
A roundup of the week Feb. 26-March 4
PRO BASKETBALL—Los Angeles took over the top spot in the Pacific Division from slumping Seattle. Paced by Jamaal Wilkes, Adrian Dantley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 73, 71 and 66 points, respectively, the Lakers beat Indiana 118-108, Philadelphia 126-111 and Midwest Division leader Kansas City 122-114. The Kings, who were 1-3, also dropped a 122-120 decision to San Diego, which ran its winning streak to eight. The Clippers' string was broken when they lost 111-108 to the Knicks in New York, despite a 34-point effort from Lloyd Free, the league's No. 2 scorer with a 28.6 average. Atlanta stretched its victory streak to six games with a 119-101 win over Chicago (page 65). Earlier the Hawks got 30 points from John Drew in a 125-111 defeat of Houston and 32 from Dan Roundfield in a 104-86 trouncing of Golden State. San Antonio, which leads Houston and Atlanta in the Central Division by 3½ games, edged Kansas City 129-125 in overtime for its eighth win in its last 10 starts. In that game, the Spurs' James Silas pumped in 31 points, Larry Kenon 32 and George Gervin 30. Gervin, who also hit for more than 30 in San Antonio's two other victories, has scored more than 20 points in 35 consecutive games. Led by Elvin Hayes, who has scored more than 30 in four of his last five outings, Washington went 2-0 and widened its Atlantic Division lead over Philadelphia to eight games.
BOWLING—ROY BUCKLEY defeated Craig Mueller 233-215 to win a $100,000 PBA tournament in Miami.
GOLF—BOB BYMAN picked up his first PGA victory by getting a par 4 on the second extra hole to win the $250,000 Bay Hill Citrus Classic in Orlando, Fla. from John Schroeder. They finished regulation play at 278, six under par (page 18).
Jane Blalock shot an 11-under-par 205 to win the rain-delayed $75,000 Orange Blossom Classic in St. Petersburg, Fla. by six strokes over Sandra Post.
Sally Little shot a 10-under-par 278 to win the $100,000 Bent Tree Classic in Sarasota, Fla. by two strokes over Nancy Lopez.
HOCKEY—NHL: The Islanders had an erratic week that began with a 3-2 loss to the Rangers, who held them without a shot in the second period and allowed only 16 the entire game. The Rangers, however, lost their leading scorer, Center Ulf Nilsson, for the remainder of the season when he suffered a fractured ankle late in the first period. Two nights later the Islanders bounced back with a 7-3 rout of Montreal. Clark Gillies had a hat trick, Mike Bossy added four assists and Billy Smith was superb in the nets, stopping 38 shots, Guy Lafleur of the Canadiens had an assist in that game to become the first player in the league this year to get 100 points. The Islanders, who lead the Patrick Division by 14 points over the Rangers and Atlanta, finished the week by splitting a pair of games with the Flames. Norris Division leader Montreal also was 2-2. After an 8-5 win over Washington, in which eight different Canadiens scored, and the loss to the Islanders, Montreal upended Toronto 2-1 and was beaten by Detroit 5-3. Earlier the Red Wings handed Colorado its 10th consecutive defeat, by a score of 8-1, and lost 6-5 to St. Louis, despite Vaclav Nedomansky's second straight hat trick. The Rockies ended their skid with a 4-2 victory over Adams Division leader Boston, which later gave up three goals in 35 seconds in a 4-4 tie with Philadelphia. Following two ties and a win, Smythe Division leader Chicago dropped an 8-5 decision to Los Angeles as Marcel Dionne scored three times for the Kings.
WHA—Edmonton, which has won 12 of its last 13 games, opened up a five-point lead. After knocking off Birmingham 5-4 and skating to a 1-1 tie with second-place New England, the Oilers beat Cincinnati 5-2 and 6-4. In the last of those games, Edmonton's Ron Chipperfield had a hat trick, and Dave Dryden, who has been in the nets for 31 of the Oilers' 35 victories, picked up the win. Dryden, whose brother Ken leads the NHL with a 2.29 goals-against average, is tops in the WHA with a 2.73 average.
HORSE RACING—AFFIRMED ($4.60), ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr., won the $312,800 Santa Anita Handicap for 4-year-olds and up, by 4½ lengths over Tiller. He covered the 1¼ miles in a track record 1:58[3/5].
Noble Dancer II ($3.80), Jacinto Vasquez up, won the $150,000 Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream by three lengths over Fleet Gar. The 7-year-old was timed in 2:25[1/5] for the 1½ miles.
MOTOR SPORTS—Canada's GILLES VILLENEUVE, averaging 117.9 mph in a Ferrari, finished 3.4 seconds ahead of his teammate, Jody Scheckter of South Africa, to win the South African Grand-Prix.
SKIING—PETER WIRNSBERGER of Austria won the men's downhill at the World Cup races in Lake Placid, N.Y. with a time of 1:42.88 to beat second-place finisher Peter Müller of Switzerland by .03 of a second. ANNEMARIE MOSER-PR‚Äö√†√∂‚àö¬±LL of Austria defeated Switzerland's Marie-Theres Nadig by a 10th of a second to win the women's downhill in 1:43.07, and INGEMAR STENMARK of Sweden won the giant slalom. His time of 2:38.93 was 1.08 seconds better than that of Hans Enn of Austria (page 22).
TENNIS—JIMMY CONNORS defeated Arthur Ashe 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to win the $250,000 U.S. Indoor Championship in Memphis for the fifth time.
Martina Navratilova beat Chris Evert 6-4, 6-4 to win the $200,000 Avon Championships of Dallas.
TRACK & FIELD—DAN RIPLEY of Norwalk, Calif. broke the world indoor record for the pole vault at the U.S.S.R.-U.S. meet in Fort Worth. His leap of 18'5½" was a quarter of an inch higher than the mark Mike Tully of UCLA set last year. At the same meet, LYUDMILA STOROZHKOVA of the Soviet Union broke the women's world indoor record for the 60-yard dash with a time of 6.63, .08 of a second better than the mark set last week by Evelyn Ashford of Los Angeles. Second-place finisher Chandra Cheeseborough of Tennessee State was also under the world mark with an American record of 6.68. The U.S. men's team defeated the U.S.S.R.'s 75-66, and the Soviet women beat the U.S. women 52-46, giving the United States a 121-118 combined victory (page 54).
MILEPOSTS—ANNOUNCED: The marriage of tennis star JIMMY CONNORS, 26, to PATTI McGUIRE, 27, Playboy magazine's 1977 Playmate of the Year; reportedly in Tokyo; last fall.
FIRED: By Vanderbilt, basketball Coach WAYNE DOBBS, 39, who had a three-year record of 38-42.
As coach of the WHA's Winnipeg Jets, LARRY HILLMAN, 42, who had a 1½-year record of 78-55-8 and directed Winnipeg to the league championship last season. At the time of his dismissal, the Jets were in third place and had lost eight of their last 11 games. Hillman was replaced by TOM McVIE, 43, former coach of the Washington Capitals of the NHL.
HIRED: As football coach at the Air Force Academy, KEN HATFIELD, 35, who was the Academy's offensive coordinator last season. Hatfield succeeds Bill Parcells, 38, who resigned to become linebacker coach of the New York Giants.