Atkinson, Nets part ways
Kenny Atkinson won’t have the chance to coach Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together in Brooklyn.
The Nets surprisingly split with their coach Saturday, even as they remain on track for a second consecutive playoff berth.
The morning after Atkinson guided the Nets to a 139-120 rout of San Antonio, the Nets announced the decision to part with the fourth-year coach.
Jacque Vaughn will serve as coach for the rest of the season.
The Nets are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Atkinson was 118-190 in 31⁄2 seasons.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Selena Lott had 17 points and the Marquette women’s team turned back Villanova, 72-59, in the Big East Conference tournament quarterfinals on Saturday in Chicago.
Marquette (23-7) will play St. John’s or Creighton in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Sunday
HOCKEY
Sophie Shirley had a goal and an assist and the top-seeded Wisconsin women’s team downed No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth, 4-1, in the semifinals of the WCHA Final Faceoff in Minneapolis.
The Badgers (28-4-3) advanced to the WCHA title game for the sixth straight year. They will play third-seeded Ohio State (23-8-6) at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Buckeyes rallied to beat Minnesota, 4-3, in overtime.
Badgers goaltender Kristen Campbell made 34 stops to win her eighth-straight playoff game.
TENNIS
Reilly Opelka and Taylor Fritz had straight-set victories to give the United States a 2-0 lead after the opening day of a Davis Cup qualifier against Uzbekistanin in Honolulu.
Opelka beat Denis Istomin, 6-2, 7-5, and Fritz beat Sanjar Fayziev, 6-1, 6-2.
The winner of this qualifier advances to the Davis Cup Finals in November in Madrid. It will be the second year of a new format in which 18 nations converge on one venue to compete for the title.
SKIING
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde seized the lead in the overall World Cup standings by finishing second in the downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway, which was won by Matthias Mayer.
Kilde picked up 80 points to take a lead of 54 over Alexis Pinturault, who was outside the top-30 scoring places in his first downhill start since 2013.
The title race calls for different tactics after Friday’s cancellation of the March 18-22 finals meeting at Cortina d’Ampezzo, in a northern Italy region affected by the spreading coronavirus.
SOCCER
Ian Bennett had a hat trick to lead the Milwaukee Wave to a 6-1 victory over the Orlando SeaWoves at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.