Reuters Sports News Summary

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs. Top 25 basketball roundup: No. 10 Villanova tops Xavier in Big East opener

Collin Gillespie scored 24 points and No. 10 Villanova held off Xavier to win 68-62 Monday at Finneran Pavilion in Villanova, Pa., in the Big East opener for both teams. Jermaine Samuels added 14 points and eight rebounds while Justin Moore had 13 points for the Wildcats, who won their sixth in a row and improved to 10-2 overall. Naji Marshall led Xavier with 19 points while Tyrique Jones added 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Paul Scruggs had 12 points and six assists. Giants fire head coach Shurmur after two losing seasons

The New York Giants fired head coach Pat Shurmur, the franchise announced on Monday, after yet another disappointing NFL season where the team lost 12 of their regular season matches, winning four. Though the four-time Super Bowl winners rallied late in the campaign, a nine-game losing streak effectively sealed the 54-year-old's fate. Redskins fire Allen, begin offseason overhaul

Redskins owner Daniel Snyder fired team president Bruce Allen and the overhaul in Washington officially began Monday morning. Before a well-publicized meeting with former Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera began, Snyder made the announcement regarding Allen's ouster. 49ers say remarkable turnaround is just the beginning

The San Francisco 49ers, who one year ago posted a dismal 4-12 record, completed a stunning turnaround on Sunday, defeating the Seattle Seahawks to end the NFL season with the NFC's top seed and a surge of momentum heading into the playoffs. Despite the extraordinary about-face, the NFC West champion 49ers (13-3) said they have bigger goals in mind. Patriots face tough path with first wildcard game in a decade

With an 11th-straight AFC East title, the league's top-ranked defense and a future hall-of-fame quarterback, the New England Patriots would appear - at least on paper - as fearsome as ever. But Sunday's humiliating 27-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins, sending them to their first Wild Card weekend in a decade, underscores the inconsistency of a team that have struggled to fend off claims their time is finally up. NBA roundup: Davis, Lakers top Doncic, Mavs

Anthony Davis had 23 points and nine rebounds as the host Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks 108-95 on Sunday night at Staples Center. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 19 points, converting 5 of 9 shots and 4 of 5 3-pointers, off the bench for the Lakers, while Dwight Howard scored all 15 of his points in the first half. On the eve of his 35th birthday, LeBron James finished with 13 points and 13 assists. Take 5: Most appealing head-coach openings

The head-coaching carousel is in full swing again, with the potential for a quarter of the league to be searching for new leaders. Even more so than usual, ownership could be the top factor in determining which openings should be most enticing to prospective candidates. Sharapova to return next month as Brisbane wildcard

Former world number one Maria Sharapova will return to tournament action at the Brisbane International next month after being awarded a wildcard to play in the Australian Open warm-up. The 32-year-old Russian, who last played a competitive match in the first round of the U.S. Open in August, has dropped to 133rd in the world after a season in which a long-standing shoulder injury restricted her to eight tournaments. Olympics: North Korea pulls out of women's 2020 soccer qualifiers in South

North Korea has withdrawn its women's soccer team from the final round of 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers being staged in South Korea in February, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has said. The AFC said on Tuesday the North had sent a letter informing it of its withdrawal from the tournament and that global governing body FIFA was also aware of the decision. NHL roundup: Blackhawks outlast Blue Jackets in shootout

Dylan Strome and Erik Gustafsson each scored in the third period as the visiting Chicago Blackhawks rallied from a two-goal deficit on Sunday to record a 3-2 shootout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have earned a point in 10 straight contests. Chicago halved its deficit on a goal from Strome at 7:33 into the third period. The Blackhawks tied the game on their fourth power-play chance of the game, courtesy of Gustafsson's blast with 2:02 left in regulation.