Sports in Brief | South Carolina player's neck slashed in fight

South Carolina football player

Jordin Lindsey

had his neck slashed during a weekend altercation near the campus, police in Columbia, S.C., said.

Lindsey, a defensive end for the Gamecocks who was academically ineligible this season after starting a year ago, was cut early Saturday by a man wielding a sharp object, possibly a broken bottle, a police report said.

Lindsey's father, Billy Lindsey, said his son needed surgery but was to be released from the hospital today, according to a report posted online by the State newspaper of Columbia.

Marihelen Tomer and Janessa Currier scored goals as Southern Cal (20-3-2) beat Florida State, 2-0, in the final of the NCAA Women's College Cup in College Station, Texas.

David N. Arseneault shattered the NCAA assists record Saturday when he dished out 34 in Grinnell's 151-112 win over North Central of Minnesota in a Division III game.

Robert James of Division III Kean set the previous record of 26 in 1989. The Division I record of 22 is held by three players, including current Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson, who did it at Southern in 1988.

Linebacker Dan Connor was presented the Hall Foundation Award as Penn State's outstanding senior player to highlight the State College Quarterback Club's annual awards banquet.

The Penn State Football Letterman's Club announced the establishment of the Joe and Sue Paterno postgraduate scholarship. The initial recipient has yet to be announced.

Woody Austin

sank a 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the Merrill Lynch Shootout with teammate

Mark Calcavecchia

by a shot over tournament host

Greg Norman

and

Bubba Watson

. The winners finished at 29 under par on the Tiburon course in Naples, Fla.

Ernie Els blew a 2-stroke lead on the final hole of the Alfred Dunhill Championship, handing John Bickerton a 1-shot victory by shooting a triple bogey at the Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, South Africa.

Elsewhere: Veteran Australian Peter Lonard won the Australian PGA for the third time with a 7-under 65 on the Hyatt Regency course in Coolum, Australia.

Steve Downie's

time with the Flyers was fairly brief. Downie was suspended for 20 games earlier this season. He had replaced the suspended

Riley Cote

for two games on the Flyers' roster, but he was sent back to the Phantoms after two games and replaced by

Ryan Potulny

.

Simon Gagne resumed skating with the team but was not allowed to take part in contact drills. Gagne is recovering from a concussion.

Austria's

Nicole Hosp

raced to her first women's World Cup slalom victory of the season, beating Finland's

Tanja Poutiainen

by 1.43 seconds on Ruthie's Run in Aspen, Colo.

Benjamin Raich won the World Cup slalom on the steep Franz Klammer course in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, in a combined time of 1 minute, 34.46 seconds.

Elsewhere: Shani Davis of the United States won the men's 1,000-meter race in 1 minute, 8.39 seconds in a World Cup speedskating event when Simon Kuipers of the Netherlands fell just before crossing the finish line in Heerenveen, Netherlands. . . . Germany's Tatjana Huefner won a women's luge race to deny teammate Silke Kraushaar-Pielach a record-tying 37th World Cup win in the racing at Winterberg, Germany. . . . Olympic champion Thomas Morgenstern won his third straight ski-jumping World Cup title by the biggest margin of the season at a meet in Trondheim, Norway.

Brazilian stock-car racer

Rafael Sperafico

, 26, was killed in an accident during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

A policeman was hospitalized and is believed to have a broken spine from a clash with hooligans at a Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Karlsruher SC in Bochum, Germany.

Police arrested two men but said it wasn't clear whether they were hooligans, which a spokesman described as "ultras" - Germany's most hard-core hooligans.

Elsewhere: Arsenal lost its first game in the English Premier League this season, falling at Middlesbrough, 2-1. . . . American midfielder Michael Bradley (the son of U.S. coach Bob Bradley) scored three goals to help SC Heerenveen beat FC Groningen, 4-2, in the Dutch league.