Sports briefs for Sept. 14, 2005

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.

Syracuse heads field for Hoops Classic

Defending champion Syracuse, Texas Tech, Wake Forest and Florida will all host a four-team regional in the season-opening 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer.

The regional rounds will be held Nov. 8-11, with the winners advancing to the semifinals on Nov. 17 at New York's Madison Square Garden. The championship game will be Nov. 18.

Syracuse, which beat Memphis to win last year's event, will play Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 8, with St. Francis, Pa. facing Cornell in the other game. The winners meet Nov. 9.

The Coaches vs. Cancer program was created by the National Association of Basketball Coaches to raise awareness of the disease and to raise funds in the fight against it.

Since 1996, the tournament has raised over $2.8 million for the organization.

Johansson breaks through vs. Bjorkman

At Beijing, Thomas Johansson beat Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 6-3 Tuesday at the China Open, the former Australian Open champion's first win against his fellow Swede in three years.

Second-seeded Guillermo Coria, No. 3 David Nalbandian and No. 7 Mikhail Youzhny also advanced to the second round.

Johansson had six aces and didn't face a break point, improving to 6-4 against Bjorkman.

Nalbandian saved five of six break chances before beating Denmark's Kristian Pless 6-3, 7-6 (2).

Jarkko Nieminen, another U.S. Open quarterfinalist, beat Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-2. He will meet Johansson next.

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain beat Taiwan's Wang Yeu-tzuoo 6-4,6-2.

Puerta, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the final of this year's French Open, has 26 of his 31 victories this season on clay.

"I'm very happy to be on clay again after five or six weeks on hard court," the Argentine said. "I feel great."

U.S. beats Taiwan, faces Cuba next

The U.S. team defeated Taiwan 5-4 at the Baseball World Cup in the Netherlands to set up a quarterfinal meeting with eight-time defending champion Cuba.

Lastings Milledge broke a 4-4 tie with a run-scoring single in the top of the ninth inning to give the U.S. the victory in the final game of the tournament's first round. The Americans finished fourth in Group B with a record of 6-2.

Cuba, which topped the Group A standings, is the lone undefeated team in the tournament with an 8-0 record. Japan won Group B with a 7-1 mark.

Storm Cat colts fetch combined $41 million

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum spent $9.7 million on one horse Tuesday in hopes of winning the Kentucky Derby.

Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai, came to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale ready to buy. During the sale's two-day select portion, which ended Tuesday, he bought 23 horses, including four sons of elite sire Storm Cat.

Those purchases cost Maktoum $40.99 million, breaking his own record for money spent at the Keeneland September sale.

The $9.7 million he paid for a Storm Cat colt out of the broodmare Tranquility Lake was the highest price ever paid in the September sale's 62-year history and the third-highest price ever paid for a yearling at a Keeneland auction.

That sale came less than two hours after Maktoum bought another Storm Cat colt, out of the A.P. Indy broodmare Secret Status, for $6.3 million, the fifth-highest price in September sale history.

-- Sun wire services