In Brief

BASKETBALL

Lawyer: Andersen probe about spurned female fan

An attorney for Chris "Birdman" Andersen said he believes the allegations that led to a search of the Denver Nuggets player's home this week involve a spurned female fan.

Denver attorney M. Colin Bresee confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday a statement he gave to the Denver Post, saying the woman asked Andersen for "financial remuneration" after traveling to Colorado last year.

Bresee's statement said he expects that a Douglas County sheriff's task force that investigates allegations of cybercrime against children will find no criminal wrongdoing by Andersen. Bresee expects the investigation will take about three weeks.

Authorities confirm that the cybercrime unit began investigating Andersen in February after a law enforcement tip from California. Sheriff's officials, citing the ongoing investigation, declined to comment about Bresee's statement.

"A female fan in 2010 mailed Mr. Andersen multiple letters and included several photos in which she was scantily clad," Bresee's statement reads. "Chris and this woman communicated with each other and in 2011, this woman, who represented herself as 21 years of age, flew to Colorado, showing her required identification."

The statement continued: "After leaving Colorado, she became upset at his lack of interest. In 2012, she threatened to retaliate if he did not provide financial remuneration."

Someone claiming to be the woman's mother wrote in an email that "i (sic) want him to pay for everything on her Amazon wish list, 5K for her bedding stuff and her victoria secret wish list," according to the statement.

Also: A judge threw out a defamation lawsuit brought against Syracuse and coach Jim Boeheim by two men who said the Hall of Fame coach slandered them when he said their accusations of sexual abuse against former associate head coach Bernie Fine were driven by greed.

Two former team ball boys, Bobby Davis and Michael Lang, accused Fine of sexually abusing them more than 20 years ago.

Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph, a graduate of Syracuse and its law school, ruled Boeheim's comments were not statements of fact but were opinions that are protected from defamation suits.

LOCAL COLLEGES

UNLV women's golf slips to 15th in NCAA regional

The UNLV women's golf team improved its play by a stroke, shooting 13-over 301, but fell three places to 15th after the second round of the 24-team NCAA West Regional in Erie, Colo.

The Rebels stand at 27-over 603, 23 shots behind tournament leader Stanford, entering today's final round. Louisiana State trails the Cardinal by a stroke.

UNLV's Dana Finkelstein shot 1-over 73 in the second round for a 4-over 148 total, which left her tied for 22nd individually.

Also: UNLV senior Amanda Bingson captured the hammer throw at the Mountain West Conference Women's Track and Field Championship for the third straight season with a heave of 222 feet, 11 inches at Air Force Academy, Colo.

Bingson, who holds the best mark in the NCAA this season, became just the second athlete to earn three conference hammer titles in her career, joining Colorado State's Loree Smith, and the first to win three titles in consecutive years.

Bingson's effort provided UNLV's only points of the day as the Rebels slipped from fourth to seventh in the eight-team standings. UNLV has 20 points, trailing Colorado State which leads with 62.

In the women's 200-meter dash preliminaries, UNLV's Emily Blok clocked a time of 23.71 seconds, a mark which is the fastest in the Mountain West for the outdoor season.

Also: Erik Van Meetren doubled home a pair of runs in the sixth inning and then scored the tiebreaking run on a two-base throwing error as the UNLV baseball team beat New Mexico 7-4 in a Mountain West Conference game at Wilson Stadium.

The Rebels (23-27, 7-15) added a pair of unearned runs in the eighth to down the conference-leading Lobos.

Erick Fedde (5-4) gave up eight hits and four runs in 7 1/3 innings to get the victory for UNLV, while Zack Hartman struck out five over the final 1 2/3 innings for his seventh save.

The UNLV softball team fell behind 7-0 after 3½ innings and dropped a 10-3 Mountain West Conference decision to San Diego State at Eller Media Stadium.

Stefany Valentino had two hits and drove in two runs for the Rebels (21-27, 2-9 MWC).

The College of Southern Nevada's baseball season came to an end when Western Nevada's Dillon Ness hit a two-run walk-off home run with two outs in the 10th inning to beat the Coyotes 4-2 in a losers' bracket game of the NJCAA Region 18 tournament in West Jordan, Utah.

Quinton Mack hit a two-run homer off Western Nevada's Dylan Baker in the top of the ninth as CSN forged a 2-2 tie. Baker had held the Coyotes (37-23) hitless until the eighth inning and struck out 14 but did not figure in the decision.

The College of Southern Nevada's softball team beat Western Nevada 12-10 in a losers' bracket game of the NJCAA Region 18 tournament in Salt Lake City, but the Coyotes' season ended later in the day with a 9-1 loss to Snow College.

CSN (28-36) surrendered eight runs in the first inning of its loss.

MISCELLANEOUS

Bills sign free agent QB Young to one-year contract

The Buffalo Bills agreed on a one-year contract with free-agent quarterback Vince Young, providing them an established backup and a bona fide threat in their wildcat formations.

The Bills announced the deal a little over a week after 2006 NFL offensive rookie of the year worked out for the team at its facility.

A person familiar with the contract provided the length of the deal, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Bills do not release those figures. Citing a league source, ESPN.com reported the contract is worth $2 million with another $1 million available in playing-time bonuses.

Listed at 6 feet 5 inches and 232 pounds, Young has a strong arm and also presents a dual threat as a runner, a combination that has the potential of complementing coach Chan Gailey's offensive attack.

Also: The New York Jets have decided to not participate in HBO's hit reality show "Hard Knocks" this summer after being approached by the network about appearing again, a source close to the situation said.

Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez and Co. were big TV hits two years ago - the last time the show aired - but opted to not star in a sequel.

The 51s' Pacific Coast League game against the host Oklahoma City RedHawks was rained out and will not be made up. Las Vegas (18-17) opens a four-game series at the New Orleans Zephyrs (19-16) today.

Novak Djokovic joined Rafael Nadal in declaring he won't play again on the new blue clay court at Spain's Madrid Open after losing to Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (2), 6-3 in an all-Serbian quarterfinal.

Tipsarevic won for the second time in five matches against Djokovic, who last lost at this stage in November at the Paris Masters.

"I want to forget this week as soon as possible and move on to the real clay courts," the top-ranked Djokovic said. "Here you can't predict the ball bounce or movement. They can do whatever they want, but I won't be here next year if this clay stays."

Michael Phelps easily beat Ryan Lochte in perhaps their final race before the U.S. Olympic trials, but they both wound up trailing hometown favorite Ricky Berens at the Charlotte Grand Prix in Charlotte, N.C.

Berens won the 200-meter freestyle in a relatively slow time of 1 minute, 47.32 seconds. Phelps finished second in 1:48.01, while Lochte was far back in sixth place in 1:49.70.

The owners of third-place Kentucky Derby finisher Dullahan said the colt won't run in the Preakness Stakes on May 19.

Donegal Racing managing partner Jerry Crawford said Dullahan will run next in the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown races, on June 9.