IN BRIEF

COLLEGES

Providence men's basketball
boots top scorer from team

Jamine "Greedy" Peterson was dismissed from the Providence basketball team for violating team rules.

Coach Keno Davis announced the dismissal Tuesday, saying Peterson had broken unspecified team rules.

Peterson was the Friars' leading scorer last season, averaging nearly 20 points a game and more than 10 rebounds.

His dismissal follows the arrests last month of teammates James Still and Johnnie Lacy. They were charged with assault and were suspended pending the investigation. Lacy already was planning to transfer.

Also: Southern California shot 6-under-par 282 to take a two-stroke lead on Purdue after the first round of the NCAA Women's Golf Championships in Wilmington, N.C.

Southern Cal's Jennifer Song, Purdue's Maude-Aimee LeBlanc and Arizona State's Jennifer Johnson shared the individual lead at 5-under 67

UNLV softball players Laura Briones and Jessica O'Connor were named Mountain West Conference Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week.

Briones finished the season by going 6-for-10 with a home run, three doubles, six RBIs and two runs as the Rebels went 3-0 last week. O'Connor went 2-0, including a complete game in a 15-3 rout at Colorado State, her eighth complete game of the season.

HORSE RACING

New York governor says plan
in works to keep NYRA alive

New York Gov. David Paterson said a new proposal for a state bailout will pass and New York thoroughbred racing at Belmont and Saratoga race tracks will go on as scheduled.

The Paterson administration wants to provide a loan of $15 million to $25 million to keep the New York Racing Association operating until it receives its share of long overdue revenue from video slot machines at Aqueduct Race Track.

The money would come from a capital construction fund for the video slots and be repaid by NYRA. Paterson said a vendor to build and operate the video slot machine "racino" at Aqueduct is expected to be chosen by Aug. 1.

The new proposal shared with legislative leaders replaces a previous plan to loan the NYRA $17 million, which was found to be unworkable.

Paterson was asked in a news conference if NYRA will run out of money before the Saratoga summer meet, as NYRA officials warned Monday.

"That's not going to happen," Paterson said. "We have a plan to loan NYRA, in the short term, money to get through Saratoga, and we're working on a long-term plan to help beyond that."

Also: Thoroughbred breeder and former Wall Street executive Ernie Paragallo, who has made more than $20 million in purses in 20 years of racing, was led away in handcuffs after being sentenced in Catskill, N.Y., to up to two years in jail and a $33,000 fine for mistreating dozens of horses on his Hudson Valley farm.

The 52-year-old Long Island resident was charged after state police and animal welfare investigators raided his farm in Coxsackie in April 2009 and seized 177 starving, parasite-infested horses. Paragallo was convicted in March of 33 misdemeanor animal cruelty counts.

MISCELLANEOUS

U.S. hockey team avoids
relegation at world tourney

The United States will have a chance to play for a medal at the 2011 ice hockey world championships after TJ Oshie scored three times in the penalty shootout for a 3-2 win over Italy in Cologne, Germany.

The U.S. swept its demotion group, winning all three games to avoid relegation next year. France also avoided relegation by defeating Kazakhstan 5-3 for second place. Third-place Italy and last-place Kazakhstan will play in the second division next year.

Also: David Zabriskie won the third stage of the Tour of California by inches over Michael Rogers and took over the race lead. The U.S. national time-trial champion won the 113.3-mile stage from San Francisco to Santa Cruz in 4 hours, 26 minutes, 9 seconds. He leads Rogers by four seconds overall.

Three-time defending race champ Levi Leipheimer was third, also in the same time as the top two finishers. He's six seconds behind Zabriskie. Lance Armstrong finished 14th and was 12th in the overall standings, 27 seconds back.

American sprinter Tyler Farrar won his second stage of the Giro d'Italia, and Alexandre Vinokourov held onto the overall leader's pink jersey. Farrar, who also won the second stage, covered a rolling 143-mile route from Avellino to Bitonto, Italy, to claim the event's 10th stage in 5 hours, 49 minutes, 14 seconds.

Queen Elizabeth II is returning to Wimbledon for the first time in 33 years. The All England Club said the British monarch is planning to attend the tournament June 24, her first visit to the grass-court Grand Slam since 1977.