A roundup of the week March 17-23

ALPINE SKIING—MARC GIRARDELLI of Luxembourg clinched his second straight World Cup overall title and finished with 294 points, 10 more than Switzerland's Pirmin Zurbriggen. MARIA WALLISER of Switzerland won the women's overall World Cup with 287 points, 45 ahead of her compatriot Erika Hess. The Swiss led their country to its fourth consecutive Nations Cup.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL—At the NCAA Division II championships in Springfield, Mass., SACRED HEART (Conn.) outscored Southeast Missouri State 93-87 for the men's title, and CAL POLY-POMONA won its second straight women's crown with a 70-63 defeat of North Dakota State.

PRO BASKETBALL—It took most of the season, but Los Angeles Clipper rookie Benoit Benjamin may have arrived last week in the Clips' 115-114 upset of the Lakers. Benjamin had 27 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks, made two free throws with 30 seconds to play to give the Clippers the lead and prevented Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from getting a clean shot off at the buzzer. Boston clinched the Atlantic crown with a 126-105 thrashing of Chicago. The Bulls got six points from Rod Higgins, who has also played this season for Seattle, San Antonio and New Jersey. He is the first to play on four teams in one season. A Central Division duel between Milwaukee and Atlanta fizzled when ailing Hawk starters Dominique Wilkins and Glenn Rivers didn't play. The Bucks eased to a 113-98 victory. Houston stayed ahead of Denver in the Midwest Division by clubbing New York 114-99 to snap a six-game string of road losses.

BOWLING—MAL ACOSTA defeated Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela 235-195 to win $27,000 in a PBA tournament in North Olmsted, Ohio.

BOXING—TREVOR BERBICK won the WBC heavyweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Pinklon Thomas in Las Vegas. On the same card, CARLOS DeLEON regained his WBC cruiserweight crown with a 12-round decision over Bernard Benton, and JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ of Mexico retained his WBC super featherweight title with a second-round knockout of Roberto Lindo.

Dwight Muhammad Qawi won the WBA junior heavyweight crown with a sixth-round TKO of Leon Spinks in Reno (page 44).

CROSS-COUNTRY—At the world championships in Colombier, Switzerland, JOHN NGUGI of Kenya covered a 12-kilometer course in 35:32.9 minutes, edging Abebe Mekonnon of Ethiopia by 1.9 seconds, to take the men's competition and pace his country to first place overall. ZOLA BUDD defended her women's title and led Great Britain to the team gold medal by running a 4,650-meter course in 14:49.6. Lynn Jennings of Durham, N.H. finished second, 18.2 seconds back.

FIGURE SKATING—At the world championships in Geneva, BRIAN BOITANO of Sunnyvale, Calif. won the men's title; DEBI THOMAS of San Jose, Calif. took the women's crown; SERGEI GRINKOV and EKATARINA GORDEEVA of the U.S.S.R. were best in the pairs; and ANDREI BUKIN and NATALIA BESTEMIANOVA, who are also of the U.S.S.R., retained their ice-dancing title (page 28).

GOLF—CALVIN PEETE shot a 19-under-par 269, five strokes better than Pat McGowan, to win a PGA tournament and $90,000 in New Orleans.

Penny Pulz defeated Betsy King by four strokes to win the Tucson Open. Pulz's 12-under-par 276 earned her $30,000.

HOCKEY—Montreal lost three times and fell five points behind Adams Division leader Quebec, which got four goals from Michel Goulet in an 8-6 win over the Canadiens. Hartford's seven points tightened up the fight for the Adams's last playoff berth. Buffalo edged one point ahead of the Whalers with a 6-1 win over the L.A. Kings, whose Marcel Dionne passed Phil Esposito to become the NHL's No. 2 alltime scorer. Dionne's 1,592 points leave him 258 behind Gordie Howe. St. Louis and Minnesota, both 2-2, missed the chance to pull ahead of Norris leader Chicago (1-1). North Star goalie Don Beaupre stopped 50 shots by Edmonton, but Jari Kurri's OT goal gave the Oilers a 5-4 win. In a Patrick Division showdown, Washington beat No. 1 Philadelphia 6-5 (page 36).

HORSE RACING—BROAD BRUSH ($4.20), ridden by Vince Bracciale Jr., won the Jim Beam Stakes and $210,000 when he edged Miracle Wood by two lengths. The 3-year-old colt covered the 1[1/16]-mile Latonia track in 1:44[1/5].

Badger Land ($3), Jorge Velasquez up, beat One Magic Moment by four lengths for the $70,800 first-place purse in the Everglades Stakes at Hialeah. The 3-year-old colt ran the 1‚⅛-mile course in a track-record 1:46[1/5].

INDOOR SOCCER—Cleveland and Baltimore broke up their logjam atop the MISL East. The Force won two, pounding Los Angeles 8-4 and outlasting Pittsburgh 5-3. The Blast blew one at Dallas, losing 4-3 to Billy Caskey's fourth-quarter hat trick, and got blown out 9-3 by West champ San Diego. The Sidekicks edged within a half game of the Force by whipping the Spirit 4-1.

MOTOR SPORTS—NELSON PIQUET of Brazil, in a Williams-Honda, won his country's Grand Prix by 34.8 seconds over Ayrton Senna, in a Lotus-Renault. Piquet averaged 114.9 mph for 61 laps of the 3.125-mile Jacarepagua track in Rio de Janeiro.

SPEED SKATING—KARIN ENKE of East Germany set three world records in a dual meet in Moscow. Enke skated 500 meters in 39.52 seconds, .17 faster than the 1983 mark of her countrywoman Christa Rothenburger, and 3,000 meters in 4:18.02, 2.68 seconds better than the record set earlier in the day by Andrea Schoene, also of the G.D.R. Enke's point total of 168.272 for the two-day event was 3.488 points lower than Schoene's 1984 record. SCHOENE broke her own 5,000-meter mark by 11.83 seconds with a time of 7:20.99.

SWIMMING—TEXAS won its third straight NCAA Division I women's swimming and diving championship, outscoring runnerup Florida 633-586, in Fayetteville, Ark. JENNA JOHNSON of Stanford twice swam to an American record in the 100-yard butterfly with times of 52.75 seconds in the preliminaries and 52.69 in the finals. Jill Sterkel set the old mark of 52.99 in 1981. The Stanford team of JENNIFER POKLUDA, KATHY SMITH, JOHNSON and DIANA ZOCK twice set an American 200-yard medley mark with times of 1:41.31 in the prelims and 1:40.22, both faster than Florida's 1982 record of 1:42.1. MEGAN NEYER of Florida won both the one-meter and three-meter diving events for the fourth consecutive year.

TENNIS—MARTINA NAVRATILOVA beat Hana Mandlikova 6-2, 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 to win the Virginia Slims Championship and $125,000 in New York City (page 56).

Mats Wilander whipped Broderick Dyke 6-2, 6-3 to win the $50,000 first prize at the Belgian Indoor Championship in Brussels.

Ivan Lendl routed Jimmy Connors 6-2, 6-0 to win $50,000 in a Grand Prix tournament in Fort Myers, Fla. Connors was then assessed a 10-week suspension and a $20,000 fine by the Men's International Pro Tennis Council for refusing to complete a semifinal match with Lendl at a tournament in Boca Raton, Fla. last month.

MILEPOSTS—FIRED: By the Washington Bullets, GENE SHUE, 54. With a career mark of 757-768 (32-37 this season), Shue is the losingest, and third-winningest, coach in NBA history. He had coached the then Baltimore Bullets from 1966 to '73, Philadelphia and San Diego before rejoining the Bullets in 1980. Shue's replacement, KEVIN LOUGHERY, 46, has a career mark of 452-522 in stops in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Atlanta and Chicago.

NAMED: As basketball coach: at Kansas State, LON KRUGER, 33, replacing Jack Hartman, who retired after 16 seasons with a 295-169 record and three Big Eight titles; at Bowling Green State, JIM LARRANAGA, 36, an assistant coach at Virginia; at Wichita State, EDDIE FOGLER, 37, an assistant at North Carolina; at Idaho, TIM FLOYD, 32, a UTEP assistant; and at South Carolina, GEORGE FELTON, 33, a Georgia Tech assistant.

DIED: JAMES SHULER, 26, former NABF middleweight champion, of massive head injuries when his motorcycle collided with a tractor trailer; in Philadelphia. He had lost his crown on March 10, suffering his first pro loss in 23 fights, when he was knocked out in the first round by Thomas Hearns.