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Wednesday April 25, 2018

DING JUNHUI recovered from a slow start to seize control of his snooker World Championship fi rst-round clash against fellow Chinese star Xiao Guodong on Monday.

Ding is bidding for his fi rst title at the Crucible in Sheffi eld, but his dreams of lifting the trophy were under threat after he lost the fi rst two frames.

The world number three stemmed the tide with a break of 68 to take the third frame and that proved a key moment.

Ding reeled off the next three frames before Xiao’s 57 break allowed him to narrow his com-patriot’s lead to 4-3.

That was the signal for Ding to step on the gas again as he won the fi nal two frames of the opening session, with a 72 break in the last of the day giving him a 6-3 advantage.

Ding will look to seal the win in the best of 19 frames encounter the next day.

The 31-year-old was runner-up at the World Championship in 2016 and reached the semifi nals on two other occasions, including last year.

Elsewhere in fi rst-round action, world number 51 Jamie Jones stunned former champion Shaun Murphy with a 10-9 victory.

Welshman Jones dumped the 2005 winner out after holding his nerve to seal the deciding frame 72-1.

Mark Allen saw off Crucible debutant Liam Highfi eld 10-5 to move into the second round.

The 32-year-old will now meet Joe Perry in the second round.

(SD-Agencies)

Ding erases slow start at Crucible

FORMER No. 1 draft pick Andrew Bogut confi rmed Tuesday that he has retired from the NBA and plans to play the next two seasons in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL) with the Sydney Kings.

The oft-injured Bogut said during a Kings news conference there were “no outs” in his deal if an NBA team should become interested. A 13-year NBA veteran and championship winner, Bogut said he had always intended to come back to Australia and play in the NBL and it was only a ques-tion of when and not if.

The 33-year-old Bogut revealed in March that he wouldn’t be returning to the NBA this season in order to remain in Australia with his pregnant wife.

After being waived by the Los Angeles Lakers in January, it was expected the free agent would join a contending team for a playoff push.

But Bogut said he’d stay in Australia and focus on return-ing in the 2018-19 season. He tweeted that his wife’s pregnancy with their second child has been deemed “high-risk” and she’s not allowed to travel.

Bogut played 24 games for the Lakers after signing last September, averaging 1.5 points and 3.3 rebounds while starting fi ve games.

He was acquired by Cleveland in the second half of last season, but he fractured his left leg less than a minute into his debut with the Cavaliers.

Bogut was selected by the Mil-waukee Bucks as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft. He played seven years with the Bucks before a move to Golden State, where he won an NBA championship in 2015. (SD-Agencies)

Bogut retires from NBA, to join Sydney NBL team

In this Nov. 8, 2017 fi le photo, Boston Celtics’ Terry Rozier (12) goes to the basket past Los Angeles Lakers’ Andrew Bogut during their game in Boston. SD-Agencies

THEO WALCOTT’S second-half strike helped Everton beat New-castle 1-0 Monday and move up to eighth in the English Premier League (EPL), its highest position since August.

The result ended Newcastle’s four-match winning streak and prevented Rafael Benitez’s side from leapfrogging the Toffees in the standings.

There were 31 minutes on the

clock before either side registered a shot on target, and when it did Ayoze Perez’s tame effort was underwhelming.

Everton almost took the lead moments later but Jonjo Shelvey blocked Michael Keane’s header with Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka stranded.

The home side broke the dead-lock six minutes after the break. Walcott was originally unable

to bring Yannick Bolasie’s deep cross under control but the ball came back off DeAndre Yedlin and Walcott smashed it into the roof of the net.

Both managers made changes after that and it was Newcastle substitute Dwight Gayle who should have leveled 64 seconds after coming on. Shelvey’s corner was headed on by Jamaal Lascelles and Gayle hooked a

great chance off target from close range.

Keane, who had been booked for a foul on Gayle, was fortu-nate to escape another caution for an equally poor challenge on the same player, but Everton retained 11 men and held on, with Seamus Coleman brilliantly heading away Jacob Murphy’s cross at the end.

(SD-Agencies)

Everton beats Newcastle 1-0 to move up to 8th in EPL

COMING off a loss in Minneapolis on Saturday night, James Harden opened Game 4 of his Houston Rockets’ fi rst-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves ice cold, missing his fi rst seven shots from the fi eld against the fi erce defense of Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins and Taj Gibson, among others.

The Rockets sputtered to just 21 fi rst-quarter points and 38 percent shooting in the fi rst half Monday. The hosts entered inter-mission trailing by one, right in the thick of things and believing they might be just 24 minutes away from sending this 1-vs.-8 matchup back to Texas knotted up at two games apiece.

And then, the second half started, and Minnesota’s hope stopped.

The Rockets absolutely annihi-lated the Wolves after intermis-sion, scoring 50 points in the third quarter to bury the hosts under a barrage of buckets that turned a tight game into a dismal disappointment for the fans in the stands at Target Center. After what amounted to 12 minutes of garbage time, the Rockets cruised out of Minnesota with a 119-100 win that gave them a command-ing 3-1 lead in the series.

The remarkable third-quarter offensive display — 14-for-23 shooting, 9-for-13 from 3-point range, 13-for-13 at the foul line — gave the Rockets the second-highest scoring quarter by any team in NBA playoff history.

After getting himself unstuck with 10 points on 4-for-7 shoot-ing in the second quarter, Harden opened the third with a dance-and-drive past cross-matched center Karl-Anthony Towns all the way to the cup for a layup.

Rockets erupt for 50-point quarter in win

Houston Rockets’ James Harden puts up a layup against the Minnesota Timberwolves during their game Monday night. SD-Agencies

Then, he drew Gibson into foul-ing him on a 3-point attempt, sending him to the line for three freebies.

From there, he was off, going full-fl edged Human Torch to the tune of 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including three triples, in the third alone — a Rockets franchise record for most points in a single postseason quarter.

With Harden leading the charge and the Clint Capela-led defense smothering Minnesota’s actions all over the court, the Rockets absolutely incinerated the Wolves in the third, needing only half a quarter to turn a one-possession game into a blowout. By the time Eric Gordon’s buzzer-beating long ball splashed through as the quarter-ending buzzer sounded,

the Rockets had equaled their fi rst-half output in just 12 min-utes of basketball, hanging half-a-hundred in the third quarter to take a 31-point lead into the fourth and leaving everyone in a Wolves jersey — whether on the bench or in the stands — feeling the exact same way Towns did.

The Timberwolves are the fi rst team to be outscored by 30 points in any quarter of a postsea-son game since the 1986 Atlanta Hawks were outscored by the Celtics 36-6 in the 3rd quarter of Game 5 in the Eastern Conference Semifi nals.

Harden fi nished with a game-high 36 points on 12-for-26 shoot-ing to go with four rebounds, four steals, three assists, one block and only one turnover in 33 minutes

of work. Superstar running buddy Chris Paul, who scored 15 in the deciding frame, added 25 points, six rebounds, six assists and fi ve steals in the win.

Capela (14 points, 17 rebounds, four blocks, three assists) and Gordon (18 points in 30 minutes off the bench) also shined for Houston.

Towns fought through early foul trouble to turn in his second consecutive solid outing, scoring 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting with 15 rebounds to pace Min-nesota.

Butler chipped in across the board, scoring 19 points with seven rebounds and fi ve assists, while Derrick Rose had 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting.

(SD-Agencies)

Ding Junhui