Bears narrow GM search to Emery, Licht

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Updated: February 25, 2012 8:22AM

The Bears whittled their list of five general-manager candidates to two, and they’ll conduct a second round of interviews with Phil Emery of the Kansas City Chiefs and Jason Licht of the New England Patriots later this week at Halas Hall. Meanwhile, the Bears say offensive coordinator Mike Tice will not interview for Oakland’s coaching job after the Raiders “moved forward with the second phase of their interview process.”

Colts to interview Ravens defensive coordinator Pagano: Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano will interview for the Colts’ head coaching vacancy Tuesday. Under Pagano, Baltimore allowed the third-fewest points and yards in the league in 2011.

White Sox promote Bell, two others: The White Sox promoted farm director Buddy Bell to vice president, player development and special assignments on Monday. Minor-league field coordinator Nick Capra will assume Bell’s responsibilities as director of player development, and Kirk Champion was promoted to minor-league field coordinator.

Serena out of Australian Open: Five-time champion Serena Williams is out of the Australian Open, losing 6-2, 6-3 to unseeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia on Monday. Williams had seven double faults, several to set up break points, to allow No. 56-ranked Makarova to notch one of the biggest victories in her career and advance to the quarterfinals.

Patrick won’t run Indy 500 this year: Danica Patrick will not run the Indianapolis 500 this season. Patrick will instead compete in the Coca-Cola 600, which is NASCAR’s longest race of the year.

Capitals’ Ovechkin suspended three games: Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has been suspended for three games for a charging incident in which he launched himself to hit Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek during Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins.

Local briefs

Lake Central’s Hernandez to play at South Suburban: South Suburban College announced the signing of Ashley Hernandez from Lake Central to a National Letter of Intent to play softball for the 2012-13 season. She will pitch and play third base for the Bulldogs.

“We are very excited to have Ashley sign to play with us,” said SSC coach Larry Babcock. “She will be a key player coming in to our pitching rotation next season. We look for many big things from her both on the mound and offensively.”

Four to be inducted into Kouts Hall of Fame: Kouts’ second annual Hall of Fame inductions will take place on Friday night between the JV and varsity games against Boone Grove. The four memebers to be recognized are long-time coach Richard Briars, multi-sport athletes Lora (Rommelmann) Dinnon, Bryan Miller and Barry Fritz.

Merrillville middle school basketball team sweeps invite: All four squads of the Clifford Pierce Middle School boys basketball team won the Pierce Basketball Invitational last week.