Briefs | U.S. women's basketball loses

International basketball

Host China triumphs: Miao Lijie scored 26 points and host China upset the United States 84-81 in Saturday's championship game of a pre-Olympic women's test tournament in Beijing.

Katie Smith led the Americans — the defending Olympic champions — with 16 points. Storm forward Swin Cash added 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting for the U.S. team, which is coached by former Storm coach Anne Donovan.

The Americans went 4-2 in the tournament. China was 5-1.

Olympic draw for women, men: The U.S. women and China are in Group B at this year's Beijing Olympics, along with Mali, New Zealand and two more teams to be decided in a qualifying tournament in Spain. The Americans will open against one of the yet-to-be-determined teams.

The U.S. men will open against China in a Group B game at the Olympics. Defending world champion Spain, Angola and two teams from a qualifying event also will be in the group.

FIBA makes changes: The international game will look more like the NBA after two major rule changes take effect as of Oct. 1, 2010. World governing body FIBA announced the three-point line will move back from 20 feet, 6.1 inches to 22 feet, 1.7 inches and the three-second area will change shape from a trapezoid to a rectangle.

Field hockey

U.S. team advances to title game: Tiffany Snow scored her fifth goal of the tournament, and the U.S. team remained undefeated at an Olympic qualifier with a 3-1 victory over the Netherlands Antilles in Kazan, Russia. The Americans (5-0) face Belgium (3-1-1) in today's title game, with the winner earning a berth in the Beijing Games.

Tennis

Russians build lead in Fed Cup: Two Russian standouts won their singles matches against a depleted United States team to take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five Fed Cup semifinal in Moscow.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, ranked fourth in the world, beat No. 145 Ahsha Rolle 6-2, 6-1, and No. 7 Anna Chakvetadze defeated No. 115 Vania King 6-4, 7-5.

Soccer

Chelsea beats Manchester United: Chelsea kept the English Premier League title race alive by beating Manchester United 2-1, leaving the teams tied in points at 81 with two matches to go in the season. Man U keeps the lead because of a better goal difference.

Toronto wins third in row: Amado Guevara scored twice to give host Toronto FC a 2-0 victory over Kansas City, the second-year Toronto team's franchise-record third consecutive Major League Soccer triumph.

In other MLS matches, Landon Donovan had three goals as Los Angeles outscored Chivas USA 5-2; D.C. United beat Real Salt Lake 4-1; Chicago defeated Colorado 2-1; and Columbus beat Houston 1-0.

College football

Rodriguez to seek retraction: Michigan's Rich Rodriguez is firing back at a former West Virginia colleague, who claimed the former Mountaineers coach would get the fundraiser a job with the Wolverines. An attorney for Rodriguez plans to deliver a letter on Monday to Larry Aschebrook's attorney, asking the former West Virginia fundraiser to retract statements he made in a sworn affidavit last month.

Horse racing

Peppers Pride ties record: Undefeated Peppers Pride, a 5-year-old mare, won her 16th race in a row, tying a modern record for North America-based Thoroughbreds. Peppers Pride, who won at SunRay Park in Farmington, N.M., shares the record with Citation, Cigar, Mister Frisky and Hallowed Dreams.

Cycling

Sivtsov takes lead: Belarus' Kanstantin Sivtsov of the High Road team won the sixth stage and became the fourth overall leader in the Tour de Georgia.

Seattle Times news services