A roundup of the week Feb. 23-March 1

PRO BASKETBALL—Though Houston trailed first-place San Antonio by 10½ games in the Midwest Division, many eyes were on the Rockets' Calvin Murphy. He hit five of five free throws in Houston's 111-96 victory at Seattle, six of six—and 38 points overall—in the 106-102 triumph at Utah and didn't go to the line in a 101-100 defeat of Indiana that Robert Reid clinched with two foul shots with five seconds remaining. On the strength of 30 points and 19 rebounds by Moses Malone, the Rockets won their fifth in a row, 96-92 from Seattle, as Murphy's NBA-record streak remained at 73 free-throw attempts without a miss. Although Houston's string was broken, 104-103 by San Diego when the Rockets' Allen Leavell missed a last-second jumper, Murphy's remained intact. At week's end he'd made 78 straight foul shots, dating back to Dec. 27. That's 18 more than the old mark, which was set by Rick Barry in 1976 and which Murphy broke on Feb. 19. While Los Angeles, second in the Pacific Division, regained the services of Magic Johnson (page 14), division-leading Phoenix split a pair of games, defeating Philadelphia, No. 1 in the Atlantic, 116-110, and losing 121-117 at Portland. Chicago, trailing Milwaukee and Indiana in the Central Division, held a two-game margin over Washington in the race for the final Eastern Conference playoff berth. After losses to Atlanta (121-116) and Los Angeles (107-97), the Bulls defeated the Bullets (112-100) and New York (101-97).

BOATING—LOUISIANA CRUDE, a 42-foot sloop skippered by Dick Jennings and Tom Dreyfus, won the overall title in the SORC series (page 52).

BOWLING—MAL ACOSTA defeated Marshall Holman 235-170 to win the $100,000 Cleveland Open in North Olmsted, Ohio.

BOXING—MATTHEW SAAD MUHAMMAD retained his WBC light heavyweight title with an 11th-round knockout of Vonzell Johnson in Atlantic City, N.J.

GOLF—ANDY BEAN shot an 18-under-par 266 to win the $300,000 Bay Hill Classic in Orlando, Fla. by seven strokes over Tom Watson.

HOCKEY—While many NHL players took shots at the opposition (page 9), a few were content to aim at the nets. In Quebec's 11-7 victory over Washington, Jacques Richard had a hat trick, as did Peter Stastny (four goals) and his brother Anton (three). The Nordiques then won their fifth game in a row, 5-3 over Boston, with Marc Tardif scoring twice. Calgary triumphed 5-3 at Vancouver and then ripped the Islanders, who were short four starters because of injuries, in an 11-4 romp that included a six-goal spree in an eight-minute stretch of the third period. In that game Guy Chouinard got six assists, and Kent Nilsson had two assists and three goals. Another hat trick in the Flames' 5-1 defeat of Hartford gave Nilsson a four-game total of eight goals and eight assists. Before being routed at Calgary, the Islanders called up their 1980 No. 1 draft pick, Brent Sutter, from the juniors. He scored the first goal of the game—and of his NHL career—in a 5-1 victory at Vancouver, and then hit the game-winner in a 2-1 Islander triumph at Los Angeles. St. Louis, which led the league at week's end with 89 points, tied Montreal 2-2, beat Detroit 3-2 on a Blair Chapman goal and Washington 7-4 as rookie Jorgen Pettersson got his third hat trick of the season. In that game the Blues' Blake Dunlop had four assists. After its penalty-filled 6-4 loss to Vancouver, third-place Philadelphia lost to Edmonton 6-2, with Wayne Gretzky (page 18) scoring and assisting twice, and defeated Winnipeg 6-3 as Bill Barber scored thrice. The Flyers' final game of the week was a rowdy 4-2 victory at Minnesota. By week's end the North Stars' losing streak had reached five. Montreal had wins over Buffalo (4-2), Colorado (6-0), with Richard Sevigny getting the shutout, and Toronto (5-3) to close out the month unbeaten (9-0-3) and in fourth place in the standings.

HORSE RACING—HURRY UP BLUE ($6.60), ridden by Carlos Lopez, defeated Yosi Boy by a length to win the $176,750 Gulfstream Park Handicap. The 4-year-old ran the 1¼ miles in 2:03[1/5].

MOTOR SPORTS—DARRELL WALTRIP, driving a Buick at an average speed of 114.594 mph, won the Carolina 500 on the 1.017-mile oval of the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham. He finished 5.5 seconds ahead of Cale Yarborough, who also drove a Buick.

TENNIS—GENE MAYER defeated Roscoe Tanner 6-2, 6-4 to win the $200,000 U.S. National Indoor Championships in Memphis.

Sylvia Hanika beat Barbara Potter 6-2, 6-4 to win a $125,000 tournament in Seattle.

TRACK & FIELD—FRANCIE LARRIEU of the U.S. established a women's world indoor record of 9:38.1 for the two-mile run at the national indoor championships in New York City, lowering her own mark of 9:39.4, set in 1974. At the same meet JEFF WOODARD high-jumped 7'7¾" to surpass the American indoor record of 7'7¼" established three years ago by Franklin Jacobs; CHANDRA CHEESEBOROUGH set an American women's indoor record in the 220-yard dash with a time of 23.27, to better Rosalyn Bryant's four-year-old mark of 23.4, and with fellow Tennessee State sprinters ERNESTINE DAVIS, JUDITH POLLION and SHERYL PERNELL, ran a women's world indoor record 1:08.99 for the 640-yard relay. They also established a women's world indoor record of 1:42.17 in the 880-yard medley relay, eclipsing the mark of 1:42.6 set by the Los Angeles Mercurettes in 1977. In the mile relay, the Mercurettes' team of PAULETTE CLAGON, CINDY CUMBESS, BRENDA PETERSON and DEANN GUTOWSKI set an American women's indoor standard with a time of 3:40.46, lowering the mark of 3:40.9 set by a team from the Atoms Track Club a month ago. In the 35-pound weight competition, held in Princeton, N.J., ED KANIA had a throw that went 73'4"—and into the gym wall—surpassing the American indoor record of 73'3½" set by George Frenn in 1969.

Deon Hogan of the U.S. established a world indoor record for the automatically timed 440-yard run with a clocking of 47.20 in Lincoln, Neb. He surpassed the mark of 47.32 set by Bert Cameron of Jamaica in 1980. At the same meet MERLENE OTTEY of Jamaica surpassed her own women's world indoor record of 33.12 in the 300-yard dash with a time of 33.11.

MILEPOSTS—APPROVED: By the NASL, the transfer of the Detroit Express to Washington, D.C. The team will be known as the Diplomats.

PURCHASED: By industrialist Edgar F. Kaiser Jr., 38, the DENVER BRONCOS of the NFL, for an estimated $30 million.

TRADED: By the Chicago Cubs, Outfielder DAVE KINGMAN, 32, who led the majors with 48 home runs in 1979, to the New York Mets for Outfielder STEVE HENDERSON, and an undisclosed amount of cash.

DIED: JESSE B. (Duke) MORRISON, 84, who scored 277 points in three seasons (1920-22) as a running back at the University of California; of natural causes; in Mill Valley, Calif.