BRIEFLY : HOCH GRABS LEAD AS BERTHA LOOMS.

Scott Hoch, the leading money winner in the field for the Michelob Championship, shot a 7-under-par 64 Thursday and took a one-shot lead in the first round of a tournament bracing for a visit from Hurricane Bertha.

Curtis Strange and Fred Funk shot 65s on the 6,797-yard River Course at Kingsmill Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va.

PGA Tour and tournament officials met several times to keep tabs on Bertha and heavy rain and high winds were expected overnight.

One day after playing so poorly in the pro-am he didn't want to turn in his scorecard, Tom Weiskopf shot a 6-under-par 66 for a one-stroke lead in the first round of the Senior Players Championship in Dearborn, Mich.

Bob Charles, the first-round leader at last week's U.S. Senior Open, and Lee Trevino were at 67 in the tour's last major of the year.

THE NBA  Robert Parish, who played in more games than any other NBA player and is 18th on the all-time scoring list, left little doubt that he will retire after 20 seasons.

``I think my basketball career is about over,'' Parish, 42, said in an interview with Boston's WHDH-TV. ``I really haven't made an official decision but I'm leaning toward retirement right now. I think Robert Parish is about done.''

Parish, at 42, the oldest player in the NBA, spent the last two seasons as a backup center with the Charlotte Hornets after 14 years as part of one of the best frontlines in NBA history with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale on the Boston Celtics.

Clippers center Brian Williams, who became a free agent Thursday, and a group of friends were detained and fined a total of $1,250 by customs officials in the Cayman Islands for alleged possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a published report.

A type of pipe commonly used to smoke marijuana was found on a plane chartered by the group. Williams claimed the pipe belonged to another member of the group.

The Milwaukee Bucks acquired center Andrew Lang from the Minnesota Timberwolves, returning a future first-round pick that had been acquired June 26. The Bucks also created salary-cap room by renouncing rights to free-agent center Benoit Benjamin.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are waiting to hear if Brad Daugherty will be ruled medically unable to play, which would free them of the his $5 million contract. Daugherty retired because of a back injury, then said he would seek another doctor's opinion.

After boasting he would be freed ``like O.J. Simpson,'' LeVonnie Wooten was sentenced to life in prison for murdering the pregnant girlfriend of his cousin, former Phoenix Suns player Jerrod Mustaf.

?DCOLLEGE FOOTBALL

University of Miami football players Jammi German, James Burgess and Jeffrey Taylor, charged in the beating of a track hurdler last month, pleaded innocent in a Miami courtroom and face a trial date of Oct. 15.

In a separate case, Miami's Ricky Perry also pleaded innocent to misdemeanor simple battery and criminal mischief charges and had a trial date set for Aug. 5.

Louisville offensive linemen Jeryl Tyson and Ikem Maduaka-Cain have been stripped of their scholarships and suspended indefinitely after being arrested for possession of five pounds of marijuana.

TENNIS Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia needed only 57 minutes to dispose of Karim Alami of Morocco, 6-3, 6-3, and move into the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open in Gstaad, Switzerland. Other winners included Alberto Berasategui, who beat No. 8 seed Carlos Moya in straight sets.

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg beat qualifier Lars Jonsson 6-2, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 in the Swedish Open at Bastad, Sweden, setting up a quarterfinal meeting with training partner Thomas Johansson, a 7-5, 6-0 winner over Thomas Nydahl.

THE NFL  Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Lamar Thomas was charged with battery against his pregnant girlfriend and spent a night in jail, Plantation, Fla., police confirmed.

Identical twins Sean and Sam Manual have signed identical contracts with the San Francisco 49ers. The Manuels, both seventh-round draft picks out of New Mexico State, signed two-year deals worth $315,000 and got $20,000 signing bonuses, the 49ers said.

ETC. University of Massachusetts guards Edgar Padilla and Carmelo Travieso, both former residents of Puerto Rico, have been named to the commonwealth's national basketball team for the Olympic Games, the Puerto Rico Basketball Federation announced.

Morgan Wootten, 65, the legendary coach at DeMatha High School in suburban Washington, D.C., had his condition upgraded from serious to stable following a life-saving liver transplant a day earlier.

Two soccer leagues, the United System of Independent Soccer Leagues and the A-League, are merging to form a second division to Major League Soccer. The league, to be knows as the A-League, will feature teams in markets across the United States, plus Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

U.S. women's figure skating champion Nicole Bobek should not have been discharged from the probation she was serving, the state Court of Appeals in East Lansing, Mich., ruled.

Bobek was charged with home invasion in November 1994 after a family in Bloomfield Hills claimed they saw her carrying cash out of their house. Bobek last year filed an emergency motion requesting relief, claiming her skating career was threatened when the media learned of her case.

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Photo: ROBERT PARISH: All-time leaders in NBA games playedsaid he has likely played his last.