A roundup of the week April 12-18
BADMINTON—PAUL WHETNALL and GILLIAN GILKS, both of England, won the singles titles in the U.S. Open at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Whetnall beating Thomas Kihlstrom of Sweden 17-14, 15-10, and Gilks defeating Lene Koppen of Denmark 8-11, 11-5, 11-6.
PRO BASKETBALL—NBA: Winning the final game in overtime, Buffalo took its best-of-three series with Philadelphia and now meets the Celtics in the semifinals (page 84). Bob McAdoo became only the fourth player in league history to win the scoring title three consecutive years, this time with a 31.1-points-per-game average. A league playoff record crowd of 19,974 in Cleveland's Coliseum watched Washington beat the Cavaliers 100-95 in the opening game of their best-of-seven series. In the next game Bingo Smith, the only original Cavalier still with the club, canned a 22-foot jumper to give Cleveland an 80-79 victory, and he and Austin Carr each scored 17 points in the third game, which the Cavs won 88-76 before a record-breaking Coliseum throng of 21,061, giving Cleveland a 2-1 edge. In the opening game of their series, Milwaukee beat Detroit 110-107, behind Gary Brokaw's 36 points, but the Pistons rebounded to win the best-of-three playoff, downing the Bucks 126-123 and 107-104, and now take on Golden State in the Western Conference semifinals. Phoenix lost its first playoff game to Seattle 102-99, then, despite Fred Brown's 45 points, handed the Sonics their first home loss in 18 games, 116-111. The Suns upped their lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series by trouncing Seattle 103-91.
ABA: Kentucky won its preliminary series with Indiana and went on to meet regular-season champion Denver in a best-of-seven. In their first game, in Denver, the computerized scoreboard and 24-second clock broke down and the contest was timed with stopwatches. With Denver leading 110-107, Kentucky's Louie Dampier sank a desperate three-point shot to tie the score, but the officials ruled time had run out, preserving the Nugget victory. In the second game Dampier, Johnny Neumann and Bird Averitt combined for 68 points, and the Colonels defeated the Nuggets 138-110, to tie the series. San Antonio's 111-103 victory over New York, in which Larry Kenon scored 28 points and Mike Gale had a career-high 22, put their series at 2-1, Spurs. The Nets then evened things up, a Julius Erving dunk with 14 seconds left and a free throw making the final score 110-108 (page 86).
BOWLING—MARSHALL HOLMAN, 21, of Medford, Ore., became the youngest winner of the $125,000 Firestone Tournament of Champions in Akron, by defeating Billy Hardwick 203-198.
GOLF—DON JANUARY, 46, won the Tournament of Champions at the La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, Calif., with an 11-under-par 277, beating Hubert Green by five strokes.
Judy Rankin had her second straight win, the $80,000 Karsten-Ping Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., with an 11-under-par 205, the lowest LPGA score of the season.
HOCKEY—NHL: The loudest news of the week had to do with the brawling Flyers (page 22), but another thudding event took place when Los Angeles defeated Boston 3-2 in Boston: it was the first time the Bruins have lost at home since Dec. 23. The Kings won the next game 6-4, and Marcel Dionne's three goals made him the No. 1 playoff scorer. Boston tied the series 2-2, Gregg Sheppard, Jean Ratelle and Don Marcotte each scoring as the Bruins beat the Kings 3-0. "Overtime experience" was the grumble on Long Island as Buffalo racked up its sixth consecutive overtime victory to hand New York a 3-2 defeat. The Islanders went on to down the Sabres 5-3 and 4-2, however, and their best-of-seven series was tied at 2-2. Until the record 30 penalty minutes incurred by the Flyers helped the Maple Leafs win 5-4, Toronto had not beaten Philadelphia since March 14, 1973: now they have defeated them twice, and their series is tied 2-2. Guy Lafleur scored a tie-breaking goal with 13 seconds left and Montreal beat Chicago 2-1. The Canadiens then defeated the Black Hawks 4-1 to sweep the series.
WHA: Winnipeg took its best-of-seven playoff from Edmonton to win the Canadian Division semifinals; the Jets now meet Calgary in the division finals. The Cowboys will have to play without Coach Joe Crozier and Rick Jodzio, who were suspended after a brawl with Quebec in which Nordique Marc Tardif was hospitalized with a concussion (page 22). After a session with a team hypnotist, San Diego won its best-of-five preliminary from Phoenix. New England is tied 1-1 in its best-of-seven playoff with Indianapolis.
HORSE RACING—BOLD FORBES ($2.80), Angel Cordero up, won his third straight stakes, the $112,600 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, covering the 1‚⅛ miles in 1:47[2/5] to beat On the Sly by 4¾ lengths (page 26).
Bill Shoemaker rode CRYSTAL WATER ($7.60) to a two-length victory in the $240,250 Hollywood Derby at Golden Gate Fields, He covered the 1‚⅛ miles in 1:48[2/5] Favored An Act was fifth, Telly's Pop sixth.
SOCCER—The NASL opened its 10th season with seven games and an average attendance of 10,400, up 1,000 from 1975. The San Antonio Thunder defeated the St. Louis Stars 2-1, then lost in overtime to the San Diego Jaws 1-0. Al Trost scored both goals in the Stars' 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders, the club's first shutout in 25 league games. The Portland Timbers beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-2 in overtime and the Dallas Tornado swept away the Washington Diplomats 1-0. An SRO crowd of 19,807 came out to see George Best in his league debut, but his Los Angeles Aztecs were defeated by the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1. The New York Cosmos beat the Miami Toros 1-0.
TENNIS—ILIE NASTASE overpowered Rod Laver 7-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to win a WCT Avis Challenge Cup tournament at Keauhou-Kona, Hawaii.
Evonne Goolagong beat Chris Evert for the second straight time, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, to win the $150,000 Virginia Slims championship in Los Angeles (page 28).
TRACK & FIELD—RICK WOHLHUTER, JIM McGOLDRICK and NOLAN CROMWELL set meet records at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence. Wohlhuter ran the 1,500 in 3:38.62 to better Jim Ryun's 1968 mark by 4.18; McGoldrick, of the University of Texas, tossed the discus 208'9", 13'10" farther than Marshall Smith's 1974 record; and Kansas Quarterback Cromwell recorded a 49.8 in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, .5 seconds under the record set by Bob Primeaux in 1973.
MILEPOSTS—ELECTED: to the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame: EDMUND CAMERON, Washington & Lee, fullback, 1920-24; JOHN DAVID CROW, Texas A&M, halfback, 1955-57; THOMAS FEARS, Santa Clara 1941-42 and UCLA 1946-47, end; VIC JANOWICZ, Ohio State, halfback, 1949-51; DAROLD JENKINS, Missouri, center, 1940-41; VIC MARKOV, Washington, tackle, 1935-37; OLLIE MAT-SON, San Francisco, back, 1950-52; CREIGHTON MILLER, Notre Dame, halfback, 1941-43; JACKIE PARKER, Mississippi State, back, 1950-53; WILLIAM SWIACKI, Holy Cross, 1941-42 and Columbia 1946-47, end; DEXTER VORY, Penn State, end, 1909-12, and GEORGE ALMOND MUNGER, Penn coach from 1938-53.
NAMED: ABA Coach of the Year, LARRY BROWN of the Denver Nuggets, for the second straight season and the third time in the last four years.
NAMED—EMILE FRANCIS, as coach and general manager of the St. Louis Blues, replacing Leo Boivin. Francis will also be an executive vice-president and a member of the board of directors.
MARRIED: ROGER TORY PETERSON, 67, ornithologist, artist and author of 15 books, most notably the Field Guide series; to Virginia Marie Westervelt, 50; in Essex, Conn.
