COLLEGES

Former Maine women’s basketball assistant named head coach at Lake Superior State

Lake Superior State named former University of Maine assistant coach Justin Rees head women’s basketball coach.

Lakers Athletic Director Kris Dunbar said Wednesday that Rees will take over the program on July 1. He replaces Jamie Pewinski, who’s the new head coach at Saginaw Valley State. Pewinski was 77-61 during five seasons at Lake Superior State.

Rees is a Florida native who played basketball at Barry University. He was an assistant coach at Post University in 1999-2002, Ferris State in 2002-07 and Maine in 2007-11.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Point guard Loree Moore is leaving the Los Angeles Sparks because of medical reasons after never playing a minute for them.

The team didn’t disclose the cause of Moore’s health issues when making the announcement.

Moore joined the Sparks in February after playing with the New York Liberty from 2005-09. She averaged 6.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 155 regular-season games.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR: Tony Stewart said he’d be interested in signing Danica Patrick if she moves to NASCAR’s top series from IndyCar racing.

Stewart, who owns Stewart-Haas Racing, is looking for opportunities to increase the team to four cars from two. Patrick is running a limited schedule for the second year for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series but has said she has not decided what she wants to do next season.

n Roush Fenway Racing will hold Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne out of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the fifth consecutive week he’ll miss because of an inflammatory condition.

Team officials said, even though Bayne has been test driving, they decided to hold him out of racing 900 miles over two days at Charlotte.

The Nationwide Series race on Saturday is 300 miles and Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race on the NASCAR schedule.

GYMNASTICS

U.S. MEN’S TEAM: Kevin Mazeika was named coach of the U.S. men’s team for the world championships, scheduled for Oct.7-16 at Tokyo.

Mazeika coached the U.S. to back-to-back Olympic medals for the first time, with the Americans winning the silver in Athens and a bronze in Beijing.

CYCLING

GIRO D’ITALIA: Alberto Contador maintained his overall lead as Diego Ulissi won a three-man sprint finish in the 17th stage, a 143-mile leg from Feltre to Tirano, in 5 hours, 31 minutes, 51 seconds.

Contador remained 4:58 in front of Michele Scarponi in the overall standings, with Vincenzo Nibali 5:45 behind.

 

– From news service reports