Fanfare 9/3/02

Basketball

Paul Pierce had another one of his scoring blitzes Monday night, cementing his status as the best offensive player on the U.S. national team.

Pierce made seven consecutive shots and scored 20 of his 27 points in the third quarter to lead the United States to a 106-82 victory over Russia at the World Championships in Indianapolis.

Pierce has led the Americans in scoring in all four games.

Andre Miller added 18 points for the United States, which plays New Zealand today and Argentina Wednesday to complete the second round.

Colleges

Hours after his first college football game, a Minnesota player was fatally shot near a downtown Minneapolis bar following a confrontation with three men.

Brandon Hall, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman, was shot about eight blocks from the Metrodome during a dispute between a group of teammates and three other men about 2 a.m. Sunday, police said. The players had accused the men of assaulting Gophers player Damian Haye and ripping a gold chain from his neck.

As the players approached, the three men began walking away and went into a van, police spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington said. One of them got out of the van and began walking toward the players. He fired shots and Hall was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Missouri quarterback Brad Smith and Oklahoma running back Quentin Griffin were named Big 12 offensive players of the week Monday, while Texas linebacker Derrick Johnson and Nebraska cornerback DeJuan Groce nabbed the title on defense and special teams.

Cycling

An exhaustive doping probe into Lance Armstrong's cycling team was closed last week because of a lack of evidence, a French judicial official said.

After 21 months of inquiries, investigators found no proof that the U.S. Postal Service team used banned substances during the 2000 Tour de France, the official told The Associated Press on Monday, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

Armstrong won his second consecutive Tour title in 2000. He won the Tour for the fourth straight year in July.

Football

Defensive player of the year Michael Strahan agreed to a seven-year, $46 million deal Monday that will allow the NFL's single-season sack holder to end his career with the New York Giants.

The deal came three days before the Giants' season opener against the San Francisco 49ers and just six months after an angry Strahan declared that this would be his final season with the team after a proposed $56 million deal fell apart.

The 30-year-old Strahan will receive a $6.4 million signing bonus. A total of $20.9 million of the contract will be guaranteed over the next three seasons.

--From wire reports