Sports digest 3/27/02

Boxing

Welcoming the Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson fight to Memphis has nothing to do with morality -- it's about business.

"It's not in my job description to regulate the morality of individuals who participate in sporting events," Mayor Willie Herenton said. "As mayor of this great city, I made a business decision. I think the city is going to benefit enormously."

Herenton lobbied for the fight after Nevada boxing authorities refused to allow it in Las Vegas, and promoters began looking at Washington, D.C., Detroit and Memphis.

Lennox and Tyson will fight June 8 at The Pyramid, the city's 20,400-seat downtown sports and entertainment arena overlooking the Mississippi River. Promoters were still working Tuesday on getting a $12.5 million line of credit to cover the site fee for the fight.

Colleges

Dajuan Wagner tied a career high with 32 points and fed Kelly Wise for a dunk with 18.6 seconds left that put Memphis in the finals of the NIT with a 78-77 victory Tuesday night over Temple.

The Tigers, who appeared headed for their second straight semifinals exit from the tournament, will play South Carolina in the NIT championship game at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Temple, out of timeouts, took three shots at the end, two by David Hawkins and one by Kevin Lyde, but couldn't put away a game in which it erased deficits of 12 and six points.

Aaron Lucas scored a season-high 20 points to lead South Carolina to a 66-59 victory over Syracuse in the second NIT semifinal game.

With a little more than a minute to play, Syracuse had an opportunity to close within two points when DeShaun Williams had his inbounds pass intercepted by Tony Kitchings.

Kitchings and Jamel Bradley each scored 13 points. Bradley, who holds the South Carolina school record for 3-pointers made, scored 12 of his points on 3-pointers.-- From wire reports