WJPA Sports

The WPIAL basketball quarterfinal ended Friday night. Peters Township boys knocked off Uniontown in a thriller, moving to the WPIAL semifinals on Tuesday against Mars.  Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston girls both lost to their opponents for a second time this year. The Rangers and Bucs will now have to win one of their next two games in the consolation bracket to reach the state tournament.  Semifinals start Saturday and the WPIAL championships return to the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center Feb. 27-March 1. Click for WPIAL Brackets

WPIAL Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb. 21
Boys 5A #6 Peters Township 56, #3 Uniontown 52
Girls 2A #4 South Side Beaver 45, #5 Fort Cherry 32
Girls 2A #3 Winchester Thurston 40, #6 Chartiers-Houston 27

WPIAL Semifinals
Saturday, Feb. 22
Girls 5A #2 Peters Township vs. #6 Thomas Jefferson at Mt. Lebanon, 11:45 am, WJPA-FM (95.3) Watch/Listen Here
Girls 5A #1 South Fayette vs. #13 Mars Area at Mt. Lebanon, 1:45 pm, wjpa.com Watch/Listen Here

Tuesday, Feb. 25
Girls 6A #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #1 Norwin / #8 North Allegheny winner

WPIAL Quarterfinals
Wednesday, Feb. 19
Wednesday: Peters Township got 14 points from Natalie Wetzel and Taylor McCullough, rolling past Indiana in the WPIAL quarterfinals Wednesday night. The Indians led by four at the half before a 20-4 third period gave the #2 seed total control.  Peters Township will face #6 Thomas Jefferson in Saturday’s semifinals, the Jaguars upsetting previously unbeaten Penn-Trafford in overtime.

Girls 5A #2 Peters Township 51, #7 Indiana  32
Girls 5A #6 Thomas Jefferson 65, #3 Penn-Trafford 60 OT

Thursday, Feb. 20
Canon-McMillan girls fell behind early but roared past Butler and into the WPIAL semifinals. Chartiers-Houston boys trailed by 16 after three quarters, pulled to within six with over a minute to play, but couldn’t close the dealing, losing to Sewickley Academy. Similarly, West Greene trailed big at the end of three, got back within reach, but ran out of steam, losing at Geibel.

Girls 6A #4 Canon-McMillan 58, #5 Butler 41
Boys 2A #2 Sewickley Academy 48, #7 Chartiers-Houston 39
Girls 1A #2 Geibel Catholic 60, #7 West Greene 48

BOSTON (AP) — When they played “O Canada” for the second time, there were no American fans left in the arena to boo. Instead, the Canadian team stood at the blue line, arm in arm, player and coach, wearing their championship hats while the maple leaf flag was lowered behind the 4 Nations Face-Off trophy and the national anthem reverberated across the Americans’ home ice. The fans who remained, many of them in their red Team Canada jerseys, sang along. Connor McDavid scored at 8:18 of overtime to give Canada a 3-2 victory over the United States on Thursday night as the North American rivals turned what had been a tune-up for the 2026 Olympics into a geopolitical brawl over anthems and annexation as much as international hockey supremacy. “A lot of stuff going on with Canada and the USA right now, and us playing against each other was kind of a perfect storm for our sport,” said Nathan MacKinnon, who was selected the MVP of the new tournament with four goals in four games. “It was much more popular than even we would have imagined. It was getting so much attention from our whole continent.”

ESPN’s coverage of Major League Baseball games — at least in its current form — will conclude at the end of the 2025 season. ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro informed baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday morning that the network was opting out of the final three years of its contract, two people told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss financial matters. ESPN and MLB both made statements Thursday night confirming the end of the current rights deal. There was a March 1 deadline for MLB and ESPN to opt out of the final three years of their contract. The sides agreed to a seven-year deal in 2021 that averaged $550 million per season.