BRIEFLY : UMASS' CLARKE DENIES CAMBY'S ALLEGATION OF TRYST.

Massachusetts basketball player Charleton Clarke on Friday denied having sex with a woman brought to Marcus Camby's dorm room by an aspiring sports agent recently arrested on extortion charges.

``As far as the reports of me and the girl in Marcus' room, I never had sexual intercourse with her, and no one said anything about her being a prostitute or anything like that. Marcus told me she was just a friend he went to school with in Hartford,'' Clarke said in a statement issued by UMass.

The statement came a day after Wesley Spears was charged in West Hartford, Conn., with first-degree attempted larceny by extortion and promoting prostitution.

The charges came after a six-month investigation into his dealings with Camby, who starred at UMass before moving on to the NBA's Toronto Raptors.

An arrest affidavit said Spears, infuriated that Camby was picking another agent, threatened to tell the tabloids about the money, sexual trysts and others favors he provided Camby and to ``bring down UMass.''

Canby went to police in June with his blackmail allegation. In his statement to police, Camby told of his first meeting with Spears in December 1995 at his UMass dormitory. He said Spears brought along a female companion and that he, Clarke, and a friend had sex with the woman.

Jim Darnell, the attorney for former New Mexico State assistant basketball coach Gar Forman, said the NCAA has cleared Forman of any wrongdoing in an academic-fraud case that resulted in the school's program being placed on three years' probation.

The NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee announced it was voiding a finding that Forman, now an assistant coach at Iowa State, had violated the principles of institutional control while an assistant at New Mexico State.

TENNIS

Just before the 1992 U.S. Davis Cup championship team reunited at Madison Square Garden, in a benefit for the Tim and Tom Gullikson Foundation, Tom Gullikson completed the 1997 squad for the first-round match against Brazil from Feb. 7-9.

Of the 1992 alumni on hand for the Nike Cup, only top-ranked Pete Sampras, who declined the trip to Brazil, and John McEnroe, ostensibly retired from any competition not on the seniors scale, were not tapped as 1997 Davis Cup recruits.

Friday, Gullikson, who has a 7-2 record as captain, added Jim Courier, Todd Martin and Alex O'Brien to a team anchored by Andre Agassi, who said yes after Sampras and Michael Chang said no.

WINTER SPORTS

Figure skaters Matthew Kessinger, Alice Sue Claeys and the pairs team of Dawn Piepenbrink and Nick Castaneda have been named to the United States team for the 1997 Winter World University Games.

The four are expected to compete at Chonju, Korea, on Jan. 25-30.

Matt Chojnacki of Aurora, Colo., took home the gold medal in Piancavallo, Italy, after the men's aerials final was washed out Friday and placings from the Thursday semifinal became the final results for a World Cup freestyle skiing competition.

Sebastien Foucras of France was awarded the silver medal and Mariano Ferrario of Winston Salem, N.C., got the bronze.

ETC.

New Mexico has signed three defensive players for next season, including a linebacker who was the leading tackler in Texas high school football last year. The three are Aisali Faapouli, a linebacker from Killeen (Tex.) High School; Casey Tisdale, a junior college defensive end from San Diego's Mesa College and Rantie Harper, a defensive back from San Diego. . . .

Helped by his 11 handicap, actor Sean Connery recorded seven birdies in combining with Hale Irwin for an 11-under-par 61 and a two-shot lead after the first round of the Lexus Challenge in La Quinta. . . .

In Albuquerque, N.M., St. Pius High School offensive lineman Mike Cito, who allegedly wore a razor-sharp helmet buckle that slashed opposing players, is scheduled to enter a plea Monday. His attorney wouldn't say what the plea will be.