IN BRIEF

Former Masters champ Brewer dies of cancer

Gay Brewer, the 1967 Masters champion who won 11 times on the PGA Tour, died Friday at his Lexington, Ky., home after a fight with lung cancer. He was 75.

Brewer, who retired from the Champions Tour in 2000, had been battling cancer since October, fiancee Alma Jo McGuire said.

“It was incurable,” she said. “It was easier on him and the family that it didn’t go any longer than it did.”

Brewer won the 1967 Masters for his only major title a year after he lost an 18-hole playoff to Jack Nicklaus. In 1966, Brewer three-putted the 72nd hole to fall into the playoff with Nicklaus and Tommy Jacobs.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Gay Brewer,” said Billy Payne, chairman of the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club. “Gay was a wonderful champion and individual and will be dearly missed in April. We express our heartfelt sympathy to his family.”

Services will be Wednesday in Lexington.

Also: Sherri Steinhauer shot a 6-under-par 66 to top the LPGA State Farm Classic leaderboard for the second straight day, and defending champion Annika Sorenstam had a 65 to pull within three strokes.

Steinhauer, who earned a spot on her fourth U.S. Solheim Cup team this year, had seven birdies and one bogey to get to 11-under 133 at the halfway point of the four-day tournament at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Ill.

Christina Kim was two strokes back after a 66.

Sorenstam, defending the last of her 69 career LPGA Tour titles, had the low round of the day to move into third place at 8 under. The 36-year-old Swede eagled the par-five 16th and had seven birdies to offset two bogeys.

Morris Hatalsky and Monday qualifier Bruce Vaughan shot 7-under 65s to share the first-round lead in the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, Calif.

Hatalsky, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour who has four Champions Tour victories, had eight birdies — including a 30-footer on No. 8 — and one bogey.

Vaughan, meanwhile, had nine birdies and two bogeys in his first tournament round on the Del Monte Golf Course.

France’s Thomas Levet birdied the last hole for a 5-under 68 and a share of the second-round lead with England’s Simon Wakefield in the Johnnie Walker Championship in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Wakefield shot a 69 to match Levet at 9-under 137.

BASKETBALL

Jameer Nelson’s father missing from boat dock

The disappearance of Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson’s father has mystified his co-workers at a Delaware River tugboat company in Chester, Pa., where he was last seen walking across a dock Thursday.

Divers, the U.S. Coast Guard and searchers with dogs continued looking for Floyd “Pete” Nelson in and around the fast-moving river. The 57-year-old had been working Thursday in a dry dock area and was last seen walking toward a tug used as a break room, according to Harry Hays, the owner of Hays Tug & Launch Service.

Jameer Nelson arrived Friday morning and was seen speaking with officials involved in the search.

Also: New York Knicks center Randolph Morris pleaded guilty to reckless driving in Lexington, Ky., and agreed to pay a $100 fine.

Morris, who was scheduled to appear in Fayette District Court for a preliminary hearing, didn’t attend. His attorney, Jim Lowry, entered the guilty plea on his behalf and said the fine and court costs would be paid.

Morris, a former Kentucky star, was arrested Aug. 7 in Lexington after an officer spotted him driving 62 mph — 17 mph over the speed limit — as he drove down an exit ramp. Morris smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes, according to the arrest report.

A federal judge in Greenbelt, Md., sentenced former Maryland basketball star Lonny Baxter to 60 days in prison for illegally shipping firearms, a ruling that cost Baxter his contract with a Spanish team.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte based the sentence on Baxter’s history with firearms and his actions in the case.

“You are in a sense on injured reserve,” Messitte told Baxter, who pleaded guilty in July. “You have in effect injured yourself.”

COLLEGES

UNLV’s Wolfe added to Biletnikoff watch list

UNLV sophomore Ryan Wolfe is one of 39 players on the 2007 Biletnikoff Award Watch List, which is awarded annually to the nation’s top wide receiver.

Wolfe, of Santa Clarita, Calif., is in his second season with the Rebels and had a solid start to the season Thursday with six receptions for 65 yards in UNLV’s 23-16 victory at Utah State.

Also: Katie Carney scored two goals in the first four minutes to carry the UNLV women’s soccer team past Cal State Fullerton 2-0 in the season opener for both teams at Peter Johann Memorial Field.

The game was the second of two in the UNLV Classic, which saw Arizona State hold off Idaho State 1-0 in the opener.

UNLV’s Lamar Neagle scored a goal midway through the second half, and the young Rebels of second-year coach Mario Sanchez held on for a 1-all double-overtime tie with Pittsburgh in the season opener for both teams in the Xavier Soccer Challenge in Cincinnati.

Maria Aladjova had 28 digs and 23 kills, and Jada Walker added 25 digs as the UNLV volleyball team improved to 3-1 with a 30-25, 30-27, 21-30, 30-27 victory over UC Santa Barbara on the opening day of the LAX Classic at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles.

Utah quarterback Brian Johnson will be out at least three weeks with a separated right shoulder, an injury suffered in his first game since a blown-out knee cost him the entire 2006 season.

The Utes also lost their top running back, Matt Asiata, for the season and two other players in a 24-7 loss to Oregon State on Thursday.

Asiata broke his lower left leg. The junior college transfer could redshirt this season and be eligible for two more full seasons.

Tight end Colt Sampson will miss for four weeks with a sprained left knee, and linebacker Matt Martinez is out for the season with a torn knee ligament.

MISCELLANEOUS

Sharks sign Marleau to two-year extension

Patrick Marleau agreed to a two-year, $12.6 million contract extension with the San Jose Sharks, keeping the longtime captain with the club through 2010.

After months of negotiations and public speculation on Marleau’s future, he finalized a deal two weeks before training camp opens to stay with the club that drafted him in 1997.

Also: The local group that put down a $10 million nonrefundable deposit to buy the Nashville Predators for $193 million signed a deal that includes the purchase agreement with current owner Craig Leipold.

The deal had to be finalized by Friday before the local group’s exclusive negotiating rights expired. That would have allowed Leipold to talk with other bidders.

Ten performers suspended by World Wrestling Entertainment were punished for ordering drugs, mostly human growth hormones, that violate the company’s drug policy, a WWE lawyer said in New Haven, Conn.

WWE said it issued suspension notices based on independent information from the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney’s office, which has been investigating sales of steroids and growth hormones through Internet and phone-order firms.

The company did not release the names of those suspended. No criminal charges had been filed.