Prep Sports

Saints fall to defending state champs — Damascus Christian, the reigning Class 1A girls basketball state champion, topped host Trinity Lutheran 77-45 in Bend on Tuesday in a nonconference contest. Damascus Christian (17-1 overall) hit 14 3-pointers against the Saints, who fell to 9-6 with the defeat. Katie Murphy led Trinity Lutheran with 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Emily Eidler posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Saints resume Mountain Valley League play on Thursday with a home game against league-leading Hosanna Christian.

cycling

Australian wins 1st stage of Tour Down Under — Australian rider Simon Gerrans outsprinted Germany’s Andre Greipel to win the opening stage of the Tour Down Under today, taking an emphatic step toward winning the opening event of cycling’s ProTour season for a third time. A demanding climb up Mengler’s Hill 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the end of the 135-kilometer (84-mile) stage from Nurioopta to Angaston took several of the top sprinters out of contention. Greipel stayed near the lead and seemed set for his 15th stage victory in Australia when he hit the front early on the uphill sprint to the finish. Australian Steele von Hoff finished third in today’s stage, while Diego Ulissi of Italy was fourth and Maxime Bouet of France fifth.

Hockey

Canucks’ Tortorella suspended 15 days — The NHL suspended Vancouver coach John Tortorella without pay for 15 days on Monday for his conduct after a brawl between the Canucks and the Calgary Flames. Tortorella went to Calgary’s locker room at intermission following the first period Saturday night, which began with several fights and four game misconducts per team. Vancouver won the game 3-2 in a shootout.

Football

Fresno St. agrees to extension with coach — Fresno State has reached an agreement with coach Tim DeRuyter to extend his contract through the 2018 season. The school announced Monday the terms of the letter of intent of the deal that will pay DeRuyter a base salary of $7.5 million for the next five years. DeRuyter can also earn performance bonuses that are expected to be worth between $500,000 and $700,000 a year. The two sides still need to finalize the contract, but athletic director Thomas Boeh said he hoped the announcement will give stability during the upcoming recruiting period.

Seahawks Sherman sorry for rant — Pete Carroll pulled Richard Sherman aside on Monday and made sure his fiery cornerback understood that his rant against San Francisco’s Michael Crabtree was overshadowing the Seattle Seahawks reaching their second Super Bowl in franchise history. Sherman seemed to get Carroll’s message.“He was really clear that the last thing he wanted to do was take something away from our team, what we had accomplished,” Carroll said.

Sherman became the focal point of attention — both positive and negative — after Seattle beat San Francisco 23-17 on Sunday to win the NFC championship.

Sherman was already going to be in the spotlight for what he did on San Francisco’s final offensive play, twisting his body to deflect a pass intended for Crabtree into the air and allowing time for teammate Malcolm Smith to run over and make an interception in the end zone to clinch the Seahawks’ victory.

The athleticism on the play was worthy of praise. But Sherman’s antics from that point drew praise from some for being honest and unfiltered, and criticism from others for being too harsh and combative.

“This is a very emotional kid and that’s what drives him,” Carroll said. “We did sit down and talk about it because I want him to present himself in his best light. He’s an incredible kid.

“He has a great sense about things and understanding and sensitivity and awareness and he cares and he’s a very thoughtful person so when he puts out those kind of thoughts he has to know what he’s saying and understand it and I think he’s very understanding at this point that he caused a stir that took away from the team.”

Sherman had been rarely targeted by the 49ers, with most of Colin Kaepernick’s passes being thrown in the direction of Byron Maxwell.

But in the final minute, Kaepernick decided to take a shot to the end zone with Crabtree and Sherman matched up one-on-one.

Sherman won the matchup, staying in position to deflect the pass and have it fall into Smith’s hands, similar to a tipped interception from Sherman to safety Earl Thomas in Week 15 against the New York Giants.Except this was far more meaningful, giving Seattle its second conference championship.

But Sherman didn’t let the celebration end with Smith and his teammates.

Sherman ran over to Crabtree and gave him a pat on the backside, then appeared to extend his arm for a handshake.

Instead, Sherman got shoved in the face before picking up his personal foul as his celebration continued. The taunt included a choking gesture in the direction of Kaepernick.

— From wire reports