In Brief
GOLF
Willis, Couch share Transitions
lead; Garcia trails by one shot
Garrett Willis and Chris Couch tied for the lead Friday in the Transitions Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., with Sergio Garcia back in contention in his first PGA Tour event in seven months.
Couch had a 7-under-par 64 while battling moderate wind to stand at 9-under 133. Willis was the first-round leader at Innisbrook a year ago, and this year is atop the leaderboard after two rounds after shooting 67.
Garcia has yet to make a bogey through 36 holes. He shot 66 and goes into the weekend one shot out of the lead.
Also: Angela Stanford holed out from a fairway bunker for eagle on the par-4 ninth hole and shot a 6-under 66 to take the first-round lead in the LPGA Founders Cup, the tour's play-for-free U.S. opener in Phoenix.
Instead of paying the players, the tournament honoring the 13 tour founders is donating $1 million to charity -- half to The LPGA Foundation and its LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program and half to the top-10 finishers' designated charities.
Brittany Lincicome matched Aree Song at 67 to sit one shot back.
Anthony Wall shot a 4-under 67 to take a two-shot lead over Richard Green of Australia and Raphael Jacquelin of France after the second round of the Sicilian Open in Ragusa, Sicily.
The Englishman's bogey-free round included two birdies, plus an eagle on the par-5 12th hole, giving him a 9-under total of 133.
SPORTS AND THE LAW
Former UNLV basketball player
Joyce arrested for robbing vet
Bobby Joyce, a reserve member of UNLV's basketball team in the early 1990s whose post-playing life turned into a run of criminal activity, was arrested Tuesday night after allegedly helping to rob a disabled Vietnam War veteran of $880 at a bus stop in Santa Ana, Calif.
Joyce was charged with felony second-degree robbery, according to The Orange County Register, and has a pretrial hearing scheduled for Friday. The newspaper also reported a second suspect is being sought by police.
Joyce, 41, spent two seasons with the Rebels, finishing in 1992 after averaging two points per game.
Since 1993, the 6-foot-8-inch Joyce has been arrested on charges of robbery, possession of a controlled substance, attempting to purchase a controlled substance, possession of stolen property and spousal/cohabitant abuse.
Also: The law firm DLA Piper LLC and the congressional committee that investigated drugs in baseball are fighting pitching standout Roger Clemens over access to evidence collected against him, a development that could delay the trial on charges he lied about being a drug user.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the firm that produced the Mitchell Report filed motions in federal court in Washington to quash Clemens' subpoenas. Clemens wants to see their evidence accusing him of using steroids and human growth hormone, probably looking for weaknesses or inconsistencies in witness testimony to defend himself in the criminal trial scheduled for July.
In 2006, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig hired former Sen. George Mitchell and the DLA Piper firm he worked for at the time to investigate allegations that players used drugs. The Mitchell Report issued Dec. 13, 2007, accused several players, including Clemens.
The trustee recovering money for investors in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme filed court papers saying the cozy relationship between the New York Mets and the Madoff family was demonstrated with a 2004 bridge loan for $54 million that the family provided the team's owners.
Trustee Irving Picard said in a new version of a lawsuit he first filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan in December that Madoff made the interest- and cost-free bridge loan to the Mets' owners to aid the purchase of the broadcast rights for the Mets from Cablevision. Picard said the transaction was documented by a single-letter agreement on Mets letterhead that falsely described the loan as an "investment" by Madoff's wife in the company.
MISCELLANEOUS
Federer, Djokovic join Nadal,
del Potro in Indian Wells semis
Roger Federer defeated Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the BNP Paribas Open semifinals in Indian Wells, Calif., setting up a showdown with Novak Djokovic for the world's No. 2 men's tennis ranking.
Federer is second behind Rafael Nadal in the ATP rankings, and Djokovic is third. Djokovic beat Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-4 to improve to 16-0 this year and put himself in position to surpass Federer in the rankings.
Federer is 18-2 this year, with one tournament win in Doha. Djokovic won titles at the Australia Open and Dubai.
Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro will play in today's other semifinal.
On the women's side, 15th-seeded Marion Bartoli became the first Frenchwoman to reach the singles final, defeating No. 23 seed Yanina Wickmayer, 6-1, 6-3. She'll play top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, who beat 16th-seeded Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-2.
Also: Joachim Johansson, once ranked as high as No. 9, is retiring again after a recent comeback in Davis Cup because he lacks the motivation to stay on the tennis tour.
The 28-year-old Swede first retired in 2008 because of injuries. He changed his mind but hardly played again. This month, he helped Sweden beat Russia 3-2 in the Davis Cup.
Chelsea will play English soccer rival Manchester United in a repeat of the 2008 final and nine-time winner Real Madrid was paired with Tottenham in the draw for the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Favorite Barcelona will meet Shakhtar Donetsk, the underdog among the teams remaining in Europe's elite club competition, and defending champion Inter Milan will take on Schalke. If Spanish rivals Barcelona and Madrid both progress, they would meet in the semifinals.
The first legs of the quarterfinals take place April 5 and 6.
The International Figure Skating Union will consider moving the world championships if Japanese organizers are unable to commit by Monday to hosting the event at a later date.
The championships were to begin next week in Tokyo but were postponed because last week's earthquake and tsunami have left the country in crisis.
Three-time defending champion Lindsey Vonn lost the lead for the women's overall World Cup skiing title and trails Maria Riesch by three points after the German finished fourth in the slalom in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Riesch regained the overall lead by earning 50 points in a race won by Tina Maze of Slovenia in a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 29.33 seconds.
On the men's side, Ted Ligety of the United States won the World Cup giant slalom title after the season's final race was canceled by poor weather and snow conditions.
Ligety got his third crystal globe in four years after reeling off a three-race winning streak to start the season.
NFL Films president Steve Sabol will undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatment after doctors discovered a tumor on the left side of his brain.
Sabol, 68, was hospitalized March 5 in Kansas City, Mo., after suffering a seizure.
Welterweight boxing contender Brad Solomon won a unanimous decision over Demetrius Hopkins in Hollywood, Fla.
Solomon (17-0), of Lafayette, La., was the busier fighter throughout the 10-round bout.
The UNLV softball team's games against Iowa State and Northwestern in the Louisville Slugger Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., were rained out. They will not be made up.
The College of Southern Nevada baseball team dropped a Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader to Western Nevada College at Morse Stadium, 7-5 and 13-6.
Bobby Shiroky had a two-run triple in the first game for the Coyotes (12-14, 1-9 SWAC), and Christian Centrella went 2-for-5 and Dylan Ellis added a two-run triple for CSN in the nightcap.
The College of Southern Nevada softball team split a Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader with Snow College at the Russell Road Recreation Center, winning the opener 10-2 and dropping the second game, 9-5.
A.J. Woodward homered in both games for the Coyotes (19-17, 12-10 SWAC), who saw their nine-game streak snapped in the nightcap. Alicia Firelein homered and had a pair of doubles in the first game for CSN.
