De Ferran Retires, Hornish Picks Penske

Two-time defending IRL champion Sam Hornish will drive next season for Team Penske, which also announced Monday that Indianapolis 500 champion Gil de Ferran will retire at the end of this year.

Hornish said the deal with the elite team owned by Roger Penske came together after the July 6 race in Kansas.

The team said Hornish signed a multiyear contract but gave no details.

De Ferran, 35, began his Indy-car career in the rival CART series in 1995 and went to the Penske team in 2000.

“My experience with Marlboro Team Penske is, without question, the pinnacle of my career,” he said. “I felt it was important to stop while I was at my best.”

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Basketball

Steve Nash led the way as Canada outplayed and outscored the United States in the first quarter, but he stayed on the bench for the rest of the game in what eventually became a 111-71 win for the Americans in the Olympic qualifying tournament at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Nash had five assists as Canada led, 28-21, at the end of the first quarter. But Coach Jay Triano never put Nash back in.

“But we didn’t come here to win this game. We came here to qualify for the Olympics,” Triano said.

Allen Iverson made seven three-point baskets in the third quarter and finished with 28 points for the U.S.

Guard Josh Shipp of Fairfax High and forward Malik Hairston of Detroit Renaissance High took unofficial visits to UCLA and attended football practice with Bruin basketball Coach Ben Howland.

Hairston, considered one of the top 20 prep players in the country, had planned an official visit to UCLA on Saturday. Shipp plans to visit Sept. 26.

Cal State Northridge men’s forward Ben Sullivan, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, is leaving the program and is expected to transfer to Portland, closer to his Lake Oswego, Ore., home.

Ashlee Trebilcock of Newhall Hart, regarded as one of the top girls’ junior guards on the West Coast, announced that she has committed to UCLA. Trebilcock averaged 19.4 points as a sophomore.

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Tennis

Wimbledon mixed doubles champion Leander Paes probably will be released from the hospital within three weeks and might be back on the pro tour as early as three months.

Paes is being treated for a parasitic infection. It originally was feared he had a brain tumor.

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Miscellany

Jose Canseco was released from jail after prosecutors in Miami dropped charges alleging the former baseball star violated his probation by taking steroids.

Assistant State Atty. Kathleen Hoague said the state could not determine when Canseco took the drug because of conflicting expert testimony on how long it would stay in his system.

Suzy Whaley has accepted a sponsor’s exemption and will join 13-year-old Michelle Wie in the field for the LPGA’s Safeway Classic next month in Portland.

Whaley played in the Greater Hartford Open in July.

Steve Yzerman signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Yzerman, 38, sat out 61 games last season because of a knee injury.... The Pittsburgh Penguins traded goaltender Johan Hedberg to the Vancouver Canucks for a second-round pick in next year’s NHL entry draft.

Matt Cusick, a shortstop at Santa Margarita, has committed to USC and Kris Kasarjian, an outfielder at Westlake, has committed to UCLA.