Rogers, Scott Win at Chicago

Todd Rogers and Sean Scott won their second consecutive Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament, defeating Karch Kiraly and Mike Lambert, 21-16, 21-16, Saturday in the final of the Chicago Open.

Rogers and Scott won $21,000 each, the richest prize on tour, for winning the final full-field event of the season and finished second on the season point list with 2,490.

Stein Metzger and Jake Gibb clinched the season point championship (2,606) with a third-place finish at Chicago.

The second-place finish for Kiraly and Lambert clinched a spot in the season-ending Honolulu Shootout, an Oct. 1-2 event limited to the top eight teams in the season point standings. Kiraly and Lambert were sixth.

Kiraly also earned enough points to qualify for the Best of the Beach tournament, which will pit the top 12 players in individual round-robin competition next week in Las Vegas.

Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor advanced to the women’s semifinals, but rivals Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder, winners in two of the last three AVP events, will have to fight through the losers’ bracket for a shot at the Chicago title after Holly McPeak and Jennifer Kessy defeated them, 21-14, 15-21, 15-11.

The women’s final is today.

-- Peter Yoon

Golf

Olin Browne hardly missed a shot in the second round on his way to five consecutive birdies and a six-under-par 65 that gave him a share of the lead with Jeff Brehaut in the Deutsche Bank Championship at Norton, Mass.

Browne hit the ball so well on the TPC of Boston course that he had only one birdie outside 15 feet in his first 11 holes and converted most of them. His only bogey on a breezy, sunny afternoon was a three-putt from 25 feet, and he made pars the rest of the way to join Brehaut at nine-under 133.

First-round leader Tiger Woods, coming off a 65, was constantly scrambling for par and searching for a swing that would work. He wound up with a two-over 73 that left him five shots behind.

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Solheim Cup player Pat Hurst shot a seven-under 65 to take a three-stroke lead in the LPGA State Farm Classic at Springfield, Ill., the final event before the United States faces Europe next week at Crooked Stick.

Hurst, who won the last of her three LPGA Tour titles in 2000, had eight birdies and a bogey in the third round to finish at 15-under 201 on Rail Golf Club course.

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Hale Irwin shot a three-under 69 at Pebble Beach for a share of the second-round lead with Gil Morgan in the First Tee Open, a Champions Tour event.

The 60-year-old Irwin, the Champions Tour’s career victory leader with 42, birdied the last two holes to match Morgan at nine-under 135. Irwin, a two-time winner this year, played in cool afternoon conditions.

Defending champion Craig Stadler (68), Dan Pooley (67), Lonnie Nielsen (67) and Morris Hatalsky (68) were at seven under.

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Sergio Garcia pitched in from 110 yards on the last hole for an eagle to give him an even-par 71 and a one-stroke lead after the third round of the European Masters at Crans-Sur-Sierre, Switzerland.

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South Africa’s Retief Goosen shot a one-under 71 to take a one-stroke lead over U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell in the China Masters at Beijing.

Basketball

Sheryl Swoopes scored 14 points and finished with a triple-double, and the Houston Comets beat host Seattle, 75-58, to knock the defending WNBA champions out of the playoffs in the first round.

The Comets, who will next play the Sacramento Monarchs, also got 10 rebounds and 10 assists from Swoopes.

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Phoenix Sun guard Leandro Barbosa scored 18 points to lead Brazil to a 93-75 victory over the United States in the semifinals of the world championship qualifying tournament at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Brazil will play Argentina, a 104-93 winner over Venezuela, in today’s gold-medal game. The U.S. will play Venezuela for the bronze medal.

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Maurice Evans signed with the Detroit Pistons and is expected to provide depth behind starting small forward Tayshaun Prince and shooting guard Richard Hamilton.

Detroit signed Evans on Friday, nine days after it extended an offer sheet to the 6-foot-5 Sacramento swingman. The Kings needed to match the three-year contract worth about $4.5 million to retain the restricted free agent, but they weren’t expected to after signing Shareef Abdur-Rahim earlier this month.

Miscellany

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will donate $500,000 to help cancer patients displaced by Hurricane Katrina get treatment.

Armstrong said he expected the money would be used to help transport cancer patients to hospitals and cancer centers for treatment. He said more money from his namesake cancer survivorship foundation could be donated in the future.

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Jenny Potter scored twice to lead the United States women’s hockey team past Sweden, 2-0, at Hameenlinna, Finland, sending the Americans to the final of the women’s Four Nations Cup against Canada for the fourth straight year. The gold-medal game is Sunday.

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Markus Beyer of Germany successfully defended his World Boxing Council super-middleweight title at Berlin, unanimously outpointing Omar Sheika of the United States.

Beyer (33-2) has winning scores of 116-112 on two cards and 118-110 on the third.