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JONATHANBACHMAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The San Francisco 49ers have hired John Lynch to be their general manager. A er a lengthy search that included interviews with nine other publicly identified candidates, team CEO Jed York settled on a mystery candidate when he gave the job to Lynch on Sunday. ByRonaldBlum TheAssociatedPress NEW YORK The St. Louis Car- dinals were stripped of their top two picks in this year's amateur draft Monday and ordered to give them to Houston along with $2 million as compensation for hacking the Astros' email system and scouting database, the final andunprecedentedstepinanun- usual case of cybercrime involv- ing two Major League Baseball teams. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred also banned former St. Louis executive Christopher Cor- rea for life as he ruled the Cardi- nals must give the 56th and 75th draft choices in June to Hous- ton. They must pay the Astros the money within 30 days. Correa, the Cardinals' direc- tor of baseball development until July 2015, pleaded guilty in fed- eral court last year to five counts of unauthorized access of a pro- tected computer. He was sen- tenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay the Astros $279,039 in restitution. "AlthoughMr.Correa'sconduct was not authorized by the Cardi- nals, as a matter of MLB policy I am holding the Cardinals re- sponsible for his conduct," Man- fred wrote. "A club suffers mate- rial harm when an employee of another club illegally accesses its confidential and propriety infor- mation, particularly intrusions of the nature and scope pres- ent here. In addition, as a result of Mr. Correa's conduct, the As- tros suffered substantial nega- tive publicity and had to endure thetime,expenseanddistraction of both a lengthy government in- vestigation and an MLB investi- gation." Cardinals chairman Bill De- Witt Jr. said in a statement the "findings are fully consistent with our own investigation's con- clusion that this activity was iso- lated to a single individual." "Thishasbeenalongandchal- lenging process for all of us, es- peciallythosewithinourbaseball operationsdepartment,"St.Louis general manager John Mozeliak said. "We have learned a great deal along the way and we have taken additional steps to ensure that something like this doesn't ever happen again." Houston said "this unprece- dentedawardbythecommission- er's office sends a clear message of the severity of these actions." Correa was employed by the Cardinalsfrom2009-15.Whenhe was sentenced last July by U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes, Correasaidhewas"overwhelmed with remorse and regret for my actions" that cost him his career and his home. BASEBALL Cardinals must give Astros top 2 picks, $2M for hacking By Dan Gelston The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA Joel Embiid can rest that achy knee. The woeful- turned-wonderful Philadelphia 76ers are winning without him. Robert Covington had 23 points and 10 rebounds to rally the 76ers to their latest surprising win, 122- 119 over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night. The Sixers overcame 46 points from DeMarcus Cousins and won again without Embiid, who sat out with a left knee contusion. He also will not travel with the Sixers for road games later this week against Dallas and San Antonio. "I'd be lying if I said it doesn't rock our boat a little bit," coach Brett Brown said. "But it is part of just the fluid side of the NBA, es- pecially the fluid side of our still young program." This game was postponed Nov. 30 by the NBA because of conden- sation on the court at the Wells Fargo Center. The delay was worth the wait for Philly. Down16inthefirsthalf,theSix- ers scored 42 points in the third quarter and held on when Arron Afflalo missed a tying 3-point at- tempt at the horn. "I think that the foundation is starting to prove dividends," Brown said. "This is who we are. This is what we want our culture and our program to look like." Cousins shifted into takeover mode in the fourth. His 16th point of the quarter came on a dunk that pulled the Kings to 114-113. Cous- ins, though, had a bounce pass in- tercepted and he fouled Gerald Henderson as he tried to pass the ballupcourt.Hendersonsankboth free throws that made it 118-113 and helped stop a two-game los- ing streak. TheSixers went10-5inJanuary; they were 10-72 in 2015-16. "Everybody'sexcitedaboutit,ev- erybody'sfeelinggoodaboutthem- selves, as we should," said Jahlil Okafor, who scored 15 points in place of Embiid. The Sixers let Houston's James Harden score 51 points on Friday night and Cousins joined him with another monster game in Philly. Cousins made his first five shots and scored 18 points in the first quarter. Led by Cousins, the Kings shot 61 percent in the pe- riod and led by 16 points. "We should have been able to close this game out on our own," Cousins said. With a small crowd, Embiid out, and playing the back end of consecutive games, the Sixers of the last three seasons might have lost by 30. With or without Embiid, these are not the same old Sixers. They won last week at Mil- waukee with Embiid at home and rallied against a Kings team fighting for a Western Confer- ence playoff berth. The Sixers went wild in the third and Cov- ington capped a 15-3 run with a 3 that gave the Sixers an 87- 81 lead. They made 17 of 24 shots to stun Sacramento and get fans chanting "Trust the Process!" NBA 76 er s ra ll y without Em bi id t o beat Kings By Cam Inman Bay Area News Group SANTA CLARA John Lynch said Monday his secret ascension to the 49ers general manager role came out of necessity, partly so he could learn more about the 49ers' chaotic state "without the world breathing down my throat." Of course, he also wanted to be respectful of his family's pri- vacy and his role as a Fox Sports broadcaster. "I'm incredibly appreciative and fortunate in this world that things stayed quiet," Lynch said on a media conference call. "It al- lowed me to truly assess this situ- ation, to ask the tough questions, to just get with the people I'm go- ing to be working with, and (as for) any elephant in the room, just get rid of it and ask questions." Lynch had reason to be skepti- cal after arguably the worst sea- son in 49ers history, which in- cluded a 13-game losing streak en route to a 2-14 record that led to the firings of general manager Trent Baalke and coach Chip Kelly. "I didn't need the job so it gave me a great position to be very forward," Lynch added. "I asked those questions and I'm proud of the way that happened and the way they responded." Lynch spoke from Houston while honoring commitments to Fox Sports ahead of Sunday's Su- per Bowl. He's been constantly on the phone as he considers reas- sembling the 49ers front office, and he announced no changes Monday. Lynch said he will report di- rectly to Jed York, but he did not confirm an ESPN report that the 53-man roster will fall under the control of presumptive coach Kyle Shanahan. Lynch will otherwise oversee the 90-man, offseason and camp roster as well as the draft and free agency. "The most important thing I can do is I articulate the vision I have for this team to everyone in this building," Lynch said. "It's important to articulate who we want to be and the type of people we're looking for. ... I can't get the film in front of me quick enough to evaluate the roster." 49ERS LynchexplainssecrecyasGMpick By Chip Thompson editor@redbluffdailynews.com @editorchip on Twitter CORNING The Corning Lady Car- dinals weren't supposed to domi- nate Friday night when the hosted a tough Sutter Huskies team, but nobody told the Cards, who took a 63-49 win. After Sutter scored first, the Cards went on a run and went up 11-4 just more than halfway through the first thanks to a pair of threes from Mariah Castle, who would have a big night. Another three from Morgan Mason inside the closing minute gave Corning a 16-9 advantage after one. Whilemuchofthestrategyearly on was to get the ball in Castle's hands inside and let her make a decision, plenty of Cardinals got in on the action, including a seamless offensive rebound and put back for two from Kara Beckwith to open the second. Kirstie Barr, Mason and Castle contributed from the line and the Cards went to the half up 32-19. When Castle came out, fresh- man Jackie Caputo filled in nicely, especially in the third, putting up 4 of the Cards' 13 points. Morgan hit another three, Castle put up 4 BASKETBALL LADY CARDINALS WIN BIG OVER SUTTER HUSKIES PHOTOS BY CHIP THOMPSON — DAILY NEWS Corning's Elter Bright puts up a jump shot Friday night against Sutter. Corning's Jackie Caputo drives to the rim Friday night against Sutter. RedBluffgirls fall on the road to Pleasant Valley BASKETBALL PAGE 2 HACKING PAGE 2 49ERS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, January 31, 2017 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1