Thursday's Sports In Brief

By The Associated Press

Here's a look at Thursdays's sports in brief around the world.

FOOTBALL

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — NFL player Marquis Cooper’s wife is seeking a presumptive death certificate a week after the Coast Guard called off its search for the missing boater and two friends.

Rebekah Cooper filed a petition for the certificate Wednesday in civil court in Florida.

The Oakland Raiders linebacker departed from Clearwater Pass west of Tampa Feb. 28 in a 21-foot boat. He was with free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith and two former University of South Florida football players.

Their boat overturned after encountering rough waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Nick Schuyler was found clinging to the boat two days later. The other men have not been found.

With the presumptive death certificate, Cooper’s beneficiaries can collect life insurance and other benefits.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina, Davidson’s Stephen Curry and Luke Harangody of Notre Dame are among the candidates for the John R. Wooden Award as college basketball’s player of the year.

Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris and Maya Moore of Connecticut led the contenders for the women’s award.

Hansbrough, who leads the Atlantic Coast Conference with 21.1 points a game, won the award last year. Curry leads the nation in scoring at 28.6 points, while Harangody is seventh with 23.7 points and fifth in rebounding at 12.1 per game.

Also on the ballot is Hansbrough’s teammate, Ty Lawson, along with Pittsburgh teammates DeJuan Blair and Sam Young, and Duke teammates Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler.

Along with eight seniors, Memphis guard Tyreke Evans was the only freshman selected as a finalist.

The awards will be presented April 10 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

WINTER SPORTS

ARE, Sweden (AP) — Lindsey Vonn won the super-G season finale at the World Cup finals, becoming the first American woman to capture the championship title in the discipline.

Vonn earned her third crystal globe this season, tying the U.S. record set by Phil Mahre in 1982.

The 24-year-old Vonn finished the Olympia course in 1 minute, 20.63 seconds. A day earlier, she clinched the World Cup overall title for the second straight year by winning downhill.

It was Vonn’s ninth World Cup win this winter, setting another U.S. record for the most World Cup wins in one season — male or female.

She leads all American women with two overall titles, 22 career wins and 47 podium finishes. Her consecutive downhill titles matched Picabo Street in 1995-96.

It marked her fourth straight World Cup super-G win, following her victory at the world championships last month at Val d’Isere, France.

PRO BASKETBALL

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Hornets’ attendance and overall revenues have been strong enough to eliminate the need for financial inducements from the State of Louisiana this year.

Hornets president Hugh Weber said that the New Orleans Arena has been filling to about 99 percent capacity so far this season.

In what Weber referred to as a partnership with the state, the team agreed to open its financial books to state government if the state would in turn pledge to pay subsidies when attendance and revenues failed to meet certain benchmarks.

While the NBA has taken out a line of credit to help struggling teams’ cash flow, with 12 teams electing to borrow a combined $200 million, Weber said the Hornets have not sought any such help yet.

The Hornets’ season-ticket base is just short of 11,000, a new franchise high since moving to New Orleans from Charlotte in 2002. The club has sold out 14 games, one more that all of the previous regular season.

SOCCER

LONDON (AP) — David Beckham may be honored by World Cup organizers with a special ceremony if he breaks England’s all-time appearance record at the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

Danny Jordaan, the 2010 chief executive, said that he planned to approach Nelson Mandela and ask the former South African president to host a ceremony.

The 33-year-old Beckham has played 108 times for England and could match Peter Shilton’s record of 125 appearances at the World Cup. England leads its qualifying group and has nine more matches scheduled this year.

Citing Beckham’s impact at Manchester United, Real Madrid, the Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan, Jordaan said the veteran’s presence would boost the event in South Africa should England qualify.

TENNIS

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Roger Federer is going to be a father.

The Swiss tennis star said in a message on his Web site that girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec is pregnant with the couple’s first child. The baby is due in the summer.

Federer met Vavrinec at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Federer, a 13-time Grand Slam champion who is ranked No 2, is in Indian Wells, Calif., for a tournament.

Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in five sets in the Australian Open final. He pulled out of Switzerland’s Davis Cup series against the United States and withdrew from the Dubai Tennis Championships because of an injured back.

Federer is seeded second behind Nadal at Indian Wells, a tournament he won from 2004-06.