Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/6992
Sports 1B Thursday February 18, 2010 Thursday Girls Soccer Playoffs — Corning at Wheatland, 3 p.m. Girls Basketball — Shasta at Red Bluff, 7:30 p.m. Olympics — USA, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC NBA — Nuggets at Cavaliers, 5:15 p.m., TNT NBA — Celtics at Lakers, 7:30 p.m., TNT NCAA — Syracuse at Georgetown, 4 p.m., ESPN2 OLYMPICS Medals Table 28 of 90 total medal events Nation G S B Tot USA 5 3 6 14 Germany 3 4 3 10 France 2 1 4 7 Canada 2 3 1 6 South Korea 3 2 0 5 Austria 1 2 2 5 Norway 1 2 2 5 Switzerland 3 0 1 4 China 2 1 1 4 Italy 0 1 3 4 Russia 1 1 1 3 Sweden 2 0 0 2 Slovakia 1 1 0 2 Czech Republic 1 0 1 2 Poland 0 2 0 2 Japan 0 1 1 2 Netherlands 1 0 0 1 Australia 0 1 0 1 Estonia 0 1 0 1 Finland 0 1 0 1 Latvia 0 1 0 1 Croatia 0 0 1 1 Slovenia 0 0 1 1 NBA Wednesday's results Sacramento at Golden State, late Chicago 115, New York 109 Dallas 107, Phoenix 97 Houston 127, Milwaukee 99 Memphis 109, Toronto 102, OT Miami 87, New Jersey 84 Orlando 116, Detroit 91 San Antonio 90, Indiana 87 Utah 98, New Orleans 90 Washington 108, Minnesota 99 Atlanta at L.A. Clippers, late Today's games Denver at Cleveland, 5 p.m., TNT Boston at L.A. Lakers, 7:30 p.m., TNT Tuesday's late results Boston 95, Sacramento 92 L.A. Lakers 104, Golden State 94 NCAA Wednesday's Top 25 results No. 4 Purdue 60, No. 9 Ohio State 57 No. 6 Duke 81, Miami 74 No. 7 Kansas State 91, Nebraska 87 No. 8 West Virginia 88, Providence 74 No. 12 New Mexico 83, Wyoming 61 Missouri 82, No. 15 Texas 77 No. 16 BYU 92, Colorado State 70 No. 18 Butler 73, Illinois-Chicago 55 No. 20 Tennessee 69, Georgia 60 No. 21 Temple 73, St. Bonaventure 55 No. 25 Richmond 84, Fordham 56 Today's Top 25 games No. 5 Syracuse at No. 10 G'own, 4 p.m., ESPN2 No. 13 Gonzaga at Loyola Marymount, 6:05 p.m. No. 14 Wisconsin at Minnesota, 6 p.m., ESPN No. 17 Vanderbilt at Mississippi, 4 p.m. No. 19 Pittsburgh at Marquette, 6 p.m., ESPN2 Today's other televised games Auburn at Florida, 4 p.m., ESPN UCLA at Washington State, 5:30 p.m., CSN California at Oregon State, 7:30 p.m., CSN Saint Mary's at San Diego, 8 p.m., ESPN2 Scoreboard Scoreboard Vonn wins downhill Fourth through sixth grade girls interested in playing AAU basketball are encouraged to come to the Nor Cal Hot Shots tryout on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at Lassen View School. The tryouts will be for the Hot Shots' fourth, fifth and sixth grade spring basketball AAU teams. Those will questions should contact Kathy Brandt at 354-4775 or by e-mail at kandjbrandt@msn.com. Girls AAU Basketball Tehama Tracker MCT photo Americans Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn celebrate their medal wins, Wednesday. VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Lindsey Vonn crossed the fin- ish line, saw her time, then yelled and fell backward onto the snow. Joy? Relief? Pain? All the emotions that come with being a gold-medal winner. Despite a bruised right shin that made it painful to even wear a ski boot, Vonn dominated a crash-marred down- hill to win the first of her five events at the Vancouver Olympics. (Or, as the hats seen in the crowd read: the Vonn- couver Olympics.) ''I gave up everything for this,'' she said. ''It means everything to me. ... I dreamed about what this would feel like, but it is much better in real life.'' Teammate and childhood rival Julia Mancuso was a surprising second, giv- ing Americans the top two medals in an Alpine race for the first time in 26 years and starting a big day for the U.S. Later, Shani Davis added a gold in 1,000-meter speedskating, and Shaun White defended his title in the halfpipe. At the end of the day, the U.S. led all countries with five gold medals and 14 overall. Short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno also had a good night, easily advancing through preliminaries of the men's 1,000 and helping the United States move on to the 5,000 relay final. Both finals are Saturday, when Ohno can add to his cache of six Olympic medals and become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian. WOMEN'S DOWNHILL Since getting hurt in practice two weeks ago, Vonn spent more time with Austrian curd cheese smeared on her shin than being on the slopes. Several weather delays bought her time and kept her competition from getting too comfortable on this course. She kicked out of the gate strong, building a quick lead and building on it. Just when it seemed she might lose control, she regained her form and kept charging toward the finish. A small bump just before the finish cost her a few ticks, but she still wound up win- ning by 0.56 seconds. ''I fought the whole way down,'' she said. ''It wasn't a perfect run. I attacked, and I made it down.'' Maria Riesch of Germany, Vonn's best friend and usual rival of late, fin- ished eighth. The course was tough, as evidenced by all the crashes. Swedish standout Anja Paerson went down hard, and another competitor had to be airlifted out. Yet another crashed across the fin- ish line and disappeared under a logo of a skier; in trying to get up, she stuck out one ski, making for a bizarre image. The only times Americans took gold and silver in an Alpine race both happened at the 1984 Sarajevo Games, with brothers Phil and Steve Mahre going 1-2 in the slalom and Debbie Armstrong and Christin Cooper doing so in giant slalom. Vonn will be favored in two more races. It remains to be seen how much this event took out of her — or if it's the start of a Phelps-like domination. ''I have what I want, and I'll just keep fighting every day,'' she said. ''It's definitely a huge relief that I finally did it.'' SPEEDSKATING Davis didn't come close to a medal in his first two events at these Olympics, but he came through in the 1,000, an event in which he holds the world record. With an impressive final kick, he edged South Korea's Mo Tae- bum, who won the 500 and whose early pace Davis struggled to match. Davis even shared the podium with Chad Hedrick again after the other American hopeful took the bronze. Davis and Hedrick had a nasty feud at the 2006 Turin Games, but both appeared in good spirits after Wednes- day's race. Davis and Hedrick finished second and third in the 1,500 in Turin. ''When you're a world champion or an Olympic champion, you get this lit- tle thing on your back called a target,'' said Davis, the first male skater to win this event a second time at the Winter Games. ''To go out there and win the 1,000 meters twice is truly amazing.'' SNOWBOARDING Shaun White's final run was a for- mality. At times, his entire event seemed like one. White defended his Olympic title in the men's halfpipe, defeating Finland's Peetu Piiroinen. White secured the win on his first run without trying his sig- nature trick, the Double McTwist 1260, then did it on his second lap having already clinched the gold. American Scotty Lago took bronze to give the United States multiple podi- ums in three straight Olympics. The American men and women have taken 12 of the 21 halfpipe medals awarded since the sport came to the Olympics in 1998. SHORT TRACK Ohno easily advanced through the preliminaries of the 1,000, staying on course to surpass Bonnie Blair as the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian. Ohno, who won his sixth Olympic medal in the 1,500 Saturday, was third most of the way. Then, in the closing laps, he moved up to second before using a smooth inside move to take the lead over China's Liang Wenhao. From there, Ohno cruised to the fin- ish line well ahead of the others to advance to the semifinals later Wednesday. Ohno also joined J.R. Celski, Simon Cho and Travis Jayner in quali- fying for the 5,000 relay final on Satur- day. Wang Meng of China easily won her second consecutive gold medal in the women's 500 meters. She led all the way after surviving a restart and a false start in the four-woman final. Wang cruised home well ahead of Canada's Marianne St-Gelais, who took silver. Arianna Fontana of Italy earned the bronze. CROSS-COUNTRY A milelong sprint came down to a few inches, with Russia's Nikita Kriukov getting the front of his ski across the finish line just ahead of countryman Alexander Panzhinskiy in the men's individual classic cross- country sprint race. A photo finish was needed to determine the winner. In the women's individual sprint, Norway's Marit Bjoergen pulled away at the end for her first gold medal after winning two silvers at previous Olympics and a bronze in the 10K race Monday. Pre-race favorite Petra Majdic of Slovenia hurt her ribs in a training crash early Wednesday, but managed to salvage a bronze. She collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line. LUGE Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger won their second straight gold medal in doubles luge. Corning basketball T h e C o r n i n g C a r d i n a l s boys basket- ball team rallied from behind to clinch the Northern Athletic League title, Tuesday, with a 47-41 win over Central Val- ley. Luis Piseno had 13 points for the Cardinals who earned their 20th win of the season. Cameron Nye and Tyler McIntyre each added 12 points. Corning plays at West Valley on Friday. Lady Cardinals A poor second quarter doomed the Lady Cardinals, Tuesday, in a 45-35 loss to Central Valley. Corning needs a win in its regular season finale Fri- day against West Valley or a Lassen loss to avoid sharing the NAL title with the Griz- zlies. Lady Bulldogs T h e Lady Bull- dogs playoff c h a n c e s may be a bit safer now, after a 59-54 win over Biggs on Tuesday. Kiersten Seaman led the way with 15 points and Car- olyna Salazar chipped in with 11 points. Los Molinos is 8-11 overall, but 5-4 in the Mid- Valley League. Mercy basketball The Warriors just could- n't over- come a s l u g g i s h first half offensively, T u e s d a y and Liberty Christian left Mercy with a 56-37 win. Mercy was outscored 13- 2 in the first quarter, and scored just nine first half points, before turning up their game in the second half. The Warriors had pulled to within 38-32, but Liberty Christian responded with 3- pointers on their next three possessions. Jeremie Jones and Aaron Gash each had 12 points to lead the Warriors who are 13-11 on the season. Lady Warriors Behind a strong perfor- mance from Hannah Wom- ack, Liberty Christian han- dled the Lady Warriors a 47- 27 loss on Tuesday. Womack had 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Giants hope new lineup is improved SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The San Francisco Giants spent much of last season wasting some of the finest pitching in the Nation- al League. Upgrading the offense was a top priority in the offseason, and as spring training begins man- ager Bruce Bochy likes his new lineup. Center fielder Aaron Rowand is the top candidate to hit first, Bengie Molina is back after being courted by the New York Mets, and free agent signees Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff were added to boost an offense that was 13th in the NL in runs, 15th in home runs and last in OPS in 2009. ''It's a stronger lineup, one through eight. It is going to be stretched out more. It's a lineup that has experience,'' said Bochy, in his fourth season with the Giants. ''I think they will work the pitchers more, along with being able to keep the line moving, as we say. That's getting big hits and more production throughout the order.'' Despite their inept hitting, the Giants won 88 games behind repeat NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum and fel- low hard-throwing starter Matt Cain. Molina had 20 homers and 80 RBIs, second in both cat- egories behind third baseman Pablo Sandoval, and is expect- ed to cede his cleanup spot in the order (Sandoval will hit third) to Huff, who signed a one-year, $3 million contract to play first base. Huff hit .241 with 15 homers and 85 RBIs at Tampa Bay and Detroit last year, and he has 203 homers in a 10-year career. DeRosa, who had offseason wrist surgery, signed a two- year, $12 million contract and is expected to start in left field, although he can also play right field and first and third base. He and Molina are expected to follow Sandoval and Huff in the batting order. DeRosa is a career .275 hitter in 12 sea- sons and had a career-high 23 homers while playing in Cleveland and St. Louis last year. ''It's something Brian (general manager Sabean) worked hard on, to get the kind of players we wanted to get in here to improve this offense,'' Bochy said. ''And I consider Bengie one of those guys, because even though he was with us, it looked like he might not be. To get him back, along with Huff and DeRosa, improves our situation.'' Nate Schierholtz is the front-runner to replace Randy Winn in right field, although John Bowker and Eugenio Velez are candidates. ''We'd like to see Nate run with this. We think he is our best defender, and we talked about how important defense is in our ballpark. But that's going to be competitive, too,'' Bochy said. Rookie left-hander Madison Bumgarner and newly signed free agent Todd Wellemeyer are in competition for the No 5 starting spot, Bochy said, behind Lincecum, Cain, Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez. Bumgarner, 20, was the Giants' No. 1 draft pick in 2007 and was 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in four September outings, one start. Wellemeyer has made 53 starts in the last two years, going 13-9 with St. Louis in 2008 and 7-10 with the Cardinals last season. ''It makes it more competitive when you sign a guy like Wellemeyer, I think it's fair to say. There are no givens here,'' Bochy said. We think a lot of Madison, but you always want depth. It is always good to have competition. Catcher Buster Posey, the Giants' No. 1 pick in 2008, will also take ground balls at first in camp and could make the team as the backup catcher, Bochy said. ''We are going to stay open-minded with Buster. Every- body would be assuming he would go to triple-A and play every day and continue his growth as a player. But if we think we are better with Buster here and I can catch him two, three days a week, that's always a possibility,'' Bochy said.