BRIEFS

Lady Saints

victorious in debut

Marissa Pesce had five goals and Kelly Lickert had two goals and a pair of assists to lead the No. 4 ranked Limestone women's lacrosse team to a 14-4 season opening win over St. Andrews on Saturday.

Saints lose

rubber game

In baseball action, Augusta State scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth to beat the visiting Limestone Saints, 9-8, and win the rubber game in the three-game series on Sunday.

Matt Craig had two hits and Joey Assis had two RBIs for the Saints. Dylan Anthony was 2 for 3 with two RBIs for Limestone.

The teams split a doubleheader on Saturday. Paul Irby and Taylor Cook each had two hits to lead the Saints to a 4-2 win in the opener.

USC-Upstate

sweeps Lady Saints

In softball action, USC-Upstate swept the Limestone Lady Saints, 12-3 and 14-1 on Sunday.

Mickelson wins

Pebble Beach

Anyone worried that Phil Mickelson was emotionally scarred by that U.S. Open collapse can relax.

Mickelson finally got his season on track Sunday by closing with a 6- under 66 under surprising sunshine to tie the tournament record at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and win by five shots for the 30th victory of his career.

Mickelson overcame a double bogey with a lost ball early in the round with three birdies in a fourhole stretch along the ocean, turning a tight race into another runaway. He matched the largest margin of victory at this tournament, winning by five shots over Kevin Sutherland.

It was the 11th time in 15 seasons that Mickelson won on the West Coast Swing, and the timing couldn't have been better. He had started his season slowly, allowing the conversation to linger on his gaffe last summer at Winged Foot, when he chopped his way to a double bogey on the final hole to lose the U.S. Open.

Now, he looks as if he's about to hit his stride.

Mickelson finished at 20-under 268, tying the tournament record at Pebble Beach set in 1997 by Mark O'Meara. He earned $990,000, making him the third person in tour history to surpass $40 million in career earnings.

Sutherland, in the final group for the second time in three weeks, hit over the ninth green and took double bogey to fall out of contention.

Celtics' losing

streak hits 18

The losses keep piling up for the Boston Celtics, one after another to bring them to one of the low points in the proud franchise's championshipladen history.

And the Celtics dipped even lower on Sunday, not just because they lost their franchise-record 18th straight game, but because of how they lost it and to whom.

Ricky Davis' jumper from the corner with 0.2 seconds remaining lifted the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 109-107 victory, prolonging the winter of discontent in Boston.

The Utah Jazz also lost 18 straight in 1982 and seven teams have lost 19 games in a row. And the Celtics still have a ways to go to get to the NBA record for 24 straight losses that belongs to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a streak that spanned the end of the 1981-82 season and start of the 1982-83 season.