Figment still tops in Big Rock

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — All that stands between Figment, a 58-foot Bayliss owned by Mickey Corcoran of Trent Woods, N.C., and a payday of nearly $1 million is six hours of fishing today in the 51st annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.

Figment's 439-pound blue marlin caught Wednesday is still the only blue marlin that has been brought to the dock in the $1,687,091 tournament. Only 43 of the 153 boats entered in the tournament fished Friday, and they released four blue marlin, two white marlin and a sailfish.

College football

Clemson landed two more football commitments, one for the 2010 class and another for the 2011 class.

Both players committed while attending camp at Clemson.

Defensive back Bashaud Breeland (6-2, 200) of Allendale-Fairfax became the sixth commitment for the Tigers in their upcoming class.

Breeland says he is a strong commit and is finished with recruiting. Breeland also had offers from USC, Wake Forest, N.C. State, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, Syracuse, Penn State and Auburn. Last season, Breeland had 156 tackles and 3 interceptions.

The Tigers also landed running back Marlin Lane (6-0, 205) of Daytona Beach, Fla., for the 2011 class. Lane rushed for 758 yards and 12 TDs last season. He picked the Tigers over Georgia, Alabama and Miami.

Clemson grades

The Clemson women's basketball team improved its performance in the classroom this spring.

The team, which had a 2.10 grade-point average last fall, went up to 2.68 in the recently finished semester.

Clemson's athletic department said Friday that the school's 15 teams averaged 2.97 for the spring, the highest on record.

More than half of Clemson's 448 athletes (54 percent) finished on the academic honor roll with a 3.0 GPA or better.

The Tigers football team had a 2.61 grade-point average, its second highest performance ever.

Men's basketball slipped to a 2.37 after posting a 2.52 in the fall.

Seven teams had GPAs of 3.0 or higher, led by women's swimming at 3.48.