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A roundup of the week March 31-April 6

BASKETBALL—In the NBA's two-out-of-three mini-series, Philadelphia was the first winner. The 76ers defeated Washington 111-96 as the man in the plastic mask, Caldwell Jones, scored 18 points and had 26 rebounds while keeping his broken nose protected. Philly swept the series with a 112-104 victory as Julius Erving, nursing a sore left knee and right ankle, scored 31. In the 76ers' semifinal opener against Atlanta, they beat the Hawks 107-104 after trailing by six points with nine minutes to play. In other Eastern Conference mini-series, Houston and San Antonio were even—the Rockets won the opener 95-85, the Spurs the second game 106-101—before Houston won the final 141-120 behind Moses Malone's 37 points and 20 rebounds. Seattle won its mini-series over Portland despite the heroics of Trail Blazer newcomer Billy Ray Bates in the second game. With five seconds to play, Bates, who joined Portland as a free agent on Feb. 19, sank an 18-foot jump shot to tie the score at 89-89. He then poured in six of the Blazers' 16 points in overtime to lead them to a 105-95 triumph. Seattle, which had prevailed 120-110 in the series opener, then won the third game 103-86. In the other Western Conference series, Phoenix beat Kansas City two games to one (page 22).

BOWLING—ALVIN LOU defeated Mark Roth 259-203 to win a $125,000 PBA tournament in Milwaukee.

BOXING—MIKE WEAVER knocked out defending champion John Tate in the 15th round in Knoxville, Tenn. to win the WBA heavyweight title (page 20). On the same card, EDDIE GREGORY won the WBA light-heavyweight crown by stopping defending champ Marvin Johnson in the 11th round.

Larry Holmes retained his WBC heavyweight crown with an eighth-round knockout of Leroy Jones in Las Vegas.

Pipino Cuevas successfully defended his WBA welterweight crown with a fifth-round knockout of Harold Volbrecht in Houston.

Jorge Lujan kept his WBA bantamweight title with a ninth-round TKO of Shuichi Isogami in Tokyo.

Sammy Serrano of Puerto Rico knocked out Kiyoshi Kazama in the 13th round to retain the WBA junior lightweight title in Nara, Japan.

GOLF—DONNA CAPONI YOUNG shot a 13-under-par 275 to win the $250,000 Colgate-Dinah Shore Winners Circle in Rancho Mirage, Calif. by two strokes over Amy Alcott (page 54).

Craig Stadler shot a 13-under-par 275 to win the $250,000 Greensboro (N.C.) Open by six strokes.

GYMNASTICS—NEBRASKA defeated runner-up Iowa State 563.30 to 557.65 to win the NCAA championships in Lincoln, Neb. Cornhusker Jim Hartung won the individual all-around title.

Penn State outpointed Utah 145.50 to 144.15 to win the AIAW title in Baton Rouge. SHARON SHAPIRO of UCLA won the all-around championship, taking firsts in the vault, bar, balance beam and floor exercise events.

HOCKEY—Washington, Detroit, Quebec, Colorado and Winnipeg didn't make the NHL playoffs. The Caps had a chance, but they needed a win in their final game against Atlanta. The best they could do was draw 4-4. As it turned out, a victory wouldn't have changed things for Washington; Vancouver won 5-3 at Los Angeles the same evening to guarantee itself 15th place with 70 points. Edmonton finished 16th with 69. With a goal and two assists in a 6-2 victory over Colorado, Oiler Center Wayne Gretzky thought he had clinched the league scoring title with 137 points. But in the Kings' 5-3 loss to Vancouver, L.A. Center Marcel Dionne had two assists, giving him 137 points, too. Because Dionne had 53 goals—to Gretzky's 51—he won the title. In spite of a final-game 8-3 loss to the Rangers, Philadelphia held first place with a 48-12-20 record and 116 points. The Flyers also earned home-ice advantage in the opening-round playoffs, as did Buffalo, Montreal, which was unbeaten in 21 games at season's end, Boston, the Islanders, Minnesota, Chicago and the Rangers.

HORSE RACING—JOHN HENRY ($6.40), with Darrel McHargue aboard, defeated Fiestero by 1¼ lengths to win the $200,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita. The 5-year-old gelding covered the course, about 1¾ miles on turf, in 2:46[4/5].

Bold 'n determined ($4.20), Eddie Delahoussaye up, beat Satin Ribera by 2½ lengths to win the $171,400 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The 3-year-old ran the 1[1/16] miles in 1:45[1/5].

Just a game ($3.40), ridden by Don Brumfield, defeated La Soufriere by a length to win the $123,600 Orchid Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

POWERLIFTING—JAN TODD upped her world record by five pounds with a squat lift of 506 pounds in Tokyo.

SOCCER—NASL: On the second Saturday of the season, nine of 10 home teams were victorious. The Cosmos won 4-3 at Houston, but only after Hurricane Ian Anderson sent the game into overtime with two penalty kicks. Giorgio Chinaglia hit the winning goal for New York in a shootout.

ASL: Sacramento opened its defense of the league title with two 2-1 victories. Last year's league scoring leader, Striker Ian Filby, had a goal in the first win, at Golden Gate, and an assist in the second, against New York United. In the only other game, Columbus defeated California 3-0.

TENNIS—BJORN BORG defeated Guillermo Vilas 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 to win the $175,000 Monte Carlo Open.

Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova defeated Sue Barker and Ann Kiyomura 7-5, 6-3 to win a $150,000 doubles tournament in Tokyo.

MILEPOSTS—CANCELED: Because of a strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association, the last 92 games of the exhibition season. The association's executive board also voted to play in regular-season games from Opening Day, April 9, until May 23. If the players and owners have not reached an agreement by that date, another strike will begin.

CONVICTED: By a Federal Court jury in Harrisburg, Pa., trainers VERNON EWALT and GUY TUMMINELLO; jockeys PAUL WHITEMAN, RONALD SCOTT and LUCIEN PARENT; and JOSEPH SCIANDRA, a gambler, of charges connected with race fixing at Pocono Downs in 1974. Six other defendants were acquitted of all charges.

ORGANIZED: The CHAMPIONSHIP RACING LEAGUE, in an agreement between USAC and CART that ended a 17-month rivalry between the two auto-racing sanctioning bodies.