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Sports Briefs: WNBA suspends Mahorn, players
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Published: July 25, 2008
NEW YORK -- The WNBA swiftly suspended the Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks players and assistant Rick Mahorn of Detroit for their roles in a fight at the end of a game Tuesday night.
Forward Plenette Pierson of the Shock was suspended yesterday for four games, the harshest penalty, for initiating and escalating the altercation. Mahorn was suspended for two games, as were Shannon Bobbitt and Murriel Page of the Sparks.
"As a team, we're incensed that Rick Mahorn was suspended," Coach Bill Laimbeer said in a telephone interview from Houston, where the Shock was scheduled to play the Comets. "He was trying to be a peacemaker, and now he's being thrown under the bus."
Players suspended for one game were Kara Braxton, Tasha Humphrey, Elaine Powell and Sheri Sam of Detroit and Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker and DeLisha Milton-Jones of Los Angeles.
The fight started with 4.6 seconds left in a game after Parker and Pierson got tangled up and fell to the court. To allow the teams to have at least eight players in uniform, the suspensions will be staggered.
More basketball
■ Carter Cook followed through on a commitment he made in April and has officially signed to play basketball at USC Upstate, Coach Eddie Payne announced yesterday.
Cook, a 6-4 guard and two-time member of the Journal's All-Northwest team, averaged 21.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists as a senior and led Calvary to a second straight runner-up finish in the NCISAA 2-A tournament.
He was a two-time NCISAA all-state selection and last season's Triad Athletic Conference player of the year, and he scored 1,710 points in two seasons a Calvary.
■ N.C. State has agreed in principle to a home-and-away series with Marquette that Wolfpack officials hope will upgrade the men's basketball schedule.
The Charlotte Observer reported yesterday that while the contract hasn't been completed, Marquette has agreed to play at N.C. State on Dec. 22 and host the Wolfpack the next season.
Because the Wolfpack was the 12th seed in the 2008 ACC Tournament, it was left out of the coming ACC-Big Ten Challenge. School officials then searched for an opponent to replace the high-profile Big Ten opponent it might have faced.
■ Center Ra'Sean Dickey has given up his senior season at Georgia Tech to play professional basketball in the Ukraine.
Coach Paul Hewitt said that the 6-10 Dickey signed a contract with Budivelnyk Kiev of the Ukrainian Super League. Dickey redshirted last season to recover from acute tendinitis in his right knee and had a year of eligibility remaining. In 89 games in three seasons at Tech, he averaged 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds and shot 60.1 percent from the field. His best season was 2005-06, when he averaged 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds.
■ Two former high-school classmates of Tim Donaghy, the former referee involved in a betting scandal that rocked the NBA, will spend more than a year in prison for their involvement.
James Battista, a professional gambler, was sentenced in New York yesterday to 15 months in prison for making bets based on inside tips. His co-defendant, Thomas Martino, received a one-year sentence for paying Dongaghy thousands of dollars for the tips. Donaghy pleaded guilty last year to charges that he conspired to engage in wire fraud and transmitted betting information through interstate commerce.
College football
■ Trustees at the University of North Carolina have approved plans for a first step to expand Kenan Stadium.
Athletics Director Dick Baddour said that the design approved Wednesday will add two floors to the Kenan Football Center on the west end of the field. One floor will be used for team and recruiting efforts, the second for luxury suites.
Baddour says that the expansion will add a club area and 16 to 20 luxury boxes, the first for Kenan. Baddour says that North Carolina and Duke are the only ACC teams that don't offer preimum seating. The News & Observer or Raleigh reported yesterday that officials plan to start work at the end of the coming season.
■ Football coaches in the CIAA picked Virginia Union and Shaw as the favorites to repeat as division champions. Virginia Union led the voting in the Eastern Division, with Elizabeth City second and followed by Bowie State, Virginia State and Saint Paul's. Shaw, the defending conference champion, was picked first in the Western Division, ahead of Fayetteville State, Saint Augustine's, Johnson C. Smith, Livingstone and Chowan.
Youth sports
■ East Mecklenburg High School's football team must forfeit its 2007 season after an investigation found that a volunteer coach at the school was involved in recruiting three players.
The Charlotte Observer reported yesterday that three East Mecklenburg employees also were disciplined, including Coach Greg Hill, who has been suspended from team-related duties until Sept. 2.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials said the three players involved have been declared ineligible, and the volunteer has been removed from all coaching duties and can no longer assist with any athletics programs in the system.
In addition to forfeiting its season, East Mecklenburg must pay $7,038 in fines and repayment of gate receipts. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association also has placed the program on probation for one year.
■ Genevieve Miller, a 12-year old on the Winston-Salem YMCA swim team, has been named to the North Carolina team for next week's Southern Zone swimming championships in Atlanta. Miller was selected after nine top-three finishes at last weekend's state championships in Charlotte, including titles in the 400 freestyle (4:38.38), 100 butterfly (1:06.86) and 200 butterfly (2:30.30).
■ Bobby Harrell, a rising junior at West Forsyth, and Austin Wall, a rising sophomore at East Forsyth, helped the Jamestown Jammers win the U.S. Youth Soccer Association's National Director's Cup in the U-15 division last weekend. The Jammers defeated the GSPAA Elite of Maryland 1-0 in the championship game in Kirkwood, Del.
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