Mark Trakh resigns as USC women’s basketball coach

Mark Trakh resigned Wednesday as USC women’s basketball coach after five seasons, including two NCAA tournament appearances.

Trakh said he decided it was the right time to leave and the best thing for both him and the university.

He had a 90-64 record, with his first two seasons being his most successful. Those teams won 20 games in 2005 and 19 in 2006, with both reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament. This season’s team was 17-15 and lost to Stanford in its first Pacific 10 Conference tournament title game appearance.

“I loved my time at USC and I’ll always be a fan and supporter of the program,” Trakh said in a statement. “ . . . I wish our players the best of luck in the future. The team will be loaded next year and I won’t be surprised to see them in the Final Four.”

Arizona forward Jordan Hill announced that he will forgo his senior year and make himself available for the NBA draft. Other players who announced the same intention are All-American sophomore guard James Harden of Arizona State, All-American junior center DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh and Wake Forest sophomore guard Jeff Teague, who did not hire an agent and could return to the school.

TENNIS

Serena Williams loses in Spain

Top-ranked Serena Williams was upset by 95th-ranked Klara Zakopalova, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella, Spain.

Williams won less than half of her service points to lose her second straight match.

Also, the WTA Tour announced that Dinara Safina will overtake Williams for the No. 1 ranking later this month.

Top-seeded Nadia Petrova beat 14-year-old American Madison Keys, 6-3, 6-2, in the second round of The MPS Group Championships at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Petrova advanced to a quarterfinal match against seventh-seeded Alona Bondarenko, who beat her younger sister, Kateryna, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. . . . Lleyton Hewitt took 57 minutes to beat Sergio Roitman, 6-1, 6-3, in a second-round match of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Houston.

SOCCER

Barcelona and Chelsea win

Chelsea and Barcelona gained commanding positions going into the second leg of the European Champions League quarterfinals.

Branislav Ivanovic scored his first goals for Chelsea and Didier Drogba added a third to lead Chelsea over Liverpool, 3-1, in the first leg.

Barcelona beat visiting Bayern Munich, 4-0, as Lionel Messi scored twice to raise his season total to 32 in all competitions, and Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry also got goals.

In quarterfinals Tuesday, Porto tied at Manchester United, 2-2, and Arsenal tied at Villarreal, 1-1.

The Iraq Football Assn. has confirmed it has hired Bora Milutinovic to lead the country’s national team. Milutinovic has coached five different teams at World Cup tournaments, including the United States and Mexico. . . . Francisco Maturana and his coaching staff have resigned their jobs with Trinidad and Tobago. . . . FIFA reached an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency in a dispute over rules for drug testing elite soccer players. The governing body of world soccer said WADA has accepted a plan to limit the number of players who will be required to detail their whereabouts each day during the off-season.

ETC.

Bengals’ Hall arrested in Ohio

Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Leon Hall was arrested in southwest Ohio and charged with drunk driving, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

A police report says a state trooper stopped Hall’s car around 3 a.m. Sunday in Clermont County.

AJ Allmendinger picked up a sponsor that will keep his Richard Petty Motorsports entry running at least until September. RPM officials recently extended his deal through the end of May.

UCLA sophomore All-American golfer Maria Jose Uribe is leaving school and returning to her native Colombia to pursue a professional career.

PASSINGS

Marvin Webster, 56, ex-SuperSonic

Marvin Webster, a fierce shot-blocking center who helped lead the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1978 NBA Finals, was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Tulsa, Okla. He was 56. Section A.