Ariya Jutanugarn leads LPGA Thailand by three strokes

Thai teenager Ariya Jutanugarn shot a two-under 70 to lead by three strokes after the third round of the LPGA Thailand at Chonburi despite finishing with two bogeys.

Last year’s top-ranked amateur, Ariya, 17 years old, had seven birdies — including five straight from No. 10 — for an 11-under 205 total at the Siam Country Club Pattaya Old Course. Stacy Lewis (76), Se Ri Pak (71) and Beatriz Recari (72) followed, and Inbee Park (71) was another stroke behind. Lewis, the third-ranked American, finished with three bogeys to lose her three-stroke lead after the second round.

ETC.

Kiffin names assistant coaches

USC football Coach Lane Kiffin officially announced the hiring of three new assistant coaches and gave additional titles to current assistants, including quarterbacks coach Clay Helton, now also the offensive coordinator.

Kiffin did not reveal whether he would give up play-calling duties.

Tommie Robinson, former running backs coach for the Arizona Cardinals, will be running backs coach and passing game coordinator. Mike Summers, a former Kentucky assistant, is the offensive line coach and running game coordinator, and former Indiana assistant Mike Ekeler is linebackers coach.

Special teams coach John Baxter will also coach tight ends. James Cregg will remain as an assistant offensive line coach.

— Gary Klein

NCAA President Mark Emmert still has the confidence of the association’s executive committee, despite several indicators in recent days that some schools are questioning his effectiveness.

The NCAA released a statement Saturday, revealing that the executive committee has “unanimously affirmed” its ongoing support of Emmert. Both the decision to make such a statement — and to do so, without warning, over a weekend — are highly unusual for the NCAA, which has been under fire for some time over the way many high-profile cases have been handled, most recently the long investigation of Miami.

Still, the committee also wants the NCAA to move forward with a total review of the association’s policies, and said “subsequent improvement … is necessary.” The statement comes five days after Emmert himself said he wondered if the committee would consider disciplinary action against him after all this recent tumult involving the association.

And there is no shortage of controversy right now.

In the past few days alone, University of Miami President Donna Shalala called the NCAA’s probe of the Hurricanes “unprofessional and unethical,” and presidents of schools in the Mountain West Conference reportedly questioned Emmert’s leadership.

At the U.S. Indoor National Championships in Memphis, Tenn., Kei Nishikori of Japan advanced to the men’s finals when Marinko Matosevic of Australia retired because of a bone bruise in his right foot after Nishikori took the first set, 6-4.

Nishikori will face Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the final. Lopez beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Marina Erakovic of New Zealand won the women’s championship when Sabine Lisicki of Germany retired, citing illness, in their title match. Erakovic was leading 6-1 after the first set.

Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova won her first title in six months when she beat Sara Errani, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, in the Dubai Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

David Ferrer will defend his Copa Claro title in the final against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Ferrer defeated fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo, 6-3, 6-2, on the outdoor clay at Buenos Aires, and Wawrinka defeated Nicolas Almagro, 6-3, 7-5, to reach his first final in the Argentine capital.