NC STATE-WASHINGTON TRANSFER
NC State’s Washington to transfer after sophomore season
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) β North Carolina State sophomore Kyle Washington has notified the school that he plans to transfer.
Athletics spokesman Fred Demarest says the 6-foot-9 forward met with coaches this week as well as athletic director Debbie Yow on Thursday. Washington must sit one year after transferring with two years of eligibility remaining.
Washington averaged 6.8 points and started 18 games as the best scorer in a four-man frontcourt rotation, but his role dwindled significantly late in the season. He averaged 6.9 minutes in the final 11 games for a team that reached the NCAA Sweet 16, including two games when he didn’t play.
The Wolfpacker first reported Washington’s planned transfer, which along with the surprise NBA declaration of all-conference guard Trevor Lacey leaves N.C. State with seven scholarship players for next year.
RBC HERITAGE
Merritt’s 61 trumps Masters champion Spieth’s 62
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) β Troy Merritt shot a 10-under 61 on Friday to tie the course record at the RBC Heritage only a few hours after Masters champion Jordan Spieth wowed the gallery with a bounce-back 62.
Merritt matched David Frost’s tournament mark set in 1994 and topped the leaderboard at 12-under 130, four strokes in front of defending champion Matt Kuchar and John Merrick.
Spieth started off the low, low scoring at Harbour Town Golf Links, making nine birdies in a bogey-free round after struggling in an opening 74. The 21-year-old Texan was six shots back at 6 under.
Merritt had nine birdies over his final 12 holes, finishing with a 5-foot putt on the course’s signature lighthouse 18th.
Merrick had a 65, and Kuchar shot 66.
HORNETS-STEPHENSON
Hornets GM Cho: Stephenson ‘didn’t work like we expected’
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) β Hornets general manager Rich Cho says the Lance Stephenson signing last summer “didn’t work out as we expected it to.”
Cho, speaking at his end-of-season press conference Friday, says when Charlotte signed Stephenson to a three-year, $27 million contract last offseason, “We thought it would work out a lot better.”
Instead, Stephenson’s productivity dropped off significantly from his time at Indiana and he played his way out of the rotation near the end of the season. He shot 17.3 percent from 3-point range, the worst mark in NBA history among players with at least 100 attempts.
Stephenson is under contract for next season and the Hornets have a team option for 2016-17.
Cho expects “Lance to work hard this offseason and have a better year next year.”
NASCAR-BRISTOL-QUALIFYING
Matt Kenseth wins pole at Bristol Motor Speedway
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) β Matt Kenseth, a three-time winner at Bristol Motor Speedway, has won the pole for Sunday’s race.
Kenseth turned a lap at 128.632 mph in Friday in qualifying to earn the top starting spot. It is Kenseth’s first pole of the season and 13th of his career.
Brad Keselowski qualified second at 128.442. He was followed by Carl Edwards as JGR drivers took two of the top three spots, and three of the top five when Denny Hamlin qualified behind Kevin Harvick.
Kenseth has won the August race at Bristol three times in his career, but has never won on the .533-mile concrete bullring in the spring.
He takes 51-race winless streak into Sunday.
