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Sports news briefs
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PISTORIUS

• Girlfriend’s mom: Why did he do this?: JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The mother of the model shot dead at Oscar Pistorius’ house says the family wants answers following her Valentine’s Day killing.

June Steenkamp was quoted by the Times newspaper in South Africa in a front page interview Monday asking: “Why my little girl? ... Why did he do this?”

She says of late daughter Reeva, a model, law graduate and Pistorius’ girlfriend, “she loved like no one else could love” and “just like that, she is gone.”

Double-amputee athlete Pistorius, an icon in South Africa and a star of last year’s Olympics, remains in custody in a Pretoria police station charged with Steenkamp’s murder after she was shot multiple times inside his home.

He will reappear in court Tuesday, the same day as Steenkamp’s private funeral in her hometown.





COLLEGES

• Miami fires back at NCAA investigation: CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Firing back for the first time at the long investigation of her school’s athletic department, Miami President Donna Shalala has released a statement saying the Hurricanes “have been wronged” by what she called a flawed NCAA probe.

Shalala says Miami wants a swift resolution — with no additional penalties other than the ones the Hurricanes have already self-imposed, such as two missed bowl games, a missed Atlantic Coast Conference football championship game and scholarship reductions.

Her statement came out a few hours after the NCAA said it would press on with its case against Miami, even after revealing that it was replacing the head of its enforcement department and throwing out all ill-gotten information gleaned from two depositions that could have been very damaging for the Hurricanes.



• Griner reaches 3,000 points as Baylor tops UConn: HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Brittney Griner scored 25 points, including the 3,000th of her career, to help No. 1 Baylor rally and beat third-ranked Connecticut 76-70 on Monday night, extending the Lady Bears’ winning streak to 23 games.

Griner became the eighth player in Division I history to reach the milestone, doing it on two free throws with 1:05 left.

The defending national champion Lady Bears’ only loss this season came in Hawaii against Stanford back in November. Baylor (25-1) went 40-0 last season en route to the school’s second national championship.

Baylor led 54-53 midway through the second half before Griner took over. She scored seven points during the burst, and her putback made it 67-61 with 5 minutes left.

UConn rallied behind Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis to make it a 67-65, but Griner answered with a putback. Then she hit the two free throws 1:30 later to make it 73-67 and seal the win.





MAJORS

• No salary arbitration cases go to hearings: NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball pitched an arbitration shutout.

Reliever Darren O’Day completed a $5.8 million, two-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, becoming the final player to settle without a hearing among the 133 who filed for arbitration Jan. 15.

This was the first year since arbitration began in 1974 that no player who filed went to a hearing.

Baseball’s previous record low was three hearings, set in 2005 and matched in 2009 and 2011. Arbitration was suspended in 1976 and 1977 while free agency was put in place.

The high was 35 hearings in 1986, but teams have signed more of their young stars to contracts before hearings in recent years, giving many of them multiyear deals.

Owners won five of seven hearings in 2012.

O’Day gets $2.2 million this year and $3.2 million in 2014. The Orioles have a $4.25 million option for 2015 with a $400,000 buyout. The 30-year-old right-hander was 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 69 games last year.

Baltimore agreed to one-year deals previously with its other players in arbitration: right-handers Jason Hammel ($6.75 million) and Jim Johnson ($6.5 million), left-handers Brian Matusz ($1.6 million) and Troy Patton ($815,000), catcher Matt Wieters ($5.5 million) and first baseman Chris Davis ($3.3 million).





OLYMPICS

• USA Wrestling formalizes Olympic committee: USA Wrestling has formalized plans for a committee charged with restoring Olympic wrestling.

The organization announced Monday that the group will be known as the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling. As noted by USA Wrestling executive director Rich Bender last week, the committee will be chaired by former world champion Bill Scherr.

Leading U.S. wrestling supporter Mike Novogratz will serve as the group’s spokesman.

USA Wrestling says the committee’s goals will be to work with FILA, wrestling’s international governing body, and top wrestling nations to restore the sport to the 2020 Olympic program.

The group is also seeking to “mobilize and energize” the American public to support their cause.

The International OIympic Committee has recommended that wrestling not be included as a core sport in 2020.