Fast Break

GOLF

Ochoa rolls to another win

Lorena Ochoa, the Mexican star who once struggled in the majors, now is making them look easy.

Ochoa continued her dominance of women’s golf Sunday with a five-shot victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Rancho Mirage, Calif., giving her the last two majors by a combined nine shots.

She was the only player without a bogey in the final round on a tough Mission Hills course, closing with a 5-under 67. She won by five shots over Suzann Pettersen and Annika Sorenstam, among many major champions being left behind in the massive wake of Ochoa, who has won three times this year by a combined 23 shots.

PRO SPORTS

Capital gains in Washington

Although their day-to-day worlds rarely cross, the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals play in the same arena for many of the same owners. They both play 82-game seasons in which 16 of 30 teams make the playoffs.

And this year, for a change, they’re both going to the postseason.

“It’s been 20 years,” said Ted Leonsis, principal owner of the Capitals and a minority owner of the Wizards. “And I think the city’s going to be rocking. Long overdue.”

That’s right. Twenty years. Atlanta, the unofficial title of Worst Indoor Sports Town is all yours. The Wizards clinched their NBA berth Friday night without any fanfare – it’s their fourth trip in a row. The Capitals went wild when they sewed up the NHL’s Southeast Division title Saturday, earning their first playoff spot since 2003.

Of the 15 cities that have both an NBA and NHL franchise, none had gone longer than Washington without getting both into the big show in the same year.

Women’s basketball

BCA releases first hiring report

The inaugural hiring report on women’s college basketball revealed mixed results – a record seven black head coaches were hired, yet minorities still represent less than 10 percent of all coaches.

The Black Coaches and Administrators group released its first women’s basketball hiring report Sunday, and 11 of the 19 schools that replaced coaches in 2006-2007 received A’s.

“Having a record number was a positive beginning as schools were paying more attention in the process,” said Richard Lapchick, head of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, which produced the report.

Still, Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches and Adminstrators, said it’s just a start.

“We still have to deal with the problem which is systemic in nature,” he said. “Forty-four percent of the athletes are minorities, and there is a 9.6 percent representation in the coaches. It should be closer to 20 percent.”