IN BRIEF

BOXING

Vitali Klitschko retains title
with TKO against Sosnowski

Vitali Klitschko of Ukraine defended his WBC heavyweight championship belt Saturday night with a 10th-round technical knockout of Poland's Albert Sosnowski in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Klitschko, 38, improved his record to 42-2 (38 KOs) after the ring referee called the 12-round bout following a left-right combination to Sosnowski's head with 30 seconds left in the 10th round.

Sosnowski, 31, looking to become the first Polish heavyweight world champion, was gradually worn down by the taller and heavier Klitschko and dropped to 45-2-2.

Klitschko's brother Wladimir holds the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles.

COLLEGES

Top-seeded Virginia men lose
to Duke in NCAA lacrosse semis

Duke's Max Quinzani ended Virginia's gallant bid to put a positive finish on a season clouded by sadness.

Quinzani scored the tiebreaking goal with 12 seconds left, and the Blue Devils defeated the top-seeded Cavaliers 14-13 in Baltimore to advance to the NCAA men's lacrosse national title game.

Fifth-seeded Duke (15-4) will play unseeded Notre Dame (10-6) on Monday for the championship. Notre Dame earned a berth in the finals for the first time with a 12-7 upset over Cornell.

The loss ended a difficult season for the Cavaliers, for reasons having little to do with lacrosse. On May 3, Virginia women's player Yeardley Love was found beaten to death in her campus apartment. George Huguely, a senior on the men's team, was charged with first-degree murder.

Also: Garrett Wittels used a headfirst slide to keep his hitting streak alive and help extend Florida International's season.

Wittels pushed his hitting streak to 53 games, five away from Robin Ventura's NCAA Division I record, with an infield single in the eighth inning of FIU's game against Florida Atlantic in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Murfreesboro, Tenn.

FIU wound up getting four runs in the eighth, winning the game 11-9 and clinching a spot in today's title game, with a spot in the NCAA Tournament at stake.

Kentucky spokesman DeWayne Peevy said former basketball star Eric Bledsoe passed an extensive review process by the NCAA before joining the Wildcats.

The statement comes after a report in The New York Times that the NCAA is looking into questions about Bledsoe's academic history and recruitment.

Bledsoe helped the Wildcats go 35-3 last season, averaging 11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He declared for the NBA Draft after one season, and most projections have him going late in the first round or early in the second.

MISCELLANEOUS

Tuscan Evening tops field
in $250,000 Gamely Stakes

Heavy favorite Tuscan Evening took the lead at the top of the stretch and held off a charge from Forever Together for her first Grade 1 victory in the $250,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif.

Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Tuscan Evening stalked early leader Cat by the Tale in the early going and looked to be pulling away after taking the lead. But she had to fight off the rally from 2008 female turf champion Forever Together and a stubborn run from the pacesetter to win by a half-length and remain perfect in 2010.

Tuscan Evening covered 1 1/8 miles in 1 minute, 47.30 seconds and paid $3.80, $2.40 and $2.10.

Also: Johann Tschopp of Switzerland won the 20th and penultimate stage of the Giro d'Italia, and Ivan Basso of Italy extended his overall lead.

Tschopp finished the 110 miles from Bormio to Ponte di Legno-Tonale, Italy, in 5 hours, 26 minutes, 47 seconds.

Cadel Evans of Australia was second, and Basso squeezed ahead of compatriot Michele Scarponi for third.

Basso's finish extended his lead by 24 seconds to 1 minute, 15 seconds.