Sports digest 4/5/02

AREA

SENIOR ALL-STAR GAME SATURDAY AT POPLAR BLUFF

The best of Southeast Missouri senior basketball players will be on display Saturday night in the black and gold all-star games at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Boys from the area suiting up for the black team will be Seth McDowell of Jackson, Doug Schaefer of Notre Dame and C.J. Hadley of Bell City. The black team will be coached by Joby Holland of New Madrid County Central and David Heeb of Bell City. The Notre Dame trio of Deana McCormick, Lisa Millham and Courtney Vickery will join Oran's Maria Eftink as members of the girls' black team, which will be coached by Kirk Chronister and Cindy Chronister of Poplar Bluff.

The girls' game, beginning at 5 p.m., will be followed by a slam-dunk contest and the boys' game at 7. A 3-point shooting contest will be held at halftime of each contest.

Admission is $5.

Southeast tennis team loses twice in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Southeast Missouri State University's women's tennis team, competing with only four players for the second straight day, lost two matches Thursday to finish the Missouri-Kansas City Tournament with an 0-3 record.

The Otahkians (2-10) fell to Missouri-Kansas City (1-1) and Southern Utah (2-3) by identical 5-2 scores. They had to forfeit two singles matches and one doubles match against each squad.

Southeast's Daniela Garcia won both of her singles matches and teamed with Kay Ehlke to pick up a pair of doubles victories.

ELSEWHERE

BOXING

A champ super welterweight championship bout between rivals Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas was postponed because De La Hoya hurt his left hand. Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels said WBC champion De La Hoya severely sprained his hand while sparring.

Colleges

Montana hired former DePaul and Florida State coach Pat Kennedy. He replaces Don Holst, who was fired last month despite taking the team to the NCAA tournament.

Mike Anderson, who took over the Arkansas basketball program after Nolan Richardson's stormy departure, was named UAB's head coach.

West Virginia hired Bowling Green's Dan Dakich as its basketball coach. Dakich played at Indiana and was an assistant to Bob Knight for 11 years there.

The Big 12 Conference has signed four-year contracts to send its teams to seven bowls, including the Bowl Championship Series. The conference will continue its association with the BCS through the 2005 regular season, and the league champion will play in the Fiesta Bowl. The conference also extended agreements with the Cotton, Holiday, Alamo, Independence and Houston bowls.

An addition for the Big 12 is the Tangerine Bowl.

Golf

Steve Elkington shot an 8-under-par 64 on in the opening round of the BellSouth Classic at Duluth, Ga., overcoming a double-bogey to take a one-stroke lead over Phil Mickelson.

Hockey

Blues defenseman Chris Pronger was suspended two games without pay by the NHL for crosschecking Brenden Morrow of the Stars.

He will miss games against Chicago today and Colorado on Sunday.

-- From staff, wire reports