Seahawks sign pair of draft picks
NFL: The Seattle Seahawks have signed fourth-round draft choices Walter Thurmond and E.J. Wilson to four-year contracts.
Seattle has signed five of its nine choices from April’s draft.
Thurmond was an All-American candidate at cornerback for Oregon until he tore three ligaments in September. He hopes to be ready for training camp that begins in six weeks.
Wilson was a three-year starter along the defensive front for North Carolina. He played all over in 37 starts for Tar Heels, from linebacker to inside as a nose tackle. Wilson gives Seattle much-needed depth on the defensive line.
Douglas scores 15 as Fever contain Storm
WNBA: Katie Douglas scored 15 points and Tamika Catchings added 12 to lead the Indiana Fever to a 72-65 victory over the Seattle Storm in Indianapolis.
Tammy Sutton-Brown added nine points and seven rebounds for the Fever (7-4), who have won five of six. Indiana held the Storm to 37 percent shooting from the field and well below their 84.4 points per game average.
Lauren Jackson had 17 points and nine rebounds, and Sue Bird added 15 points and five steals for Seattle (9-2), which still has the WNBA’s best record. The Storm had their five-game winning streak snapped.
The Fever scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to push their lead to 59-50. Following a Seattle free throw, Briann January (eight points) hit a 3-pointer to give Indiana its biggest lead – 62-51 with 7 minutes left.
• Parker out for season: Candace Parker, the WNBA’s rookie of the year and most valuable player in 2008, will have surgery on her dislocated left shoulder and will be out for the season, dealing a devastating blow to the struggling Los Angeles Sparks. Parker had taken herself out of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Lynx, holding her arm and clearly in pain after pulling down a defensive rebound late in the second quarter.
Lawmakers support Houston for Big 12
Miscellany: About two dozen Texas lawmakers are supporting efforts to get the University of Houston admitted to the Big 12 Conference.
State Reps. Garnet Coleman and Bill Callegari, both from the Houston area, co-wrote a letter asking Big 12 officials to consider adding the university to the conference.
Houston is a member of Conference USA and was a member of the Southwest Conference until 1995.
The Big 12 is set to lose two schools after Nebraska committed to the Big Ten and Colorado to the Pac-10. Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe has said the league has no plans to add any teams from within its five-state area, which includes Texas.
•USC on track for season opener: Southern California’s season-opening football game against Hawaii will go on as scheduled despite NCAA sanctions.
The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions delayed for one year the penalty against USC that would have prevented the Trojans from playing a 13th game in the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
The Sept. 2 game at Aloha Stadium was in doubt because sanctions levied against USC last week prevented exemptions from the current 12-game NCAA limit. A 1955 bylaw known as the “Hawaii Exemption” permits visiting teams to play one game more than the NCAA maximum if traveling to Hawaii.
The game has been planned since 2001, predating USC’s violations that occurred in 2004.
•USF placed on NCAA probation: The NCAA placed the University of San Francisco on probation for two years after more than a dozen athletes spent more than $13,000 in scholarship money to improperly buy textbooks.
The school will be on probation until June 2012, but the NCAA decided against a harsher penalty such as a postseason ban.
The NCAA agreed with the school’s decision to drop a men’s basketball scholarship in 2008-09 and said nearly $28,000 must be donated to charity – an amount that reflects twice the total of the money spent on the textbooks.
The school self-reported a number of infractions in the case back in 2006.
It said athletes from 12 of the school’s 14 teams – unaware they were violating NCAA rules – made purchases that included non-required textbooks and school supplies.
Gesink claims stage and lead at Swiss tour
Cycling: Robert Gesink of the Netherlands won the grueling sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland and claimed the race leader’s jersey, while Lance Armstrong showed he was returning to top form by finishing fifth in La Punt, Switzerland.
Gesink, who trailed race leader Tony Martin of Germany by 27 seconds before Thursday’s stage, went on the attack on the third and final climb of the day to claim victory ahead of a group of eight riders led by Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran and Armstrong.
Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, faced his stiffest test since last year’s Tour during the 132
Armstrong, whose season has been hampered by illness and a crash, crossed the line 42 seconds back.
He moved up to seventh overall, 55 seconds behind Gesink, who leads Uran by 29 seconds.
Armstrong is riding his last event before the Tour starts on July 3 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.