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Hibbert bloody but Pacers win
Grace beats greats in play-off
Wilson wins 5th PGA title
ROY Hibbert battled through the pain of a suspected
broken nose to finish with a team-high 18 points and
eight rebounds to help the Indiana Pacers to a 98-96
NBA win over the LA Lakers yesterday. The 25-yearold centre was bloodied in the first quarter during a
foul on Lakers star Kobe Bryant but remained in the
game. He shot nine-of-13 from the field and scored
eight of his points in the final quarter as Indiana
broke the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak at home.
SOUTH Africa’s Branden Grace held off the challenge
of two of his country’s greatest players to win the
European PGA’s Champions tournament in a suddendeath play-off at The Links at Fancourt on Sunday.
Grace, 23, tied with former major winners Ernie Els
and Retief Goosen on 12-under-par 280 on the par73, 6650-metre artificial links. He then made a twoputt birdie on the par-five 18th, the first play-off
hole, while Els and Goosen could only make par.
AMERICAN Mark Wilson is off to another fast start on
the PGA Tour, holding off an abundance of
challengers in an extended Sunday to capture the
$US5.6 million ($5.4 million) Humana Challenge
tournament in California. Wilson fired a three-underpar 69 in the final round for a two-stroke victory — his
fifth career USPGA Tour win. Wilson had to complete
his third round on Sunday morning after strong winds
disrupted the tournament the day before.
Numbers up
at Hottest 7s
RUGBY SEVENS
By IAN BUTTERWORTH
PUB: NT NEWS
DATE: 24-JAN-2012 PAGE: 36 COLOR: C M Y K
A HUGE increase in spectator numbers was just one
of a series of highlights
recorded at the 2012 Heineken Hottest 7s in the World
tournament played over
the weekend at Rugby Park
in Darwin.
The SRC Borneo Eagles became the first team to win
three consecutive tournaments after they overwhelmed Daveta 42-10 in the
final and, for the second
time, the women’s decider
was a defensive thriller with
top seeds Aussie Pearls
knocking over Eastsyde 7-5.
‘‘Our first priority was to
make the event more spectator and family friendly,
and with numbers through
the gate up 40 per cent, we
can count that as a win,’’ said
NTRU chief executive officer
Andrew Crozier.
‘‘On the field we had 44
teams playing 101 games of
rugby and the weekend went
without incident and no serious injury occurred.’’
But Crozier said it was too
early to fully measure the
success of the weekend because financial stability and
an increase in interest and
participant numbers were
issues that would take time
to determine.
‘‘Financially we look to
break even and while the
numbers were better, we did
lower admission costs and
put up more shade and improved the public area,
which (added) to our costs,’’
he said. ‘‘So many sports are
competing for their market
share and while we need
stability and growth, the Hottest 7s Chairman is already
talking about next year.’’
Meanwhile, the NTRU is
no closer to gaining naming
rights for Rugby Park.
‘‘We are still searching and
working on the matter but
for the past six weeks, most
of our energy has been spent
on Hottest 7s organisation,’’
Crozier added.
Billy Burns and Mitch Hyde tangle during their Rugby Sevens
contest at the weekend
Picture: MICHAEL FRANCHI
Giants,
Patriots
rematch
GRIDIRON
THE New England Patriots and New York
Giants booked a rematch
of their dramatic 2008
Super Bowl showdown
with tense playoff triumphs yesterday to reach
the February 5 NFL championship spectacle.
Lawrence Tynes kicked
a 31-yard field goal after
7min54sec of overtime to
give the Giants a 20-17 triumph over the San Francisco 49ers in the National
Conference final and a
Super Bowl 46 berth.‘‘I
had dreams about this last
night,’’ Tynes said. ‘‘I was
so nervous before this
game. I knew I was going
to have to make a big
kick.’’
In New England, the Patriots overcame three
turnovers and a sub-par
performance from quarterback Tom Brady to
edge the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in the American Conference final and
advance to their seventh
Super Bowl.
‘‘We’re going to try to go
out and kick some butt,’’
Brady said.
Brady scored the winning points on a one-yard
run with 11:29 remaining
but the outcome was not
settled until Baltimore
kicker Billy Cundiff missed wide left on a 32-yard
field goal attempt with 11
seconds remaining.
In the 2008 title game,
the Giants edged the Patriots 17-14 to deny New
England’s unbeaten run.
36
Andrew Wilson, 16, of Darwin prepares to putt while Andrew Crabb, 16, from WA holds the flag. Hayden Gulliver, 15, from NSW looks on
Picture: BARRY SKIPSEY
Darwin’s young guns clean up at the Alice Junior Open
GOLF
DARWIN golfers claimed the
major spoils at the recent Alice Springs Junior Open.
NT NEWS. Tuesday, January 24, 2012.
Andrew Wilson fired
rounds of 72 and 76 to win the
Paul Pearson Cup in the
boys’ event while fellow Top
End player Asha Hargreaves
was the girls’ winner with
her 36-hole score of 166.
Wilson and Red Centre
golfer Michael Henderson
teamed up to give Northern
Territory success in the
teams event. The Territory
duo posted a score of 305 to
beat WA by six strokes, with
ACT third and NSW fourth.
More than 40 youngsters
teed off in the two-day event
preceded by a junior camp
run by local professional Stephen Tieck.
www.ntnews.com.au