Taurasi breaks WNBA career scoring record

About the only thing missing from Diana Taurasi’s record-setting day was a victory.

Taurasi became the WNBA’s career scoring leader in front of her family, friends and Kobe Bryant.

With her parents watching, Taurasi passed Tina Thompson on Sunday in the Phoenix Mercury’s 90-59 loss to the Sparks in Los Angeles.

“It’s pretty special I got to do it in front of my family on Father’s Day in LA,” said Taurasi, who finished with 19 points.

Taurasi came into the needing 14 points to break Thompson’s mark and the Mercury guard did it late in the first half on a layup with her team down big.

“Once I got the basket it was pretty cool,” she said. “I was trying not to think about, wanted it to happen and do it organically. It did. You think about all the great players you played with, all the games.”

Taurasi stands alone atop the league’s scoring list. She has 7,494 points and has averaged 19.9 points in her career.

She said in the weeks leading up to the historic points that she wasn’t thinking about the record. After the basket, the game stopped and Taurasi was given a warm ovation from the crowd that included Bryant and his daughters as well as Taurasi’s.

“We had this planned on the schedule for quite some time,” Bryant said during an interview ingame. “It worked in our favor we could see a historical night.”

Sailing

USA TRAILING AMERICA’S CUP » Jimmy Spithill and his mates with Oracle Team USA might need to start tapping out an SOS from the Bermuda Triangle.

The two-time defending America’s Cup champions are foundering badly against hotshot young helmsman Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand, who are threatening to sail — and cycle — away with the oldest trophy in international sports.

The 26-year-old Burling calmly steered the Kiwis’ fast 50-foot catamaran to two more dominating victories Sunday to remain undefeated in the showdown on the Great Sound.

Although they’ve won the first four races, the Kiwis lead Oracle 3-0. Because Oracle won the qualifiers, the challenger started the 35th America’s Cup match with a negative point.

Team New Zealand needs to win four more races to return the Auld Mug to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland, where it resided from 1995-2003.

Oracle needs to win seven to keep the silver trophy in the hands of one of the world’s richest men, software tycoon Larry Ellison, who has been watching the shellacking from a team support boat.

College baseball

FLORIDA DEFEATS TCU » Alex Faedo limited TCU to two singles and struck out 11 in seven innings, and Florida posted its first College World Series shutout since 1991 with a 3-0 win Sunday night.

Faedo, the Detroit Tigers’ first-round draft pick this month, retired 10 in a row before turning the game over to closer Michael Byrne to start the eighth.

Faedo (8-2) has been part of seven of the Gators’ nine shutouts this season. The shutout was Florida’s second in its 36 all-time CWS games and first in Omaha since a 5-0 win over Florida State 26 years ago.

Jared Janczak (9-1) took the loss, and Byrne earned his 17th save.

JJ Schwarz, Christian Hicks and Nelson Maldonado each drove in runs for the Gators (48-18), who will play Louisville in a Bracket 2 winners’ game Tuesday night.

The Horned Frogs (4717) play Texas A&M Tuesday.

Soccer

MEXICO, PORTUGAL TIE »