■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.
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