North Carolina Stars Opt for NBA

Sean May, Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams -- key players in North Carolina’s run to the NCAA basketball title -- announced Friday they were giving up their college eligibility and declaring themselves available for the June 28 NBA draft.

They join Rashad McCants, who earlier announced his intentions to leave early and turn pro.

The departures of the four players mean the Tar Heels are losing their top seven scorers. North Carolina also lost seniors Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott and will have only one player on the roster who started a game last season -- point guard Quentin Thomas.

Golf

Brett Quigley and Gavin Coles shared the lead after two rounds of the Shell Houston Open at Humble, Texas, a stroke in front of a four-man group that included defending champion Vijay Singh and John Daly.

Quigley shot a second 67 and the 5-foot-4 Coles had a 69 to share the lead at 10-under 134.

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Carin Koch opened a three-under 69 with an eagle two and went on to take a three-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA’s Corona Morelia Championship at Morelia, Mexico.

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Tom Purtzer tied a course record with a seven-under 65 that gave him a one-stroke lead in the first round of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf at Savannah, Ga. Des Smyth had a 66.

Tennis

Sebastien Grosjean stopped Andre Agassi, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Houston. Andy Roddick beat Luis Horna, 6-4, 6-1.

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Juan Carlos Ferrero scored a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Gaston Gaudio to advance to the semifinals of the Barcelona Open in Spain.

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Venus Williams will replace Serena Williams, who has an ankle injury, for the American team competing against Belgium in the Federation Cup at Delray Beach, Fla.

Auto Racing

Greg Biffle survived an early spinout and easily won the NASCAR Busch Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Biffle led the Bashas’ Supermarket 200 for 112 of 200 laps.

Pro Basketball

NBA owners expressed no opposition to Las Vegas’ efforts to play host to the All-Star weekend in 2007. The city’s bid could be delivered as early as today.

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Ron Artest, Anthony Johnson, David Harrison, Jermaine O’Neal and Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers will have their trials heard beginning Aug. 1 in connection with a November brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Mich.

Hockey

Veteran NHL linesman Stephane Provost was killed when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a tractor trailer in Weston, Fla. He was 37.

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The United States defeated Sweden, 6-2, to advance to the final of the world under-18 championship at Plzen, Czech Republic. The Americans play Canada in Sunday’s final.

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Mark Parrish scored with 4.5 seconds remaining at Quebec City, Canada, to lead the United States to a 5-4 victory over Canada in the teams’ final North American tuneup before the world championships.

Gymnastics

Georgia won its sixth NCAA women’s gymnastics title at Auburn, Ala., ending UCLA’s two-year reign and rebounding with a flourish from a nightmarish regional.

Georgia scored a season-high 197.75 to beat Alabama (197.40) and Utah (197.275). UCLA, which had won four of the last five NCAA titles, was fourth at 197.15.

“We made some technical errors, but not emotional errors,” UCLA Coach Valorie Kondos Field said.

Pro Football

Mark Grieb threw eight touchdown passes -- five to Rashied Davis -- to lead the defending ArenaBowl champion San Jose SaberCats (8-4) to an 89-41 victory over the Colorado Crush (8-4) at Denver.

In other games: Dallas (7-4-1) rolled to a 55-33 victory over Columbus (1-11) at Columbus, Ohio; Orlando (9-4) held on for a 52-49 victory over Georgia (9-4) at Orlando, Fla.; and Arizona (4-8) scored a 52-26 win over Austin (4-9) at Phoenix.

Miscellany

UCLA junior sprinter Matt Bruno, a former California state high school champion, was dismissed from the track and field team for a violation of team rules.

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Former USC All-American midfielder Isabelle Harvey will return to the school as an assistant women’s soccer coach.

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John Scolinos, a former college baseball coach who won 1,070 games at Pepperdine and Cal Poly Pomona, will be honored at Pepperdine on May 1 before the Waves’ game against Loyola Marymount.

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Carrie Forsyth of UCLA was named Pacific 10 Conference women’s golf coach of the year.

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Dan Moore of Sunset Beach, Hawaii, was the winner of the Billabong XXL Global Big-Wave Awards.

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A judge in Moscow, Idaho, delayed until Sept. 19 the murder trial of three men accused in the shooting death of former Idaho and Murrieta Valley High cornerback Eric McMillian.

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Nate Jacqua scored in the first half off a deflection to give the Chicago Fire a 1-0 victory over the MetroStars in a Major League Soccer match at East Rutherford, N.J.