FIFA online and the majority of them are from South Africans, the local organizing committee said on Friday. “The number of applications has far exceeded FIFA’s and the local organizing committee’s expectations. Not surprisingly, the country that has submitted the largest number of applications is South Africa, followed by the United Kingdom and the USA,” the committee said in a statement. There are only 743,000 available tickets for the first phase of sales which ends on March 31. “We have had a phenomenal response from football fans around the world. We do expect a last-minute rush over the next few days to beat the deadline, particularly in South Africa,” FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke said.



■EXTREME SKIING

McConkey dies in cliff jump

Extreme skier Shane McConkey was killed jumping off a cliff with a parachute while filming a movie in Italy. He was 39. His sponsor Red Bull confirmed his death on Thursday. McConkey was in Corvara on a ski-BASE jump when he had a mid-air malfunction, Red Bull said in a statement. Italian emergency responders arrived within minutes and pronounced him dead at the scene, the sponsor said. During his career mcConkey won the IFSA world tour of free skiing in 1996 and 1998, and finished second in the 1999 Winter X Games Skier X competition.



■CYCLING

Leipheimer wins in Spain

Levi Leipheimer won the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon after protecting his overall lead on Friday’s final stage. Leipheimer finished 16 seconds ahead of Astana teammate Alberto Contador after holding off the 2007 Tour de France champion in the two mountain stages since winning Tuesday’s time trial. “Our team was the strongest. After the time trial I didn’t have to do anything, because my teammates did everything,” Leipheimer said.



■BADMINTON

Hidayat makes the semis

Second-seeded Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia rallied to beat Kuan Beng Hong of Malaysia 17-21, 21-17, 21-19 on Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the India Open. Hidayat, a former Olympic and world champion, will play Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, who defeated Tan Chung Seang of Malaysia 13-21, 21-18, 21-9. Chen Long of China downed eighth-seeded Lee Tsuen Seng of Malaysia 21-15, 21-8 and will play Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia, who edged Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia 21-18, 14-21, 21-16.


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