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Thursday January 25, 2018

LEBRON JAMES became the youngest player ever with 30,000 career points, then got upstaged by the youngest player on the court.

Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray — a friend and mentee of James — had 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals to lift San Antonio over the slumping Cleveland Cavaliers 114-102 Tuesday night.

“He’s fearless, he’s not impressed,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the 21-year-old. “He really sets the pace for us. He’s a fi ne defender. He’s learn-ing how to play the game and doing a fi ne job.”

Murray, making his second start since replacing a healthy Tony Parker, needed that forti-tude while battling James in the fourth quarter. He soared for a tip follow, then rose to disrupt James’ driving layup, which led to a 3-pointer by Danny Green that gave the Spurs a 105-94 lead with 4:20 remaining.

“Murray was great,” said LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 30 points for San Antonio after being selected as an All-Star reserve earlier in the day.

“He’s very athletic and he brings something at that posi-tion that we haven’t had in a while. I was proud of him down the stretch. I thought he kind of grew up tonight.”

James had 28 points while becoming the seventh member of the 30,000-point club, yet he couldn’t keep the Cavaliers from dropping their 10th in 13 games. “I don’t ever fully appreciate what I do anytime I accomplish something, no matter if it’s a win or a loss,” James said. “I’m look-ing forward to the moment when I can be done with the game and I can sit back with my family and my friends and we can drink some wine and talk about all the accomplishments that I had and feats I was able to accomplish.” (SD-Agencies)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (top) drives to the basket as San Antonio Spurs forward Kyle Anderson defends during the fi rst half at AT&T Center in San Antonio on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

LeBron gets 30,000, but Spurs beat Cavaliers

PEP GUARDIOLA reached his fi rst fi nal in English soccer as Manchester City ended second-tier Bristol City’s memorable run in the League Cup on Tuesday to stay in contention for silverware on four fronts.

Man City won the second leg of their semifi nal 3-2, with Kevin De Bruyne scoring off the last kick of the game, to advance to the Feb. 26 fi nal at Wembley Stadium 5-3 on aggregate.

Chelsea and Arsenal are locked at 0-0 heading into the second leg of the other semifi nal.

Top of the Premier League by 12 points and still in the Cham-pions League and FA Cup, Man City is proving an unstoppable force but needs trophies to back up its exhilarating displays in the fi rst fi ve months of the season.

“Of course, I know that we will be judged by trophies we win,” said Guardiola, who didn’t win any silverware last season, his fi rst at Man City. “But we are so happy. Nobody can take away what we have done.”

Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero scored in a seven-minute span around halftime to build on Man City’s 2-1 lead from the fi rst leg at Etihad Stadium two weeks ago.

Marlon Pack reduced the def-icit in the 64th minute and even though Aden Flint equalized in

Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero celebrate after the match against Bristol City at Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol, on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

the fourth minute of stoppage time, there was no way Bristol City was about to add the Pre-mier League leaders to its list of top-fl ight scalps that already included Manchester United, Watford, Stoke, and Crystal Palace in this campaign.

“They are a top, top side, probably the best team I’ve seen live,” Bristol City manager Lee Johnson said. “But the spirit we showed, we never gave in. Not many score two goals against a team like that.”

Bristol City was attempt-ing to become the fi rst team since Sheffi eld in 1991 to win the League Cup from outside the top fl ight. Around 180

journalists, broadcasters, and photographers were at Ashton Gate, the club said, for a game being watched in more than 100 countries, putting the second-tier host in the global spotlight.

Having needed a late goal from Aguero to earn a fi rst-leg advantage, Man City paid its opponent a compliment by fi eld-ing close to a full-strength team for the return match despite being in the middle of a busy period of domestic fi xtures.

Man City is through to a third League Cup fi nal in the last fi ve years, having also won England’s second-tier cup competition in 2014 and 2016. (SD-Agencies)

Man City through to League Cup fi nal

THE U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sent a letter of inquiry to Michi-gan State University on Tuesday, formally opening an investigation into how the university handled the case of Lawrence G. Nassar, the doctor who sexually assaulted scores of female athletes.

Dr. Nassar spent decades on the faculty at the university and treated its athletes, as well as members of the United States national gymnastics team.

“The NCAA has requested information from Michigan State about any potential rules viola-tions,” said Donald M. Remy, the association’s chief legal offi cer.

NCAA bylaws require colleges to protect the health, safety and well-being of athletes. Among those who have said Dr. Nassar abused them are members of the Michigan State cross country and softball teams. Kathie Klages, the former gymnastics coach who retired last year, has been accused of seeking to cover up allegations against Dr. Nassar, who served as team physician for the university gymnastics and women’s crew programs.

A Michigan State spokesman said that the university was reviewing the letter before issu-ing a response. (SD-Agencies)

Michigan univ. probed over Nassar case

CHUNG HYEON’S trailblazing run through the Australian Open continued yesterday as the South Korean tossed American Tennys Sandgren aside 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3 to become his nation’s fi rst Grand Slam semifi nalist.

He hadn’t let up when upset-ting No. 4 Alexander Zverev or six-time Australian Open cham-pion Novak Djokovic en route to the quarterfi nals, but he let his guard down for a few points against No. 97-ranked Tennys Sandgren.

He missed four match points in the last game and had to fend off two break points, including one in a 31-shot rally dominated by slice backhands, before fi nally beating Sandgren 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena.

“In last game, I think at 40-love, I’m thinking what I had to do in ceremony or something like that,” he said, explaining how he got slightly ahead of himself. “After deuce, break point. I was like, no, nothing to do with ceremony. But just keep playing — keep focused.”

Then he fully embraced the moment, joking with Jim Cou-rier in an on-court TV interview, introducing the audience to his parents and his coach, and taking the microphone to speak in Korean to millions of new tennis fans back home.

The No. 58-ranked Chung is the lowest-ranked man to reach the Australian Open semifi nals since Marat Safi n in 2004. At 21,

he’s also the youngest to reach the last four at a major since Marin Cilic did it here in 2010.

Two women who’ve been to this stage at a Grand Slam before will meet in the last four. Top-ranked Simona Halep recovered from an early break to win nine straight games in a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 6 Karolina Pliskova and set up a semifi nal match against 2016 champion Angelique Kerber, who routed U.S. Open fi nalist Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2.

Kerber has been the only Grand Slam singles champion in the women’s draw since her third-round win over Maria Sharapova. Two-time French Open fi nalist Halep has had a tougher road — having to save match points in a third-round win over Lauren Davis that fi n-ished 15-13 in the third — to reach the semifi nals at Melbourne Park for the fi rst time.

Not that Chung’s run has been routine. After taking out Zverev and Djokovic, Chung could next face defending champion Roger Federer for a spot in the fi nal. Federer was playing Tomas Berdych later in the quarterfi -nals.

Until the last game, Chung had been simply too consistent for Sandgren, a 26-year-old American who had never won a match at a Grand Slam tourna-ment or beaten a top 10 player until last week.

Sandgren’s unexpected run

Chung makes history at Aussie Open

— he beat 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka and No. 5 Dominic Thiem en route to the quarter-fi nals — was overshadowed by heavy scrutiny of his Twitter account and his follows and

retweets of far-right activists. He deleted his Twitter history before the quarterfi nals, saying he wanted to start from scratch, but must have been distracted by the fallout. (SD-Agencies)

Chung Hyeon of South Korea celebrates winning against Tennys Sandgren of the U.S. in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday. SD-Agencies