Sports briefs

Basketball

'ZAGS' DAVIS CHARGED: Gonzaga reserve player Theo Davis has been charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana stemming from his arrest with starting center Josh Heytvelt after a traffic stop in Cheney last month.

Cheney city prosecutor Julie McKay said Friday that the 21-year-old Davis, from Brampton, Ontario, will be mailed a citation and court summons.

Heytvelt, a sophomore, faces arraignment March 12 on a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance.

Tennis

KOROLEV ADVANCES: Just over eight hours after he found out that he'd be playing in the quarterfinals Friday, Evgeny Korolev advanced to the semifinals in the Tennis Channel Open with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over fellow 19-year-old Sam Querrey.

Korolev, from Russia, got back into the event when the ATP Tour reversed its decision to give top-seeded James Blake the controversial quarterfinal spot.

Hockey

KABERLE INJURED: Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle was taken off the ice on a stretcher after being blind-sided by a late hit by New Jersey tough guy Cam Janssen in the second period Friday night.

Kaberle was hit in the head by Janssen about 2 or 3 seconds after he made a pass in his own end of the ice. The Toronto player then fell to the ice and hit his head against the side boards at the Continental Airlines Arena. Referees Kelly Sutherland and Brad Watson didn't call a penalty.

Iditarod

82 TEAMS READY: Defending champion Jeff King shot back with one word when asked to describe his team for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race set to start Saturday.

"Fast," said the 51-year-old musher, who will find himself in fleet company again when 82 teams — and some familiar faces — line up for the ceremonial start of the 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome.

The restart, where the mushers get serious about getting a piece of this year's approximately $795,000 purse, begins Sunday in Willow. It was moved 30 miles up the trail because there was not enough hard-packed snow near Anchorage.

The Iditarod — the longest sled-dog race in the world — commemorates a shorter dash of 674 miles by dog teams in 1925 using the mail route from Nenana to deliver diphtheria serum to Nome after an outbreak of the disease threatened the lives of the Eskimos living there.

Mascot

ILLINIWEK CHALLENGE: A state senator asked Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan to determine whether the University of Illinois board of trustees broke any laws when it retired the Chief Illiniwek mascot last month.

Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, asked in particular Friday whether the board violated the Open Meetings Act by doing away with the 81-year-old American Indian mascot Feb. 16 without a vote.

"The real issue here is did the board of trustees operate in a legal and trustworthy manner," Brady said in a news release.

Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said the attorney general's office had received the request and will review it.