NBA to expand the use of replays to review calls

NBA referees will be able to use television replays to review flagrant fouls and player altercations from the start of next season, the league announced Wednesday.

The move, recommended by the NBA’s Competition Committee, was approved last week by the league’s Board of Governors.

Under the new ruling, referees will be permitted to use instant replays to determine the severity of flagrant fouls. A player called for flagrant foul penalty two is automatically ejected from the game.

NBA officials also decided referees should be able to use television replays to sort out penalties after on-court altercations.

“[Referees] might not see a punch or other unsportsmanlike act committed by a player that might call for ejection,” the NBA said in a statement.

Plenette Pierson and Kara Braxton combined for 45 points and 22 rebounds to lead the defending champion Detroit Shock to a 108-100 victory over the Phoenix Mercury in Game 1 of the best-of-five WNBA finals at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Seattle Storm forward Lauren Jackson was named MVP of the WNBA. She also won the award in 2003.

Israel defeated Serbia, 87-83, in the European basketball championships in Madrid. Spain lost for the first time in 28 games, an 85-84 defeat to Croatia, and Greece was defeated by Russia, 61-53.

SOCCER

Mexican goalkeeper

Sanchez is injured

Santos Laguna goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez will miss the rest of the Mexican league’s Apertura season after separating his left shoulder during last week’s 2-2 tie against Atlante. Sanchez, Mexico’s ‘keeper last year during the World Cup in Germany, will undergo surgery today in San Antonio and rehab is expected to take three to four months, Dr. Jorge Galvan told ESPN Deportes radio.

-- Jaime Cárdenas

The sale of Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire by AEG to Los Angeles-based Andell Holdings, a private investment firm, will be finalized today, with the official announcement being made in Bridgeview, Ill.

Although Andell’s purchase price was not revealed, it is believed to have paid $30 million for the Fire, which won the MLS championship in 1998, its inaugural season. The sale reduces AEG’s interest in the league to two teams, the Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Defensive midfielder Kerry Zavagnin, 33, of the Kansas City Wizards has replaced the Colorado Rapids’ Pablo Mastroeni on the U.S. roster for Sunday’s game against Brazil at Soldier Field in Chicago. Mastroeni is ill.

Spain advanced to the final of the Under-17 World Cup by defeating Ghana, 2-1, in overtime in their semifinal at Ulsan, South Korea. Germany plays Nigeria in the other semifinal today.

Carlos Bocanegra, Landon Donovan and Tim Howard are the finalists for the 2007 Honda Player of the Year award, presented annually to the U.S. National team’s outstanding performer. The winner will be announced Oct. 5

JURISPRUDENCE

Baylor athletes charged with beating woman

Two female athletes at Baylor, a basketball and volleyball player, were charged with beating a woman in a park.

Basketball player Latara Shanica Darrett, of Chino, and volleyball player Ashlee Genae Cooper, both 19-year-old sophomores, surrendered to police and were charged with assault causing bodily injury, police spokesman Steve Anderson said.

They were released from jail on personal recognizance bonds, Anderson said. The Class A misdemeanor carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Duquesne basketball player Stuard Baldonado, one of five players shot on campus last year, was indefinitely suspended, four days after he was arrested on a drug conspiracy charge.

Cleveland Browns cornerback Leigh Bodden drove a sport utility vehicle in reverse down a one-way street outside Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, became verbally abusive with police and was arrested. He was being booked on aggravated disorderly conducted and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors, and traffic offenses of failing to produce a driver’s license and driving the wrong way on a one-way street, police said.

Houston Rockets swingman Justin Reed was released from jail in Jackson, Miss., after his arrest on a marijuana charge.

HORSE RACING

Jazil, 2006 Belmont

winner, is retired

Jazil, winner of the 2006 Belmont Stakes, was retired and will stand at stud at Dubai Sheik Hamdan’s Shadwell Farm in Lexington, Ky.

A half-brother to this year’s Belmont winner, Rags to Riches, Jazil won only two of 11 races but stepped up in the biggest race of his career to give trainer Kiaran McLaughlin his first win in a Triple Crown race. Jazil also finished second five times and earned $890,532.

Discovery of the equine influenza virus at thoroughbred stud farms in New South Wales state was “potentially lethal” for Australia’s racing and breeding industries, industry leaders said.

The highly contagious disease, which was first detected in Australia in August, has infected hundreds of horses in New South Wales and Queensland states, indefinitely halting racing in New South Wales.

Dwight Manley submitted his resignation as manager of the Jockeys’ Guild.

MISCELLANY

Shoulder injury knocks

Rudd out of race

NASCAR iron man Ricky Rudd will be unable to compete because of injury for the first time in a career spanning more than a quarter century.

Rudd separated his left shoulder in a wreck Sunday at California Speedway. Kenny Wallace will replace him Saturday night in the No. 88 Ford at Richmond International Raceway.

Dan Beebe was hired as Big 12 Conference commissioner. Beebe was awarded the job permanently after taking the job in an interim role in July. Beebe replaces Kevin Weiberg, who left to take a job with the Big Ten Network.

As expected, Pierre Turgeon, 38, retired after a 19-year NHL career.

PASSINGS

McNab won Stanley Cup in 1950 with Red Wings

Max McNab, who won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Detroit Red Wings in 1950 and later served as the general manager of two NHL teams in a nearly 50-year hockey career, has died. He was 83. McNab suffered a stroke in Las Vegas on Saturday and died on Sunday.