BASEBALL

PAVANO MAY START SEASON ON DL Yankees starter Carl Pavano’s sore back could land him on the disabled list to start the season.

“I’m not banking on him opening day,” manager Joe Torre said. “There’s no rush even right there to have him ready opening day. The thing I think is important is he probably feels better than he did anytime last year.”

Pavano missed the second half of last season because of a shoulder injury and finished 4-6 with a 4.77 ERA in 17 starts. His back has bothered him since spring training last year.

“It’s progressing,” Pavano said. “It feels a lot better. I want to make sure there’s no setbacks after what I went through last year.”

Right fielder Gary Sheffield is also having back problems. He didn’t work out yesterday because of back spasms. Sheffield is not expected to miss more than a couple days. The back flared up after he took extra batting practice on Saturday.

CLEMENS TO FACE MINOR LEAGUERS Roger Clemens will take to the mound today at Houston’s spring training camp, facing minor league batters even though he’s not part of the Astros. The 43-year-old Clemens wants to pitch in the World Baseball Classic, then decide whether to retire or play a 23rd season, said Koby Clemens, his oldest son and a third baseman in the Astros’ farm system.

Koby Clemens said his father was due to arrive in Florida on Sunday night and planned to pitch to minor leaguers in a simulated game this morning.

Clemens, a free agent, wasn’t offered salary arbitration by the Astros and cannot re-sign with them until May 1. He could join another team before that, and Texas, Boston and the Yankees are reportedly interested.

Houston general manager Tim Purpura said the Astros got permission from Major League Baseball to allow the Rocket to pitch at their spring training complex. Clemens led the major leagues with a 1.87 ERA last year but was plagued by back and hamstring problems late in the season.

GOLF

OGILVY DOWNS LOVE FOR MATCH PLAY TITLE Ten times during the Match Play Championship, Geoff Ogilvy watched his opponent stand over a putt that would have sent him home. There was no such stress yesterday when he made short work of Davis Love III.

Ogilvy pulled away with an eagle-birdie knockout punch and won 3 and 2 in the final tournament at La Costa Resort to join Craig Parry as the only Australians to capture a World Golf Championship event.

Ogilvy played 129 holes, the most by anyone in the eight-year history of the tournament, which included four consecutive overtime matches at the start of the week. But he was solid when it counted, taking the lead with a 6-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole in the morning and never trailing the rest of the way. Love’s last hope was to make a 25-foot birdie try from just off the 16th green in the afternoon, but he ran it 4 feet by and conceded the match.

Ogilvy rolled through a Grand Slam list of players, from Michael Campbell (U.S. Open) to Mike Weir (Masters) to Tom Lehman (British Open) and finally Love (PGA Championship).

The victory was worth $1.3 million, and moved Ogilvy into the top 30 in the world. In the third-place match, Zach Johnson beat Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman 1-up to earn $560,000.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

UCONN AVENGES LOSS TO VILLANOVA It wasn’t Connecticut’s stars who let the Huskies avenge the loss that knocked them from no. 1. Denham Brown, Rashad Anderson, Hilton Armstrong, and Jeff Adrien all came up big for no. 3 Connecticut yesterday in an 89-75 victory over no. 2Villanova.

Thirteen days earlier, Villanova beat Connecticut 69-64, but the Huskies (25-2, 12-2 Big East) took control of this game with an 18-3 run after the Wildcats (22-3, 12-2) took their last lead of the game.

Brown, a senior swingman, had a career-high 23 points on 8-for-13 shooting. He had a total of 18 points in the Huskies’ last three games, the first of which was the loss to Villanova that ended an 11-game winning streak.

Allan Ray had 19 points for Villanova, but the senior guard left the game with just under 3 minutes to play with an injury to his left knee.

– Associated Press