Sports briefs

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 4, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Denny Hamlin appeared headed toward an easy victory. Then, Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed poised to snap his two- year losing streak.

In the end, surprise winner Clint Bowyer celebrated in Victory Lane, stealing a victory Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway that ended in wild fashion.

Hamlin, the hometown favorite, ran away with the race and led a record 381 of the 400 laps in search of his first Cup victory at Richmond. Nobody came close to challenging him until a leaking right front tire allowed Earnhardt and Kyle Busch to catch him.

The two drivers split Hamlin as they moved past him, with Earnhardt emerging as the leader with 18 laps to go. Hamlin's tire finally failed with eight to go, and NASCAR accused him of intentionally bringing out the caution that regrouped the field.

Earnhardt and Busch staged a strong battle for the lead when the race resumed, but Busch and Earnhardt made contact in turn three that sent Earnhardt into the wall.

"Just a bummer deal," Busch shrugged. "We were both racing hard there."

"Whether it was fair or not, he's going to need security," Earnhardt lamented.

Bowyer used a late-race opportunity to slide past both Earnhardt and Busch and into the front for the first time all night. Bowyer then held off Busch on a final restart to score his first Cup victory of the season, second of his career.

Busch finished second, then was confronted on pit road by his former crew members at Hendrick Motorsports. Busch spent three years driving for Hendrick, but was replaced by Earnhardt this season.

Mark Martin finished a season-best third and was followed by Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards. Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top 10.

De La Hoya takes 12-round decision

CARSON, Calif. (AP) -- Oscar De La Hoya showed he could still beat a contender. Next up is cashing in again like a champion.

In what was little more than a tuneup for a much bigger fight, De La Hoya kicked off his retirement tour Saturday night before an appreciative crowd by pitching a near shutout over a game but overmatched Steve Forbes.

De La Hoya got a chance to shake off ring rust and put on a show in front of his hometown fans, who came out in big numbers to cheer him on against a fighter whose previous biggest claim to fame was losing in the final of the "Contender" reality series. He didn't disappoint, battering the smaller Forbes around on his way to an easy 12-round decision win in his first fight in a year.

The win set up a September rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who beat De La Hoya by split decision last May in what was the richest fight ever. And, even though De La Hoya was a 17-1 favorite, his dominating performance against Forbes will likely do what De La Hoya wanted by helping sell the second fight with Mayweather.

"This is the same style I'm going to use for Mayweather," De La Hoya said. "This is the same plan for Mayweather."

De La Hoya won all 12 rounds on one judge's scorecard and 11 out of 12 on the other two. He bloodied Forbes face, but he failed to knock out an opponent who had never been stopped in 38 previous fights, like he had vowed to do before the bout.

The Associated Press had De La Hoya winning every round, and scored it 120-108.

Penn State claims NCAA volleyball crown

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- Top-ranked Penn State won its first NCAA men's volleyball championship in 14 years, rallying for a 27-30, 33- 31, 30-25, 30-23 victory over second-ranked Pepperdine on Saturday night.

"This replaces the 1972 Derry (Pa.) Little League championship for me," Nittany Lions coach Mark Pavlik said of his first NCAA title. "The strength this team had was singularity of purpose. They certainly played much better than I can coach.

"I think the standard has been set, certainly in our gym, and we're going to find a way to try to surpass that next year."

Matt Anderson had 29 kills for the Nittany Lions (30-1), who beat UCLA in 1994 for their last NCAA men's volleyball title. Anderson, the national co-player of the year, was selected the NCAA tournament's most valuable player.

Force romps past VooDoo in arena play

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) -- Chris Griesen completed 23 of 31 passses for 296 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Georgia Force to a 66-39 win over the New Orleans VooDoo on Saturday night.

Troy Bergeon had nine catches for 137 yards and four touchdowns for Georgia (4-5).

Danny Wimprine was 22-of-44 with five scoring passes for New Orleans (7-3). DeAndrew Rubin had seven catches for 107 yards and two TDs.

DESPERADOS 48, DESTROYERS 45: At Columbus, Ohio, Clint Dolezel threw for 263 yards and seven touchdowns to lead the Dallas Desperados over the Columbus Destroyers 48-45 Saturday night.

Columbus took a 45-41 lead with 40 seconds to go when Harold Wells scored on a 3-yard run, but Dolezel connected with Will Pettis with 15 seconds left. Marcus Nash caught four TD passes for the Desperados (8-1).

Matt Nagy was 21-of-28 for 267 yards and four scores for Columbus (2-7). Derek Lee had 12 catches for 160 yards.