IN BRIEF

GOLF

Fowler, Owen share Frys.com Open lead

Rickie Fowler is making his presence felt in a hurry as a professional golfer.

The 20-year-old former Oklahoma State standout, in his second PGA Tour event since turning pro, shared the lead with Englishman Greg Owen halfway through the Frys.com Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Friday.

Both shot 6-under-par 64s in the second round in ideal conditions to reach 11-under 129.

Justin Leonard also shot a 64 and was one behind at 10 under. First-round leader Nick O'Hern (68) and former UNLV standout Ryan Moore (65) were 9 under in the third stop of the PGA Tour's Fall Series.

Also: Champions Tour rookies Keith Clearwater and Russ Cochran shot 5-under 66s to share the first-round lead in the AT&T Championship in San Antonio.

Tom Kite, looking for his first home-state win as a professional, was a stroke back with fellow Texan Ben Crenshaw, Mark O'Meara and Andy Bean.

Australia's Robert Allenby shot a 5-under 66 for a share of the lead with Germany's Martin Kaymer in the suspended second round of the Castello Masters Costa Azahar in Castellon, Spain.

Kaymer had a 67 to match Allenby at 12-under 130. Defending champion Sergio Garcia was a stroke back with three holes left when play was suspended because of darkness on his home course.

TENNIS

Swede Soderling nears third Stockholm final

Top-seeded Robin Soderling edged Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the Stockholm Open quarterfinals, remaining on course for a third home final in the Swedish capital.

Soderling, the only seed to reach the final eight, again played before a boisterous sellout center court crowd at Royal Tennis Hall. The 10th-ranked Swede, a surprise French Open finalist, will play Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in one semifinal today.

Baghdatis ousted French qualifier Arnaud Clement, 6-4, 6-4.

Olivier Rochus of Belgium will meet Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in the other semifinal.

Also: Alisa Kleybanova upset defending champion Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Kleybanova will play Olga Govortsova, who cruised past Vera Dushevina, 6-3, 6-0.

Eighth-seeded Francesca Schiavone will meet Alona Bondarenko in the other semifinal.

In the men's tournament, sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic advanced to his first semifinal this season by defeating Robby Ginepri of the United States, 6-3, 6-3. Tipsarevic will face qualifier Illya Marchenko, who beat Evgeny Korolev, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin will meet third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny in the other semifinal.

UNLV ATHLETICS

Barlocchi-Bouras reach ITA region tennis semis

The UNLV men's doubles team of Luca Barlocchi and Mehdi Bouras will play in today's semifinals of the ITA Mountain Region Championship at Darling Tennis Center after posting two impressive victories over tandems from Brigham Young.

Seeded sixth, the Rebels pair opened with an 8-4 win over ninth-seeded George Batrakov and Daniel Hwang of the Cougars. Barlocchi and Bouras then closed out the day with an 8-6 upset of second-seeded BYU pair Cassidy Mears and Thomas Shubert.

The Rebels will play eighth-seeded Lachlan Reed and Adrien Simon of Idaho in the semifinals today.

Also: The Rebels men's soccer team scored two first-half goals, but host Denver tallied twice in the final 15 minutes of regulation and the two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams settled for a 2-2 double-overtime tie.

Stephen Sifuentes had both goals for UNLV (6-4-3, 0-2-1).

Jackie Torda scored seven minutes into overtime as Texas Christian beat the Rebels women's soccer team 3-2 in Mountain West Conference play at Peter Johann Memorial Field.

UNLV (5-7-5, 1-3-1) fell behind 2-0 but scored in the 45th and 56th minutes on goals by Ashleigh Shougro and Brianna Moore to send the match into overtime.

MISCELLANEOUS

McCall wins, retains IBA heavyweight title

Oliver McCall continued his successful comeback, gaining a 10-round unanimous decision over Lance Whitaker at The Orleans to retain his IBA continental heavyweight title.

McCall, a 44-year-old former world champion, won his third straight fight after returning to the ring in May after a 19-month hiatus.

Dick Houck, Jerry Roth and Patricia Morse-Jarman all scored the fight 95-94 for McCall (54-9). McCall knocked Whitaker (34-6) down in the first round, and that proved to be the difference.

In the co-main event, Victor Barragan scored a technical knockout of Arthur Williams in the seventh round to win the WBC USNBC cruiserweight title.

Barragan (11-4) hurt the 44-year-old Williams early in the seventh round with a combination to the head, and when the punishment continued, referee Kenny Bayless stopped the fight at the 1:20 mark.

Also: Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik said doctors were concerned he wouldn't survive an allergic reaction to medication used to treat a staph infection.

Pavlik said he doesn't remember being admitted to a hospital last month but that doctors told him "it was pretty serious. It was the worst form of reaction you could have."

Pavlik had been dealing with a staph infection on his left hand since February.

He was supposed to defend his titles against Paul Williams on Dec. 5 at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, but the fight was canceled Wednesday when trainer Jack Loew realized Pavlik still could not make a fist with his injured hand.

Joe Martinek had 139 yards rushing and scored twice on short runs, linebacker Steve Beauharnais scored off his own blocked punt and Rutgers beat Army 27-10 in West Point, N.Y.

It was the sixth straight victory for Rutgers (5-2) over Army (3-5) and tied the series 18-18. The Black Knights have lost 12 straight games against Big East teams since beating Rutgers 37-35 in 1997.

The Scarlet Knights, ranked 11th nationally in rushing defense, allowing 91.5 yards per game, gave up 197 on the ground to Army's triple option. But the Black Knights converted only 1 of 11 third downs, punted seven times and scored only one offensive touchdown for the fifth straight game.

Private donors are giving $75,000 to Bob Knight to settle a lawsuit he filed against Indiana University claiming it didn't properly defend him when he was sued by a former assistant coach.

A letter signed by lawyers for the university and Knight said the payment offer from anonymous donors would reimburse the former coach for expenses from the lawsuit by former Knight assistant Ron Felling.

Goaltender Jonathan Quick and defenseman Davis Drewiske signed three-year contract extensions with the Los Angeles Kings, locking up two key contributors.

Quick has cemented his role as the Kings' top goalie by going 6-3 with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage.

Drewiske leads the Kings with a plus-6 rating while scoring three points and blocking 15 shots in 10 games as a dependable performer on Los Angeles' blue line.

Ford Racing said its first motor built specifically for NASCAR will make its debut next weekend in the Sprint Cup race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Matt Kenseth and David Ragan will use the "FR9," the company said.

The motor is the first new model produced by Ford since the 351 Windsor in 1991, and the first engine the company has produced specifically for use in NASCAR.