Reuters Sports News Summary

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs. NBA roundup: Wolves top Nets, finally break home funk

Shabazz Napier scored eight of his season-high 24 points in overtime as the Minnesota Timberwolves snapped a nine-game home losing streak with a 122-115 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night in Minneapolis. Rookie Jarrett Culver added a career-high 21 points for the Wolves, who made 7 of 10 shots in overtime and shot 40.4 percent overall. Keita Bates-Diop added 15 points, and Robert Covington contributed 14. 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. Redskins hire Rivera as head coach

Former Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera has found a new home, agreeing to become head coach of the Washington Redskins after interviewing with the team on Monday, according to NFL.com. Rivera, who turns 58 on Jan. 7, was fired by the Panthers after a 5-7 start to this season, capping a nine-year tenure in which he went 76-63-1 and led Carolina to a Super Bowl 50 appearance. Coincidentally, his last game was a 29-21 home loss to Washington. 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. 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.