BRIEFLY.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

Hughes' miscue helps Meissner win figure skating gold Kimmie Meissner has a national title to go with her crown from the world championships. And she has Emily Hughes to thank.

Meissner was third in the free skate Saturday at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash., but it was enough to give her the title after fellow Olympian Emily Hughes tumbled to the ice on one of her jumps. Thats an automatic 1-point deduction, and it was the difference between silver and gold. Meissner finished with 181.68 points overall while Hughes had 180.86. Alissa Czisny won the free skate, but wound up third overall because she had so much ground to make up after her fifth-place finish in the short program.

Granada Hills Beatrice Liang finished fourth.

FOOTBALL: USC coach Pete Carroll interviewed New Orleans Saints assistant coach John Morton for the vacancy on the coaching staff following Lane Kiffin's departure to the Oakland Raiders. Morton, 37, was interviewed to be the Trojans wide receivers coach. He is the offensive assistant/passing game assistant for the Saints and also worked for the Raiders.

-Scott Wolf

Ohio States Troy Smith helped lead the North to three scores and a 27-0 win over the South in the Senior Bowl at Mobile, Ala.

GOLF: Retief Goosen shot a 1-under 71 for a share of the Qatar Masters lead with Richard Green and Nick OHern in Doha, Qatar.

Fred Funk shot an 8-under 64 to take a three-stroke lead in the Champions Tour Turtle Bay Championship at Kahuku, Hawaii.

SOCCER: American striker Brian McBride and Canadian forward Tomasz Radzinski scored to lead Fulham to a 3-0 win over Stoke in fourth-round play in Englands FA Cup in London.