Sancho Lyttle scored 15 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, helping the Houston Comets hold off a late rally in a 72-65 win Thursday over the Atlanta Dream. Atlanta cut the lead to 66-62 late in the game and then 68-65 just seconds later. But they couldn’t overcome a big Houston lead early in the game.
Betty Lennox scored 15 points for the Dream, 0-7. The Dream is the first team in WNBA history to be without a win at the midpoint of a season.
Montgomery pleads guilty
Former track star Tim Montgomery, once the world’s fastest man, pleaded guilty to distributing heroin. It allowed him to avoid a trial that was scheduled to begin next week. Montgomery had been held without bond since his arrest in April.
He faces a minimum of five years in prison on the heroin charges. In May he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for his part in a New York-based check-kiting conspiracy.
Penguins re-sign goaltender
The Pittsburgh Penguins locked up goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with a seven-year, $35 million contract. It was the third long-term deal with one of their younger players in two days. Center Evgeni Malkin signed a five-year deal, and defenseman Brooks Orpick signed a six-year deal. Add that to Sidney Crosby’s long-term deal, and the Penguins have a solid core.
•Markus Naslund, the longtime captain of the Vancouver Canucks, agreed to terms on a two-year deal worth $8 million with the New York Rangers. It probably signaled the end of Jaromir Jagr’s career as a Ranger when GM Glen Sather said he couldn’t wait any longer for Jagr to make up his mind so he went in a different direction.
Judge who changed NBA dies
Warren Ferguson, the federal judge who helped pave the way for teenage basketball players to join the NBA, has died. He was 87. Ferguson died of congestive heart failure at a hospital in Fullerton, Calif.
He ruled in favor of Spencer Haywood in an antitrust lawsuit against the NBA. Ferguson struck down an NBA rule that forbade signing any player until four years after they had completed high school.
Robinson makes College Hall
Jackie Robinson was inducted into the College Baseball Foundation’s Hall of Fame in Lubbock, Texas. Robinson was inducted as the foundation’s second Vintage Era Hall of Class. Robinson, who broke major-league baseball’s color barrier, was an infielder in college at Pasadena Junior College and UCLA.
The Vintage Era designation is for those who played or coached before 1947.
Worth noting
•Southeast Missouri State’s women’s basketball team will not appeal NCAA sanctions calling for the forfeiture of 44 wins and placing both the men’s and women’s programs on two years of probation.
•South Carolina reported to the NCAA that it had committed nine secondary violations between January and June of this year. The only infraction that was considered serious was an athletic-department staffer betting dinner on a game not involving South Carolina.
•Georgia defensive end Michael Lemon was suspended from the team after he was charged with punching a student and breaking his eye socket.
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