Sports Log

Pitino’s aide testifies against ex-wife

July 31, 2010

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Colleges

Rick Pitino never said a woman who claimed the Louisville basketball coach got her pregnant after a one-night stand had to get an abortion but did advise she “go out of town’’ to get medical care, his longtime aide told a jury in Louisville yesterday. The aide, Tim Sypher, was testifying against the woman, his ex-wife Karen Cunagin Sypher. He testified about helping her get an abortion at her extortion trial. The two divorced after she was indicted last year on charges of demanding cash and gifts worth millions from Pitino to keep secret their 2003 tryst on a restaurant table. Tim Sypher, 49, testified that he called clinics in Indiana and Ohio before taking the woman, then known as Karen Wise, to Cincinnati, where she terminated the pregnancy on Aug. 29, 2003. Tim Sypher said he paid for the procedure from $3,000 Pitino gave to Karen Sypher for medical care. . . . West Virginia officials said basketball coach Bob Huggins’s fall in a Las Vegas hotel room occurred because medication taken on an empty stomach left him lightheaded. Huggins broke seven ribs and was hospitalized for several days . . . Florida State and the NCAA are paying $325,000 in legal fees to compensate news media companies that sued to force the release of documents in the school’s academic cheating scandal. The records were part of an NCAA investigation that implicated 61 athletes and stripped the school of wins in 10 men’s and women’s sports.

Basketball

Wright’s ex-wife was threatened

Lorenzen Wright’s ex-wife was threatened at her home in Memphis by three men who were carrying guns and looking for the former NBA player about six weeks before he was shot to death. Sherra Wright warned her ex-husband about the visit by men dressed in sport coats with weapons tucked in their waistbands, her attorney Gail Mathes said. But she was frightened and didn’t tell authorities about it until Monday. Wright’s body was found in the woods in Memphis on Wednesday. He was last seen around midnight July 18, when he stayed over at his ex-wife’s house. Sherra Wright told police he left in the middle of the night with an unidentified person . . . In WNBA action, Angel McCoughtry scored 20 points as Atlanta routed host Connecticut, 94-62. Asjha Jones scored 16 points for the Sun . . . Cappie Pondexter scored 20 points and host New York beat Los Angeles, 88-79 . . . Lindsey Harding scored 33 points, including Washington’s final 13, to lead the visiting Mystics to a 77-73 win over Indiana . . . Becky Hammon scored 22 points to lead visiting San Antonio to a 101-85 victory over Tulsa . . . Swin Cash had 16 points as host Seattle beat Chicago for its 13th straight win . . . The Boston Amateur Athletic Club won the 16-and-under national title in Orlando, beating All-Ohio, 56-53. Jaylen Brantley scored 18 points and Nerlens Noel blocked seven shots for the BABC, which finished with a 65-1 record.

Tennis

An early exit for Youzhny at Swiss Open

Top-seeded Mikhail Youzhny lost to 147th-ranked Yuri Schukin, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, in the Swiss Open quarterfinals in Gstaad. Schukin will play Richard Gasquet, who beat Albert Montanes, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Nicolas Almagro beat Jeremy Chardy, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), and Daniel Gimeno-Traver beat Igor Andreev, 6-2, 6-4 . . . Juan Ignacio Chela routed Nikolay Davydenko, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the Croatia Open semifinals in Umag. Chela will play Potito Starace, who beat Ivan Ljubicic, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). Andreas Seppi beat Jurgen Melzer, 6-1, 6-1, and Juan Carlos Ferrero topped Alexandr Dolgopolov, 6-1, 6-2 . . . Jarmila Groth defeated defending champion Vera Dushevina, 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Istanbul Cup. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also reached the semifinals by beating Sorana Cirstea, 6-4, 6-2, while Elena Vesnina ousted Anastasia Rodionova, 7-5, 6-1, and Andrea Petkovic beat Elena Baltacha, 6-4, 6-0.

Miscellany

Henry to make official debut in MLS

Thierry Henry is officially on the Red Bulls’ roster after the team created a roster space by waiving John Wolyniec. Henry, who has played two friendlies for New York since signing two weeks ago, plays in his first MLS game tonight at Houston. In other MLS news, Colorado acquired defender Anthony Wallace from FC Dallas, and Seattle traded two-time All-Star Freddie Ljungberg to Chicago . . . In NHL moves, the Canadiens signed former Harvard center Louis Leblanc to a three-year contract; the Flames signed Ian White to a one-year contract; the Senators re-signed defenseman Chris Campoli for one year; and free-agent center Dominic Moore of Harvard signed a two-year contract with the Lightning . . . Wladimir Klitschko will defend IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles against Samuel Peter in Frankfurt Sept. 11 . . . The New England Turf Writers Association named Riversrunrylee recipient of the 2009 James B. Moseley Horse of the Year Award . . . Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin lost an appeal of a decision stripping him of his 2008 Olympic silver medal for doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IOC was right to disqualify Rebellin after he tested positive for a banned blood-boosting drug.