Sports briefs

Football

CBS BEATS FOX: The CBS Sports NFL pregame show scored its highest regular-season rating since 1998 and beat its Fox counterpart for the first time.

The NFL Today got a 3.9 rating and a 10 share from noon to 1:03 p.m. EST Sunday. That was up 70 percent from a 2.3 rating and a 6 share last year, and 15 percent above Fox's pregame show of Sunday, which had a 3.4 share and a 9 rating. CBS carries AFC games and Fox the NFC.

The rating represents the percentage of televisions tuned in to a program. The share is the percentage of televisions on at the time that watched.

Track & field

MONTGOMERY RETIRES: Disgraced sprinter Tim Montgomery is done.

The former 100-meter world record holder has retired rather than waiting out a two-year suspension and returning under a cloud of suspicion.

"I don't want to be looked upon as a cheat," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

Although he did not test positive for drugs, Montgomery was banned for doping based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of BALCO, a San Francisco-area lab that served many high-profile athletes.

"It's like getting a whipping for something you know you didn't do," he said. He maintains he never knowingly took steroids or any other banned substances. Montgomery said he and three-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones have split, although they remain in regular contact. They have a 2-year-old son, Monty.

Basketball

LOW-SCORING AFFAIR: In the lowest-scoring Division I game since the introduction of the 3-point line, Monmouth, N.J., beat Princeton 41-21 Wednesday night. Princeton tied the record for fewest points in a Division I game since the 3-point line started in 1986-87. Georgia Southern also finished with 21 in a 40-point loss to Coastal Carolina on Jan. 2, 1997.

"Obviously, we just couldn't score," Princeton coach Joe Scott said. "The zone gave us tons of problems."

The previous record for fewest combined points since 1986-87 was 67, which happened twice. SMU beat Texas-Arlington 36-31 on Dec. 16, 1989, and Wisconsin-Green Bay defeated Northern Michigan 46-21 on Nov. 22, 1996.

CAMBY OUT: Denver Nuggets center Marcus Camby missed Thursday night's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers because of a sprained right pinkie finger. The Nuggets also were without guard Earl Boykins, who missed his second game with a left hamstring strain.

Speedskating

BLOW TO DAVIS: If this keeps up for another night, Shani Davis will have to go solo at the Turin Olympics. Davis, trying to become the first American to make both speedskating teams for the same Olympics, failed to make either final at the U.S. short track championships on Thursday — a major blow to his hopes of pulling off the historic double. Meanwhile, Apolo Anton Ohno and Kim Hyo-jung became the first skaters to clinch spots on the short track team. Ohno won for the fourth time in five events and will head to Turin as one of the high-profile athletes on the U.S. team. The 17-year-old Kim will be competing in her first Olympics and is the best U.S. hope for a women's medal.