Marbury wasn't told of father's death

Stephon Marbury played the second half of New York's loss to Phoenix Sunday night unaware his father had been taken to a hospital, where he died before the game ended. Don Marbury was taken from Madison Square Garden to St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center during halftime, reportedly because of chest pains, but a family member advised a Knicks official not to inform the player at the time. Marbury learned of his father's death from a family friend minutes after the game. Marbury is expected to miss the next several games, and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said he wasn't sure when his point guard will return. "We as a family, the Knicks family, we'll give him all the support and try to be there for him and his family through this terrible time," Thomas said.

Tim Duncan most likely will miss no more than a few games after injuring his ankle and knee. The San Antonio Spurs star was hurt against Portland Sunday, and the team said his MRI came back negative yesterday. He has a sprained right ankle and will miss tomorrow's game against Dallas, Spurs spokesman Tom James said. The injury will be reassessed this week. Duncan bruised his right knee and sprained his right ankle during the second quarter after becoming entangled with Portland's James Jones. He had to be helped off the floor by two teammates.

A Toronto radio station aired a retraction for claiming last month that Rangers forward Sean Avery made cancer-related remarks to ill Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake. Avery exchanged words and shoves with Blake and his Toronto teammate Darcy Tucker during warmups before New York's 3-2 shootout victory over the Maple Leafs Nov. 10. FAN 590 reporter Howard Berger had claimed Avery made "cancer-related remarks" to Blake during the altercation, citing an unidentified Rangers player as his source. Blake was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in October. Avery denied making the comments and his lawyers served libel notices against FAN and the Toronto Star over the matter . . . With starting goalie Cristobal Huet sidelined because of a groin injury, the Montreal Canadiens recalled goaltender Jaroslav Halak from Hamilton of the American Hockey League. Huet injured his groin in Saturday's 5-4 shootout loss to Nashville and is out indefinitely. The 22-year-old Halak will back up 20-year-old rookie Carey Price, who will start tonight's game against Detroit . . . Dallas Stars right wing Jere Lehtinen could be out 8-10 weeks because of an abdominal injury that required surgery. The Stars put him on injured reserve and activated defenseman Mattias Norstrom.

Northeastern (7-4-1), which defeated Brown, 4-3, Friday night, climbed four spots to 12th in the USCHO.com/CSTV Division 1 men's hockey poll, the biggest move forward of any team this week. New Hampshire (8-3-1) slipped two spots to eighth, UMass (6-3-5) remained 11th, Harvard (6-2-1) moved up two notches to 13th, and Boston College (5-4-5) advanced two positions to 17th. Miami (Ohio) remained in the top spot for the sixth straight week. In the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, Miami is first, UNH is seventh, UMass 10th, Harvard 12th, and Northeastern 13th.

Texas's win at UCLA caused the first change this season in the top five teams in the Associated Press's college basketball poll. North Carolina (7-0) was No. 1, as it has been since the preseason poll, but Memphis (6-0) and Kansas (7-0) both moved up one spot to second and third, while Texas (7-0) used its win over the Bruins to vault from eighth to fourth. Georgetown remained fifth, Duke moved up one spot to sixth, and UCLA dropped five places after the 63-61 home loss to the Longhorns Sunday. The Tar Heels, who won road games against Ohio State and Kentucky last week, received 45 first-place votes and 1,769 points from the 72-member national media panel . . . Tennessee is still No. 1 in the women's AP poll, although for the first time this season it wasn't a unanimous choice. The Lady Vols received 48 of 50 first-place votes, with No. 2 UConn earning the other two.

Hannes Reichelt led an Austrian sweep at a World Cup super-G yesterday, his second straight victory in the discipline on the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek, Colo. Austrians captured five of the top six places, while the best United States skier was Ted Ligety in 23d place. Bode Miller was 30th. The first skier out of the start hut, Reichelt charged down the sun-drenched course in 1 minute 19.87 seconds, edging teammate Mario Scheiber by 0.02 seconds. Christoph Gruber was third, 0.21 off the winning pace. The race marked the first time since 2003 that Miller failed to finish among the top three at home. The reigning World Cup super-G champion said he hit a rock early on, leaving him no chance . . . The Jazz have reached an agreement with Jerry Sloan on a one-year contract extension that will keep the coach on Utah's sideline through the end of next season. Sloan took over the Jazz in 1988 and has 954 wins with the franchise . . . The 20th Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire College Football Recruiting Night will be held tonight from 7 to 9 at the Tewksbury Country Club. Admission is free and several Eastern colleges will be represented.