Sports briefs
Riske named to Fed Cup team
Teenager Coco Gauff was included in the U.S. Fed Cup team for the first time on Tuesday, joining the likes of Serena Williams for a qualifying series against Latvia next week.
The 15-year-old Gauff is set to become the second youngest American to play in the competition behind Jennifer Capriati, who made her debut at 14 in 1990.
Australian Open semifinalist Sofia Kenin, McMurray native Alison Riske and doubles specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands were also included in the roster announced by the U.S. Tennis Association.
The Americans will play Latvia in a five-match series on indoor hard courts in Everett, Wash., on Feb. 7-8. The winner advances to a 12-nation Fed Cup tournament in April.
House urging no minor league contraction
House Four members of the House of Representatives introduced a resolution Tuesday urging Major League Baseball not to follow through with its proposal to eliminate 42 current minor league teams.
MLB wants to cut short-season leagues and reduce the number of farm teams each big league club affiliates with. It has proposed replacing the eliminated minor league teams with a not yet defined Dream League, somewhat similar to collegiate summer leagues.
The resolution was introduced by Reps. Lori Trahan, D-Mass.; David McKinley, R-W. Va.; Max Rose, D-N.Y.; and Mike Simpson, R- Idaho.
“Minor League Baseball teams have had a major impact on small communities. These teams provide an enormous cultural and economic benefit to the communities they call home,” McKinley said in a statement. “Doing away with 42 teams is not a reasonable solution.”
Bryant’s body identified
The bodies of Kobe Bryant and three other people killed when a helicopter smashed into a foggy Los Angeles-hillside have been identified, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Tuesday.
Fingerprints were used to confirm the identity of Bryant, 41, along with John Altobelli, 56; Sarah Chester, 45, and the pilot, 50-year-old Ara Zobayan, the Medical Examiner-Coroner reported.
While the department had not yet formally identified five other victims, relatives and acquaintances have identified them as Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; Sarah Chester’s 13-year-old daughter Payton; Altobelli’s wife, Keri, and daughter, Alyssa; and Christina Mauser, a girls’ basketball coach at a Southern California elementary school.
The last of the bodies and the wreckage were recovered from the Calabasas hillside on Tuesday, authorities said.
In college basketball
Kihei Clark scored 15 points, including a go-ahead layup with 59 seconds left, and Virginia ended No. 5 Florida State’s 10-game winning streak, 61-56 on Tuesday night.
- Tevin Mack had a carer-high 32 points and Clyde Trapp hit a go-ahead driving layup with 2.5 seconds left as Clemson rallied from 10-points down in the second half to defeat Syracuse, 71-70.
- Saddiq Bey scored 23 points, Collin Gillespie had 17 points and 13 rebounds, and No. 8 Villanova won its seventh straight game, easily handling St. John’s 79-59 at Madison Square Garden.
- Eli Brooks scored 20 points, Franz Wagner added 18 and and short-handed Michigan pulled away in the middle of the second half for a 79-68 win over Nebraska.