Sparks rout Shock
The Sparks improved to 4-1 since the return of Candace Parker, who had 10 points, 12 rebounds and six assists rebounds in a 84-57 victory over the Tulsa Shock at Staples Center. Nneka Ogwumike’s 26 points led the Sparks (7-14), who had four players in double figures. Tulsa’s record dipped to 10-12.
The Utah Jazz announced that point guard Dante Exum suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament this week while playing for the Australian national team against the Slovenia national team in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Tiffany Mitchell, South Carolina’s two-time Southeastern Conference women’s basketball player of the year, is recovering from foot surgery she had last week. The guard is expected to be ready for the season opener in November.
Third-seeded Marin Cilic played two terrific tiebreakers to edge 13th-seeded Sam Querrey, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), and reach the Citi Open quarterfinals at Washington. Take away the tiebreakers, and Querrey won more total points, 7467, and compiled more winners, 3225. Second-seeded Kei Nishikori made only seven unforced errors to defeat 16th-seeded Leonardo Mayer, 6-4, 6-4, and will play Sam Groth next. Jack Sock and Steve Johnson set up an all-American quarterfinal by eliminating seeded opponents. Sock came back to beat No. 4 Richard Gasquet, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-4, and Johnson got past No. 6 Grigor Dimitrov, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. On the women’s side, topseeded Ekaterina Makarova beat Naomi Broady, 6-4, 7-6 (2).
Varvara Lepchenko upset topseeded Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic at Palo Alto. Also advancing were secondseeded Agnieszka Radwanska, fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber and fourth-seeded Karolina Pliskova. Radwanska, playing for the first time since the Wimbledon semifinals, was down 0-2 in the second set before rattling off 12 consecutive games in a 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Misaki Doi.
Top-seeded Dominic Thiem will play sixth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Nicolas Almagro will take on Paul-Henri Mathieu in the semifinals of the claycourt tournament at Kitzbuehel, Austria, after each recorded quarterfinal victories.
Dean Lombardi, president and general manager of the Kings, has been named general manager of Team USA for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Lombardi has served as part of the U.S. men’s national advisory group since 2009.
The NHL says it is “following developments” of a police investigation involving Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane. The Blackhawks said they are in the process of gathering information and declined to comment further.
The Arizona Coyotes signed defenseman Brandon Gormley toa one-year, two-way contract.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza fractured a bone in his left leg while getting tackled in a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo and is expected to sit out at least 10 weeks.
Moving on from his English Premier League disappointment, winger Angel Di Maria signed a four-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain to complete his transfer from Manchester United.
Brigham Young leading rusher Jamaal Williams has withdrawn from school and will sit out this season for personal reasons.
East Carolina has added former Minnesota quarterback Philip Nelson as a walk-on.
The Vanderbilt football program has deleted a tweet saying, “We don’t need your permission!” and apologized for what was seen as a reference by the university to sexual assault. Four former players face trials in Nashville on rape charges. The tweet sent Thursday morning was followed by the apology three hours later from the program’s account. Vanderbilt wrote that the original tweet was not a comment about sexual assault because sex without permission is always wrong and not acceptable.
Ex-Russian marathoner Liliya Shobukhova’s doping ban was extended by 14 months to March 2016 by the sport’s highest court after an appeal by the IAAF, track and field’s world governing body.