Published Monday, September 06, 2010 12:02 AM

SPORTS IN BRIEF

Wire reports

Stewart gets first victory of Sprint Cup season

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Tony Stewart raced to his first victory of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Stewart beat Edwards by 1.316 seconds for his first victory since Oct. 4, 2009, at Kansas, leaving Edwards winless since the 2008 season finale.

Jimmie Johnson was third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch.

Ten drivers have now clinched spots in the 12-man Chase for the Sprint Cup championship going into the final race before the playoff begins, led by points leader Kevin Harvick.

The final caution of the night came out after Ryan Newman made contact with Kasey Kahne, nearly causing a crash on the backstretch.

Stewart was out front when the green came back out with 19 laps to go, and he zoomed off the line to beat Edwards into the first corner. From there, the No. 14 car steadily pulled away.

Dynamo falls way back in MLS playoff race

HOUSTON -- Geovanni had a goal and an assist to lead the San Jose Earthquakes to their first win in Houston, 2-1 over the Dynamo on Sunday night

San Jose (9-7-5, 32 points) moved into a tie with Seattle for fifth place in the West, while Houston (6-12-5, 23 points) dropped its second straight match and fourth in fifth games to drop nine points behind San Jose and Seattle for the last playoff spot.

Storm in WNBA finals; Dream wins East Game 1

PHOENIX -- Sue Bird made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left and the Seattle Storm advanced to the WNBA finals with a 91-88 victory over the 2009 champion Phoenix Mercury on Sunday, closing the game with a 15-0 run.

Diana Taurasi, who finished with 28 points, missed a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer for Phoenix.

Swin Cash had 23 points and eight rebounds, helping Seattle erase a 12-point deficit in the second game of the best-of-three conference finals.

In New York, Angel McCoughtry scored 13 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Atlanta Dream to an 81-75 victory over the New York Liberty in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Sancho Lyttle had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and Erika DeSouza added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Dream, who scored the final seven points of the game.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Atlanta.

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