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A roundup of the week May 16-22
PRO BASKETBALL—Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead over Portland in the best-of-seven NBA championship series by beating the Trail Blazers 107-101 in Philadelphia. The 76ers outscored the Blazers by 12 points at the free-throw line, hitting on 27 of 32 attempts, while Portland made 15 of 18. Julius Erving led the Sixers with 33 points, and Doug Collins scored 30. Bill Walton had 28 points for Portland. Philadelphia had qualified for the finals by eliminating the Houston Rockets 112-109 in Game Six of their semifinal series.
AUTO RACING—Averaging 79.3 mph, JODY SCHECKTER drove a Lotus to victory in the Grand Prix of Monaco, finishing less than one second ahead of Niki Lauda (page 22).
Janet Guthrie, driving a Lightning-Offenhauser at an average speed of 188.403 mph for four laps, became the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
BOATING—BILL MUNCEY, driving Atlas Van Lines, won the season-opening Champion Sparkplug Regatta for unlimited hydroplanes at Miami, setting a lap record of 108.893 mph.
BOXING—MUHAMMAD ALI earned $2.75 million and retained the world heavyweight championship by winning a unanimous decision over Alfredo Evangelista in Landover, Md.
On the same card, WBA lightweight champion ROBERTO DURAN of Panama won a unanimous decision over Javier Muniz of Los Angeles in a non-title 10-rounder and ALFREDO ESCALERA of Puerto Rico successfully defended his WBC junior lightweight title by knocking out Mexico's Carlos Becerril in the eighth round of their scheduled 15-rounder.
Spain's undefeated MIGUEL CUELLO, 31, won the vacant WBC light heavyweight title by knocking out Jesse Burnett of California in the ninth round at Monte Carlo. Burnett was a last-minute substitute for champion John Conteh of England, who was stripped of his title by the WBC for petitioning a London court to call off his scheduled bout with Cuello. Conteh contends that he signed for the fight "at pistol point."
GOLF—JACK NICKLAUS fired a 7-under-par 281 to win the $225,000 Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio by two strokes over Hubert Green (page 24).
Kathy Whitworth shot an 11-under-par 202 to win the $77,000 LPGA Classic in Jamesburg, N.J., finishing three strokes ahead of Donna Caponi Young.
HARNESS RACING—PRIDE OF CARLISLE, a 5-year-old driven by Ben Webster, trotted a world-record (for trotting geldings) 1:57 mile in the Hiram Woodruff Series at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. The previous record of 1:57[1/5] was set by Flirth in a heat of the 1973 Hambletonian.
HOCKEY—Quebec took a three-games-to-two lead over defending champion Winnipeg in the WHA's best-of-seven playoff for the AVCO Trophy. The Nordiques played dismally in Game Three, losing to the Jets 6-1 and falling behind two games to one in the series. Winnipeg's secret was simple: the Jet checkers had shut out Quebec's high-scoring line of Marc Tardif, Real Cloutier and Christian Bordeleau in each of the first three games. But the Quebec trio combined for five goals in Games Four and Five as the Nordiques shelled Jet Goaltender Joe Daley with 59 shots in 4-2 and 8-2 victories.
HORSE RACING—SEATTLE SLEW ($2.80), under Jockey Jean Cruguet, won the 102nd Preakness, covering the 1[3/16] miles in 1:54[2/5] to beat Iron Constitution by 1½ lengths (page 20). The undefeated 3-year-old colt will try to complete the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes on June 11.
Crystal Water ($9.40), Laffit Pincay Jr. up, won the $110,300 Californian at Hollywood Park, covering the 1[1/16] miles in 1:41 to beat Mark's Place by a head.
KARATE—Flooring his opponent five times, BILL WALLACE of Tennessee successfully defended his Professional Karate Association middleweight title by stopping Ron Thivierge of Woonsocket, R.I. in the sixth round of their scheduled nine-round bout at Providence.
Jeff Smith of Washington, D.C. won a unanimous nine-round decision over Keith Haflich of Charlotte to retain the world's light heavyweight full contact title at Charlotte.
ROWING—WASHINGTON beat Oregon State by 1½ lengths to win the heavyweight eights race in the inaugural Pac-8 regatta, which was held at Redwood Shores, Calif. (page 54).
SOCCER—Entering the week, Chicago was one of NASL's two winless teams, but on Friday the Sting upset league-leading Tampa Bay 4-3. Two goals by Willie Morgan and one by Bill Jennings opened a 3-0 lead, but Tampa fought back to tie the game at 51:22 on a tally by league-leading scorer Derek Smethurst. A minute later Chicago Midfielder Jimmy Kelly converted a penalty kick for the Chicago victory. Two days later Goalie Mervyn Cawston turned back 37 shots, and Jennings and Striker Ron Moore booted goals as the Sting stung the New York Cosmos 2-1. Toronto zipped past St. Louis into the Northern Division lead by blanking Connecticut (2-0) and Tampa Bay (4-0) while Washington helped by downing the Stars 2-0 on a pair of goals by Allan Green. Minnesota, victorious over Hawaii (3-1) and Portland (1-0), held on to first place in the Western Division.
TENNIS—VITAS GERULAITIS took the $185,000 Italian Tennis Open in Rome with a 6-2, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 victory over Antonio Zugarelli. He is the first American to win the event since Barry McKay in 1960.
WTT: Martina Navratilova and Greer Stevens stretched their unbeaten doubles record to 11 sets, and Tony Roche raised his singles mark to a league-leading 68-45, as East Division leader Boston (10-2) beat San Diego and Cleveland. Navratilova and Stevens defeated Cleveland's Peggy Michel and Wendy Turnbull 6-0 and San Diego's Mona Guerrant and Kerry Reid 6-2, while Roche stopped Bjorn Borg 6-3 and Rod Laver 6-2. Laver also lost to Borg 6-0 as Cleveland (5-9) beat San Diego 29-15. Second-place New York (8-4) won three of five matches, losing to Golden Gate 29-20 and Sea-Port 23-20. In the West, Phoenix (8-2) held on to a half-game lead over Sea-Port (8-3). Terry Holladay of Golden Gate (6-4) snapped her five-game losing streak by whipping Olga Morozova of the Soviets 6-3 in a 26-21 Gator win, then stunned New York's Billie Jean King 6-4. King had other troubles, too. In Los Angeles, her uniform was stolen, and she had to borrow one from teammate Virginia Wade, who is a size smaller.
MILEPOSTS—RESIGNED: KEN SCHINKEL, as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who had a 34-33-13 record last season. He will become the Penguins' director of player personnel, a job he held before being named coach last summer.
UPHELD: Baseball Commissioner BOWIE KUHN's decision to suspend Atlanta Braves owner TED TURNER for one year; by a U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
