NBA: Kobe Bryant scored the last of his 23points on a three-pointer with 1:46 left, and the Lakers (52-13)became the Western Conference's first team to secure a postseason berth with a 102-95 victory over the host Spurs (43-21).
College basketball: Syracuse University is investigating whether a professional sports agent's recruitment of former Orange standout Donte Greene (Towson Catholic) during the 2007-08 season violated NCAA rules. Greene is a rookie with the NBA's Kings. ... Miami senior guard Jack McClinton (Calvert Hall) received this year's Prosser Award, given to the top scholar-athlete in Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball.
College football: The University of Missouri will pay $2million to the family of former linebacker Aaron O'Neal, who died during a 2005 preseason workout. ... The family of Central Florida wide receiver Ereck Plancher, who died last year during offseason conditioning drills, is suing the university.
Skiing: Lindsey Vonn won the super-G season finale at the World Cup finals in Are, Sweden, becoming the first American woman to capture the championship title in the discipline. Vonn finished the Olympia course in 1 minute, 20.63seconds. A day earlier, she clinched her second straight World Cup overall title.
Tennis: Maria Sharapova returned from shoulder surgery, teaming with Elena Vesnina in a 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 loss to Ekaterina Makarova and Tatiana Poutchek in doubles play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. It was Sharapova's first match in seven months. ... Roger Federer said on his Website that girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec is pregnant with the couple's first child.
From Sun staff and news services
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