Overtime

Hockey

Augusta welcomes Ftorek back to town

The Augusta Lynx signed veteran right winger Sam Ftorek on Saturday.

Ftorek returns to Augusta for the first time since the 1999-00 season. In 89 games with the Lynx over two years, Ftorek scored 17 goals and 42 points with 177 PIMs.

The seven-year pro played last year with Gwinnett and Fresno and scored 11 goals with 39 points.

Cross Country

Pacers finish sixth; Jaguars just behind

The USC Aiken cross country team placed sixth out of ninth in The Citadel Invitational on Saturday.

Carson-Newman won the team event with 61 points. Augusta State was seventh, five points behind USC Aiken.

Marcie Milner, of Aiken, was the highest Pacers finisher with a time of 21 minutes, 40 seconds, which was good enough for 22nd. Renea Marshall was five seconds behind Milner in 24th and Ashley Reedy was 26th two seconds behind Marshall.

Other Pacers finishers included Alley Dachenhaus in 35th and Katie Halvorsen in 56th.

Tennis

Roddick closes out Davis Cup victory

In Leuven, Belgium, The United States kept its spot in the top tier of the Davis Cup when Andy Roddick capitalized on his booming serve and a disputed call in the fifth set to defeat Olivier Rochus and give the Americans an unbeatable lead against Belgium.

Roddick won, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3, in 4 hours to put the U.S. ahead 3-1 in the best-of-five playoff. Belgium was relegated to zonal competition next year. In the final match, James Blake beat Steve Darcis 7-5, 6-1 to make the final score 4-1.

It was the second victory this weekend for the No. 3-ranked Roddick, who was coming off a first-round exit at the U.S. Open. He served 34 aces on the red clay of the Sportplaza to undo the tireless running and creative shotmaking of the 31st-ranked Belgian. Rochus was playing his third match in three days.

- Slovakia and Croatia reached the Davis Cup final for the first time, with both nations winning opening singles matches to clinch their semifinals.

Slovakia took a 3-1 lead over Argentina when Dominik Hrbaty stopped Guillermo Coria, 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-3.

Croatia advanced when Ivan Ljubicic defeated Russia's Nikolay Davydenko, 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-4, to go up 3-1 in the best-of-five competition. The final score was 3-2.

The final will be Dec. 2-4 in Slovakia.

- In Beijing, Russia's Maria Kirilenko won the China Open for her first WTA singles title, defeating Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-3, 6-4.

- In Calcutta, India, Anastasia Myskina, of Russia, won her first title of the year, defeating Karolina Sprem, of Croatia, 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the Sunfeast Open.

Basketball

Greece frustrates Nowitzki, Germany

In Belgrade, Serbia- Montenegro, Greece beat Germany 78-62 on Sunday to win its second European Championship, frustrating Dirk Nowitzki with strong defense and getting 22 points from Theodoros Papaloukas.

Nowitzki, the tournament's MVP, scored 23 points but was only 1-for-8 from 3-point range. The Dallas Mavericks star had nine rebounds but four turnovers.

Earlier, France won the bronze medal, with San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker scoring 25 points in a 98-68 victory over Spain. It was France's first medal at the European Championship since 1959.

Greece won the title for the first time in 1987 at home and this time if felt as if it were playing at home as well. Seven planeloads of Greek fans arrived Sunday to join those already in the Serbian capital, and Belgrade Arena was awash in blue-and-white Greek colors. After the buzzer, the winners broke into Zorba the Greek dance.

"It was a dream final for us, we showed a great team spirit and tonight I don't think that any team in Europe could have beaten us," said Papaloukas, whose team did not include any NBA players.