In brief: Spain tops France for European basketball title

Basketball: Spain won its second straight European basketball title Sunday in Kaunas, Lithuania, beating France 98-85 behind Juan Carlos Navarro’s 27 points.

Pau Gasol added 17 points and 10 rebounds for Spain, which became the first repeat champion since Yugoslavia in 1997. Serge Ibaka had five blocks in the second quarter as Spain built a 10-point lead to pull away.

Tony Parker scored 26 points for France but got little help and could not bring his team its first continental title. France came within six points in the third period but a 7-0 run keyed by a 3-pointer from Navarro restored Spain’s double-digit lead.

Navarro’s performance followed a 35-point game in the semifinal win over Macedonia and earned him the Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament.

In the bronze-medal game, Aleksey Shved scored the last four points to give Russia a 72-68 victory over Macedonia. American-born guard Bo McCalebb led Macedonia with 22 points. Russia won the tournament in 2007.

Dream sweep Sun to make Eastern finals

WNBA: Angel McCoughtry scored all 12 of her points in the second half and the Atlanta Dream used another fourth-quarter surge to rally for a 69-64 win over the Connecticut Sun in Atlanta and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the second consecutive season.

Sancho Lyttle, Lindsey Harding and Erika de Souza also scored 12 points each as Atlanta finished off the sweep after winning Game 1 at Connecticut on Friday night. De Souza also grabbed 12 rebounds and McCoughtry had nine.

Asjha Jones scored 15 points to lead the Sun, and Tina Charles added 13 and a franchise playoff-record 17 rebounds.

The Dream will next face Indiana or New York. The deciding Game 3 of that series is tonight.

• Silver Stars even series with Lynx: Jia Perkins scored 24 points and Sophia Young had 23 as San Antonio evened the Western Conference semifinals series with visiting Minnesota.

Becky Hammon added 18 for the Silver Stars, who had lost seven straight games to Minnesota and are trying to get past the first round for the first time since reaching the WNBA finals in 2008.

Seimone Augustus scored 24 points and Maya Moore had 16 for Minnesota, which had the league’s best regular-season record but has never won a playoff series.

The deciding Game 3 will be Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

Spain, Argentina on to Davis Cup final

Tennis: Novak Djokovic’s ailing back didn’t hold up, meaning Rafael Nadal won’t have to face his main rival in the Davis Cup final.

Djokovic tried to help Serbia stage a comeback in their semifinal against Argentina despite a lingering back problem, but had to retire when trailing 7-6 (5), 3-0 against Juan Martin del Potro. That sent Argentina into the final against Spain, which advanced after Nadal routed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-0, 6-2, 6-4 on clay in Cordoba, Spain.

Argentina ended up winning 3-2 after Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic took the final meaningless match when Juan Monaco retired after losing the first set 6-2. Spain completed a 4-1 win after Fernando Verdasco beat Richard Gasquet in the final match.

The final will take place in Spain with Valencia and Madrid reportedly interested in hosting the event.

• Switzerland, Australia match suspended: Stanislas Wawrinka was within one game of beating Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and sending Switzerland into next year’s elite Davis Cup World Group when play in Sydney was suspended by darkness.

Wawrinka led Hewitt 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 5-3 when officials stopped play until this morning. Hewitt will be serving to stay in the match.

Earlier, Roger Federer defeated Bernard Tomic 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to pull Switzerland even at 2-2 after Australia won Saturday’s doubles and the teams split the opening singles on Friday.

Burroughs brings home first world title

Wrestling: American wrestler Jordan Burroughs won his first world championship title, defeating Sedagh Saaeed Goudarzi of Iran 3-2, 4-1 in the 74-kilogram freestyle category in Istanbul, Turkey.

The NCAA champion from Nebraska had three takedowns to rally from a 2-1 deficit in the first period and fought off Goudarzi’s comeback attempts in the second.

In other weight divisions, Mehdi Taghavi Kermani of Iran overcame Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan 1-0, 3-0 at 66 kilograms to win his second world title. Alexei Shemarov of Belarus edged three-time world champion Bilyal Makhov of Russia 1-0, 1-0 to win gold at 120 kilograms.

Turallure takes Woodbine Mile

Horse racing: Turallure came on from the outside to win the $1 million Ricoh Woodbine Mile in Toronto over Courageous Cat to earn a spot in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs.

Julien Leparoux guided Turallure to victory in the Grade I race for 3-year-olds and up in an unofficial time of 1:32.92 on firm turf at Woodbine Racetrack.

The Breeder’s Cup Mile is slated for Nov. 5.