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Would you believe that Switzerland, a country without an ocean, owns the America’s Cup, the biggest prize in sail ing and the oldest trophy in international sports? “Switzerland — who would have thought, the America’s Cup?” 37-year-old biotech bil lionaire Ernesto Bertarelli said after his sailing crew, including seven New Zealanders, complet ed the historic five-race sweep of Team New Zealand, the two-time defending champion. Alinghi became the first European team to win the America’s Cup in 152 years. The Swiss overwhelmed the Kiwis, clinching the best-of-nine series with a 45-second victory Sunday or. the Hauraki Gulf. At the cup’s new home, the Geneva Nautical Society on Lake Geneva, Swiss sailing enthusiasts ditched their coun try’s reputation for reserve by screaming and cheering while watching the race on TV in the early morning hours. “It’s a really great achieve ment,” said Severine Gaillard, dancing on the quayside follow ing the victory. “But I believed in it right from the beginning.” Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Sports Minister Samuel Schmid telephoned Bertarelli to congratulate him and his team “for their unprecedented achievement.” It was a remarkable job by a team that started from scratch in 2000, with Bertarelli’s money and Kiwi talent. “For me, the fact that Switzerland wins the America’s Cup is a sign of hope for a lot of people,” Bertarelli said. “It really says to the world that the impos sible doesn’t exist.” It seemed like it took 152 years to get this regatta finished. There were seven delays due to uncooperative weather on the Hauraki Gulf, taking 16 days to get in five races. Alinghi was near-perfect, with a fast boat and unflappable crew led by Russell Coutts. The 41- year-old New Zealander became the most dominant skipper in America’s Cup history, sailing unbeaten through his third straight America’s Cup match, for two different countries. Coutts has won a record 14 straight races in the cup match. It would be 15, but after staking Team New Zealand to a 4-0 lead over Italy’s Prada Challenge in 2000 he handed the wheel to understudy Dean Barker and watched the clinching win from a chase boat. Coutts’s 14 wins are the most in America’s Cup races, one more than Dennis Conner had in four cup matches. Five of Coutts’ Kiwi mates on Alinghi are 15-0 in three cup matches, including tactician Brad Butterworth. They won their first in 1995, leading Team New Zealand to a 5-0 win over Conner off San Diego. Bertarelli, a Harvard MBA, built his syndicate the same way he turned his family business, the Serono Group, into Europe’s leading biotech company. “People make the difference,” said Bertarelli, who served as Alinghi’s navigator. “It’s all about having the best people you can and trusting them and giving them space to do their work.” Bertarelli poached the best tal ent Team New Zealand had fol lowing its successful cup defense in 2000. The Kiwis lost one-third of their sailors and designers to three major overseas syndicates, leading to an undercurrent of bit terness in this regatta. Coutts and Butterworth plan to remain with Alinghi. “I am a New Zealander. Make no bones about that,” Coutts said. “But I am immensely proud of what we’ve achieved at Alinghi.” The Swiss victory brings the antiquated cup into a new era, with big changes expected. It goes from a remote country that is half a world away from almost any other place, to a continent with major population areas. Since the Swiss have no coast line, they’ll have to defend the cup at a port on the Mediterranean or Atlantic, proba bly in 2007. It will definitely be in southern Europe, “because I like the sun,” Bertarelli said. Alinghi plans to announce some plans for the next cup Tuesday. Spurs beat Houston, 97-88 By Michael A. Lutz THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HOUSTON — Five San Antonio Spurs scored in double figures. One surprise scorer led them all. Emanuel Ginobili scored a career high 20 points as the Spurs held off the Houston Rockets for a 97-88 victory Sunday. The Spurs won for the 13th time in 14 games and improved their record in 2003 to 22-4. Tim Duncan had 17 points, Tony Parker and Malik Rose each had 16, and David Robinson had 14. “We played real well together. I’m real proud,” Ginobili said. “We have to keep doing the same thing. Twenty points just happened today. I don’t know if it will happen again. I don’t care if it does. “It’s just one of 82 games. With our scoring team, it’s not easy to do. It just happened. I don’t give it much importance. I’m happy to help the team but it’s not the most important thing.” The Spurs never trailed and they were up 87-70 with 6:04 to play when the Rockets pulled within 94-88 with 52 seconds left. Glen Rice scored 11 of his 19 points in the final 5:43. “He’s becoming more and more important to this team,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Ginobili. “He plays defense, he gets steals, he gets loose balls. He’s just an outstanding player. The league is beginning to see there’s more there than they thought.” Steve Francis led the Rockets with 21 points, and Yao Ming had 14 points and nine rebounds. “We’ve got to do something about our slow starts defensively,” Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “We got into a comfort zone and then when it got to the embarrassing stage we picked it up later on.” The Spurs used a 12-4 run to build on their 51-39 advantage at halftime. Even an 11-1 run by the Rockets couldn’t get their deficit under 10 points, and San Antonio kept Houston at bay and led 74-59 going into the fourth quarter. Duncan and Parker peppered the Rockets defense in the first quarter and Ginobili scored nine points early in the second as the Spurs kept their big lead at halftime despite a late second-quarter 11-2 spurt by the Rockets. “He’s a fiery guy, very talent ed,” Tomjanovich said of Ginobili. “He’s an intense guy who attacks the game with a passion. He has a lot of tools that you don’t see a lot early because of the injuries.” Ginobili was acti vated from the injury list on Dec. 29 after missing 11 games because of a sprained right ankle. Parker had 10 points in the first quarter and Duncan scored eight to give the Spurs a 30-18 lead. “If we can keep our turnovers down, our assists up and keep the oppo nents offensive rebounds down, we will do well,” Duncan said. “We are playing very well and we are right where we want to be.” Robinson, retiring after this sea son, likely played his final game at Compaq Center. He chatted briefly with Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich and Rockets broad caster and Hall of Earner Calvin Murphy. “I have great memories here,” Robinson said. “Playing against Hakeem (Olajuwon) was one of the motivating factors for me early in my career. He was tough, him and Patrick Ewing were the guys I wanted to be like when I first got in the league.” The Rockets are 12-2 this season when Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley each score 20 points. Yao and Duncan are two of only six players born outside the United States to be selected No. 1 in the NBA draft. Ewing, Olajuwon, Michael Olowokandi, and Mychal Thompson are the others. We are playing very well and we are right where we want to be. % — Tim Duncan San Antonio Spurs' Center Sooners Continued from page 5 he's a good passer and he's a good scorer. The whole team guarded him.” In lieu of only connecting on 40.7 of its shots, A&M made the final stretch of the game interesting. Down by 17 at one point, the Aggies surged back with 2:59 remaining in regulation as junior guard Kevin Turner and King collaborated to hit three consecutive triples to pull A&M within nine. After that point, though, it (became a free-throw contest as OU’s Sampson said he never thought the game was out of their hands. “We were up 17 and if we make our free throws, they don't come back,” Sampson said. “Give A&M credit. Those were some hellacious threes they were putting up.” Saturday marked the first time the Aggies held their opponent below 70 points and failed to secure the win. With the OU loss behind them, A&M needs one more reg ular season win to lock up its first .500 season in nine years. The Aggies will have two more opportunities to secure a winning record as they face Baylor at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and then travel to face Oklahoma State University next Saturday in their season finale. KING Streak Continued from page Unfortunately for the Cowgirls, that was the moment the heavens opened, and the pleasant drizzle turned into a downpour that created small ponds all over the courts of the Tennis Center. Just before 7 p.m., the Aggies and Cowgirls were able to take to the court again, and the Aggie women came out with a new drive. Freshman Nicki Mechem made quick work of her opponent, junior Zana Masnic, on court five. The win was a carry-over from earlier in the day when Mechem put up a shutout in the first set. She went on to capture the match in the second, finishing with a score of 6-0, 6-2. The win was the sixth in a row for Mechem, which pushed her personal record to 9-1, the best on the Aggie squad. The main story was going on next door at court three. Junior Roberta Spencer, who had prob lems with her Cowgirl opponent, Kolodynska, was able to climb out of her first set hole. Spencer came back from a first set loss to send Kolodynska down by a score of 5-7, 6- 0, 6-1. Spencer’s personal win clinched the match for the Aggies, their fifth straight at home to start the season. “I was told to try and be more aggressive and hit more down the mid dle,” Spencer said. “Before, I was getting aggressive down the line and she was passing me, so I was aggressive down the middle and she wasn’t able to get enough angle.” The Aggies will take the court again Tuesday at the A&M Tennis Center. The match against the Texas Christian University Hornfrogs is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. D iscoveJi.ese3.rch Inc. 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