Sports briefs 12/12/05

Basketball

• Shaquille O'Neal came off the bench Sunday night for the Miami Heat in his first action since a sprained right ankle sidelined him Nov. 3.

O'Neal entered the game against the Washington Wizards with 5:55 left in the first quarter and received an enthusiastic but brief ovation. He had 10 points and 11 rebounds in 23 minutes of play to help the Heat win 104-101 in overtime.

Colleges

• UCLA kicker Justin Medlock was arrested for investigation of drunken driving and felony hit-and-run after allegedly leaving the scene of the accident, which left a member of the school's women's golf team seriously injured, authorities said Sunday.

The 22-year-old junior was suspended indefinitely from the team and will not play Dec. 30 in the Sun Bowl, coach Karl Dorrell said Sunday in a statement.

Medlock was driving a 1998 Toyota pickup on the San Diego Freeway about 3 a.m. Saturday with 20-year-old UCLA golfer Hannah Jun in the passenger seat when he hit a call box and the truck flipped over, said Officer Tariq Johnson, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

CHP officers found the truck with only Jun inside, and later found Medlock walking on an Inglewood street about a mile and a half from the scene, Johnson said.

* A Colorado football player has been suspended and his girlfriend, a cross-country runner, has quit the sports program after being accused of sending a racist e-mail to an Hispanic member of the cross-country team.

The e-mail included a reference to dragging the man behind a car, recalling an incident in 1998 in Texas when a black man was dragged to his death. The two athletes were cited for harassment and ethnic intimidation.

A news release from athletic department director Mike Bohn on Sunday announced the suspension of offensive tackle Clint O'Neal and Jackie Zeigle's decision to leave the cross-country and track teams, but did not mention the e-mail.

Hockey

• Penguins owner-captain Mario Lemieux said he is doubtful that the team will remain in Pittsburgh after its Mellon Arena lease expires in 2007, citing lack of progress on a new arena.

"I think we're really running out of time," Lemieux said Saturday. "We probably ran out of time already. It's been unfortunate that the city and the county haven't been willing to work with us over the last two or three years."

Lemieux has said for several years that the Penguins would not be able to survive in Pittsburgh without a new arena. Mellon Arena is the oldest and smallest arena in the National Hockey League.

The lease allows the team to solicit offers for the franchise beginning in June 2006. Kansas City is among the places that have expressed interest in the team.

Miscellaneous

• Maria Riesch of Germany has returned to her homeland for surgery after tearing a ligament in her left knee in a crash during the World Cup giant slalom in Aspen.

Team officials said it's unlikely she'll ski at the Turin Olympics.

Riesch crashed off the course and through a gate in Saturday's race, then fell hard to her left, her knee bending beneath her. She was taken from the course on a stretcher.

Riesch, considered one of the world's top young skiers in all four disciplines after three victories and two seconds at age 19 in 2004, missed most of last season with a shoulder and right knee injury. She had surgery on that knee 11 months ago.

-- From wire reports