Sport Briefs

Basketball
 Kobe Bryant led a balanced scoring attack as the Los Angeles Lakers crushed the San Antonio Spurs 99-85 Sunday in a showdown of the Western Conference’s top teams. Bryant scored 22 points while playing only three quarters.

Basketball
Kobe Bryant led a balanced scoring attack as the Los Angeles Lakers crushed the San Antonio Spurs 99-85 Sunday in a showdown of the Western Conference’s top teams. Bryant scored 22 points while playing only three quarters.

Golf
American Pat Perez took advantage of a final-round collapse by overnight leader Steve Stricker to win his maiden PGA Tour title by three shots at the Bob Hope Classic on Sunday. Three strokes off the pace at the start of a blustery day, Perez survived a topsy-turvy outward nine on his way to a three-under-par 69 on the Palmer Private course at PGA West.

Tennis
Illness and injury ravaged the Australian Open yesterday with Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Gilles Simon all advancing to the quarter-finals when their opponents quit their matches.
Gael Monfils and Zheng Jie waved Simon and Kuznetsova through by pulling out with wrist injures while Williams advanced when Victoria Azarenka staggered off centre court in tears, off-balance and barely able to hold her racket.

Cycling
Italian rider Leonardo Piepoli has been banned for two years after testing positive for a new generation of erythropoietin (EPO) at last year’s Tour de France, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said yesterday.
A CONI statement said a tribunal had upheld the anti-doping prosecutor’s request that Piepolo, 37, should be suspended until Jan. 2011. Piepoli spoke of his shame at doping earlier this month. The French Anti-Doping Agency said in October that Piepoli had twice tested positive for the CERA version of EPO during July’s Tour.

Cricket
AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla put on a 144-run partnership to take South Africa to a comprehensive eight-wicket win and a series victory in the fourth one-day international against Australia in Adelaide yesterday. South Africa scored 223 for two to win the match with 71 balls remaining and wrap the series up 3-1 with one game still to play.
Amla and De Villiers came together in the 13th over and their unbroken third-wicket partnership was scored off 155 balls with Amla ending unbeaten on 80 off 103 balls with seven boundaries. De Villiers was not out on 82 off 85 balls with six fours and one six. – Nampa-Reuters and AFP