In brief: Orlando rides big quarter to beat Boston

NBA: The Orlando Magic needed less than 48 hours to go from a terrible third quarter to a terrific one.

Vince Carter and Dwight Howard each scored nine points in that period to erase an 11-point halftime deficit, and the Magic went on to beat the Boston Celtics 96-89 on Sunday in Boston.

“In a matter of three days, I’ve seen the worst quarter we’ve had since I’ve been here in three years and the best now in three years,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said.

On Friday night, the Magic blew a 21-point lead and lost to the Washington Wizards 92-91 after being outscored 39-17 in the third quarter. On Sunday, they outscored the Celtics 36-11 in that period.

The Magic (34-17) moved into second place in the Eastern Conference, one game ahead of the Celtics (32-17).

“We were upset about the way we played in the first half,” said Howard, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds. After that, “we got stops and then we came down and hit some shots. And after that, we just kept it rolling.”

Rajon Rondo scored 17 points and Ray Allen added 14 for the Celtics.

•FBI investigated letters to Daly: The FBI investigated a series of threatening letters sent to Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly at the height of his team’s success during the 1989-90 “Bad Boys” championship era, newly released government records show.

The 67 pages detail how federal agents in Detroit ordered fingerprint, handwriting and even psycholinguistic analyses as part of an effort to determine who sent the correspondences.

One letter, mailed from Cleveland and postmarked April 24, 1989, arrived about two months after Cavaliers guard Mark Price suffered a concussion following a Rick Mahorn elbow and three months after Cleveland’s Brad Daugherty and Detroit’s Bill Laimbeer had an on-court fistfight.

“God made me realize that YOU, not Laimbeer, Mahorn or any of the others are the one possessed by (Satan),” the author wrote.

Another letter, postmarked Royal Oak, Mich., on Feb. 16, 1990, also was addressed to Daly and claimed the Pistons didn’t “know the meaning of the word ‘sportsmanship’ ” and would “pay dearly.”

The FBI couldn’t locate any suspects.

Daly died in May at age 78.

Syracuse beats Cincy for 10th straight win

College men: Kris Joseph hit a pair of 3s that sparked visiting Syracuse’s decisive second-half run, and the No. 3 Orange kept the best start in school history going with a 71-54 victory over Cincinnati, their 10th in a row.

Syracuse (23-1, 10-1 Big East) closed the game with a 28-5 run. Andy Rautins led the Orange with 20 points. Ibrahima Thomas led the Bearcats (14-9, 5-6) with a season-high 13 points.

•Broussard’s 3 lifts Seattle: Aaron Broussard scored a game-high 21 points, including a 3-pointer with less than a second remaining, to lift Seattle (11-13) past Portland State (10-13) 80-77 in Portland.

Ole Miss upends LSU in three overtimes

College women: Kayla Holloway’s layup with 11 seconds left in the third overtime lifted Mississippi to a wild 102-101 win over No. 19 LSU. The Rebels (15-8, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) won in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1994, and Ole Miss won two games in a single season against the Lady Tigers (15-7, 4-6) for the first time since 1985.

Oudin helps U.S. advance in Fed Cup

Tennis: Melanie Oudin won her two singles matches to lead the United States to a 4-1 victory over France in Lievin, France, and secure a spot in the Fed Cup semifinals.

Oudin beat Julie Coin 7-6 (3), 6-4 in just over two hours Sunday to give the Americans an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

The U.S. will next face Russia on April 24-25.

Russia won the decisive doubles match to edge Serbia 3-2. Russia has won four of the last six Fed Cup titles.

The Czech Republic reached its second consecutive Fed Cup semifinal after beating Germany in the decisive doubles match to secure a 3-2 victory. The Czechs will face defending champion Italy in the April 24-25 semifinals.

•Cilic defends title: Top-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia successfully defended his Zagreb Indoors title by beating Michael Berrer of Germany in three sets. Cilic won 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in 2 hours, 38 minutes in Zagreb, Croatia.

Bruins blank Habs, end losing streak

Miscellany: Tuukka Rask made 36 saves for his third shutout, Marco Sturm scored twice and the Boston Bruins ended a 10-game losing streak with a 3-0 NHL win over the Canadiens in Montreal.

Boston won for the first time since a 2-1 shootout victory over San Jose on Jan. 14 and avoided tying the longest losing streak in franchise history set by the Bruins in their first season, 1924-25.

•2004 U.S. relay team faces doping probe: The IOC opened a formal investigation into a doping case that could lead to the stripping of gold medals from a U.S. women’s relay team at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee executive board set up a disciplinary commission into the case of Crystal Cox, who ran in the preliminaries of the winning 4x400 team.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said late last month that Cox had admitted to using anabolic steroids and accepted a four-year suspension and disqualification of her results from 2001 to 2004.

Under international rules, an entire relay team can be disqualified because of the doping of one member, even an alternate. Sanya Richards, Dee Dee Trotter, Monique Henderson and Monique Hennegan ran in the final. Moushaumi Robinson joined Cox in the preliminary heat.

•Loukas breaks through: Christina Loukas won the senior 3-meter event at the USA Diving Winter National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, finally earning a national title after victories at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials and a silver at the World University Games.

David Boudia won the men’s 10-meter platform for the third time by out-pointing Nick McCrory. Boudia later won in synchronized diving for his 10th title overall.

•Coutts undecided: Russell Coutts, who sailed unbeaten through three straight America’s Cup matches for two different countries, said he hasn’t decided whether he’ll be aboard USA, the blazing-fast trimaran that will represent American challenger BMW Oracle Racing against two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland and its catamaran, Alinghi 5.

Race 1 of the best-of-3 nautical grudge match is scheduled for this morning.