Second unit provides spark for U.S. women

Basketball: Lindsay Whalen scored 16 points to lead the United States to an 87-46 win over Canada on Monday night in the second round of the women’s world championships in the Czech Republic.

Swin Cash and Asjha Jones each added 10 for the Americans (4-0). The U.S. will face Belarus today.

For the second straight game, the U.S. got off to a slow start as Canada jumped out to an 11-5 lead with 4:27 left in the first quarter. It was the biggest deficit the Americans had faced in the tournament. Coach Geno Auriemma put in his second group led by Whalen, Angel McCoughtry and Tina Charles and they quickly provided an immediate spark, blowing the game open.

Gonzaga’s Janelle Bekkering and Kim Smith scored eight points to lead Canada (1-3).

• Curry out at least 4-6 weeks: Eddy Curry will miss at least four weeks with a strained right hamstring, the third straight year he was sidelined early in training camp.

Curry was hurt during practice Sunday and had an MRI exam that confirmed the injury. The Knicks said recovery time is a minimum four to six weeks. Curry is not expected to travel with the team on its trip to Europe for exhibition games in Italy and Paris.

Curry was hospitalized with an illness on the eve of training camp two years ago and tore a calf muscle on the opening day of practices last season. He’s played in just 10 games in two seasons.

College football: Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez expects quarterback Denard Robinson’s bruised left knee to be healthy enough for him to play at Indiana this weekend.

The 19th-ranked Wolverines face the Hoosiers Saturday in a matchup of 4-0 teams in the Big Ten opener for both.

Robinson left Saturday’s game against Bowling Green with an injured left knee in the first quarter and didn’t return. He ran for 129 yards and two touchdowns on five carries and was 4 for 4 passing for 60 yards on two drives plus one play in the 65-21 win.

Robinson threw for 671 yards and four TDs and ran for 559 yards and four TDs in the first three games.

Samuelson aims for 2012 Olympic trials

Olympics: Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson says she will run next month’s Chicago Marathon, with hopes of qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic tTrials.

The 53-year-old Samuelson told the Associated Press that she will try to break 2 hours, 47 minutes, the time she says is needed to qualify for the trials, in the Oct. 10 race.

Her No. 1 goal, she said, is to break 2:50 for the third time since turning 50.

Samuelson, who lives in Freeport, Maine, won the women’s marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

She competed in the 2008 Olympic Trials in Boston, saying then that it would be her last competitive race. She finished in 2:49:08 to set an American record for the 50-54 age group but did not make the Olympic team.

This time she won’t say whether Chicago will be her final competitive marathon.

She is interested in running in Chicago because that’s where she set an American record 25 years ago. The Chicago marathon has grown fivefold, from 9,000 to 45,000 runners, since Samuelson ran the course in 2:21:21.