STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State coach Patrick Chambers has watched his teams cough up enough leads late to know this squad is different. The No. 13 Nittany Lions are hanging on and closing games out. Lamar Stevens scored 23 points to lead Penn State over Northwestern 77-61 on Saturday. Myles Dread scored 16 and Jamari Wheeler and Mike Watkins added 11 apiece for the Nittany Lions, who led for all but 6:29 to win their eighth straight. They’ve arrived at 20 wins sooner than any other season in program history.
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Free agent outfielder Jarrod Dyson finalized a $2 million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh hopes he can fill the void in center ácreated by Starling Marte’s trade to Arizona. Dyson hit .230 with seven home runs and 27 RBIs in 130 games with the Diamondbacks last season. The 35-year-old also stole 30 bases for the fifth time in his 10-year career. The Pirates are retooling following a last-place finish in 2019 that led to a massive overhaul of the club’s leadership staff. New general manager Ben Cherington sent Marte to Arizona last month in exchange for two 19-year-old prospects.
UNDATED (AP) – St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester remains hospitalized and is undergoing tests a day after suffering a cardiac episode and collapsing on the bench during a game in Anaheim. General manager Doug Armstrong says the 36-year old defenseman was unresponsive and a defibrillator was used Tuesday night. He says Bouwmeester regained consciousness immediately before being taken to an Anaheim hospital. The team stayed overnight in Southern California before taking a chartered flight to Las Vegas, where they will play the Golden Knights on Thursday.
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Ron Roenicke is the Boston Red Sox’s new field general. The Red Sox have promoted the bench coach to interim manager on the day pitchers and catchers reported to the team’s spring training camp. Roenicke replaces Alex Cora, who was let go for his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal while serving as Houston’s bench coach during the team’s 2017 World Series run. The interim tag will stay until Major League Baseball completes its investigation into whether the Red Sox engaged in illegal sign-stealing during their 2018 World Series championship season. Roenicke has denied being part of any rules violation and is expected to become permanent manager if the probe clears him.
UNDATED (AP) – The standings have separated out a handful of notable sellers ahead of the NHL trade deadline. The New York Rangers, New Jersey, Ottawa, Detroit and Los Angeles Kings are among those expected to have varying degrees of fire sales. Rangers forward Chris Kreider is the biggest name available. But there’s no shortage of talent available among forwards and defensemen. Interested contenders can also look for someone like Senators forward Anthony Duclair or Kings defenseman Alec Martinez. L.A.’s Trevor Lewis could also be the prototypical deadline pickup as a low-risk move. The trade deadline is Feb. 24.
The WPIAL Basketball Playoff brackets are set, including the paths for a dozen Washington County teams. California and Charleroi advanced both their boys and girls teams to the post-season. Girls squads from Avella, Burgettstown, Chartiers-Houston and Trinity plus boys teams from McGuffey, Peters Township, Ringgold and Wash High have also made it to the playoffs. West Greene (boys & girls) is the only Greene County school to qualify. First-round games (Sweet 16) will be played Friday through Wednesday with quarterfinals scheduled for Feb. 20-22. The WPIAL Basketball Championship games are scheduled for Feb. 27-29 at the Petersen Events Center on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Opening round games for teams from the two-county area are listed below along with WPIAL Bracket links.
Friday, Feb. 14–First Round
2A Girls #7 Burgettstown vs. #10 Riverview, 6:30 pm at Northgate
2A Girls #8 Chartiers-Houston vs. #9 Winchester Thurston, 6:30 pm at Peters Township
3A Boys #8 Wash High vs. #9 Neshannock, 6:30 pm at West Allegheny WJPA-FM (95.3)
3A Boys #13 McGuffey vs. #4 Seton-La Salle, 8:00 pm at Trinity WJPA-FM (95.3)
3A Boys #7 Charleroi vs. #10 Carlynton, 8:00 pm at Peters Township
Saturday, Feb. 15–First Round
1A Boys #11 West Greene vs. #6 Imani Christian, 1:00 pm at Peters Township
2A Boys #11 California vs. #6 Shenango, 2:30 pm at North Hills
Tuesday, Feb. 18–First Round
1A Girls #7 Avella vs. #10 Propel Andrew Street, 6:30 pm at Peters Township WJPA-AM (1450)
1A Girls #12 California vs. #5 Greensburg Central Catholic, 8:00 pm at Peters Township WJPA-AM (1450)
6A Boys #9 Peters Township vs. #8 Hempfield, Class 6A Sweet 16, Tuesday, 8 pm, at Mt. Lebanon WJPA-FM (95.3)
Wednesday, Feb. 19–First Round
3A Girls #10 Charleroi vs. #7 East Allegheny, 6:30 pm at Peters Township WJPA-FM (95.3)
4A Boys #9 Ringgold vs. #8 Ambridge, 8:00 pm at Peters Township WJPA-FM (95.3)
Friday, Feb. 21–Quarterfinals
1A Girls #2 West Greene vs. Avella/Propel Andrew Street winner, site/time to be determined
Saturday, Feb. 22–Quarterfinals
5A Girls #3 Trinity vs. Gateway/Penn-Trafford winners, site/time to be determined
UNDATED (AP) – Philip Rivers has played his final down for the Los Angeles Chargers. The team says Rivers will enter free agency and not return for the upcoming season, ending his 16-year run with the franchise. The fourth player taken in the 2004 NFL draft owns 30 franchise records and has thrown for over 4,000 yards in 11 of his last 12 seasons. Rivers has completed 64.7% of his passes for 59,271 yards, 397 touchdowns and 198 interceptions. His 224 consecutive regular-season starts are second-most among quarterbacks in NFL history and his 123 wins are ninth.
UNDATED (AP) – The Red Sox and Dodgers have reworked a deal that is sending outfielder Mookie Betts and pitcher David Price to Los Angeles. A person with knowledge of the negotiations tells The Associated Press that the Red Sox are receiving outfielder Alex Verdugo and prospects Jeter Downs and Connor Wong for Betts and Price. Boston was to send cash to the Dodgers to offset Price’s salary, reportedly half of the $96 million still owed to the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner. The Red Sox, Dodgers and Twins had a tentative deal in place last week that included Minnesota prospect Brusdar Graterol to Boston. The trade fell apart when Boston had issues over Graterol’s arm health. Instead the Twins are sending Graterol to Los Angeles for Kenta Maeda.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored his 10th goal in the second period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins held off the Florida Panthers for a 3-2 win Saturday night. Kris Letang had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who improved to 9-3-0 in their past 12 games. Teddy Blueger also scored, and Tristan Jarry stopped 33 shots. Florida dropped to 1-3-1 since returning from the All-Star break. Mike Hoffman had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, and Brett Connolly also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves. Pittsburgh had a 2-1 lead before Crosby’s power-play goal 3:50 into the second. Crosby deflected a shot from Jared McCann past Bobrovsky.
Saturday afternoon, Waynesburg fell to District 11 champion Nazareth, 38-21, in the PIAA Triple-A Team Wrestling finals. Wyatt Henson had a technical fall and Rocco Welsh scored a major decision for the Raiders, making their first-ever trip to the state team tournament.
Canon-McMillan built a 10-point lead with five bouts to go but couldn’t hold off District 10 champion Cathedral Prep in the Triple-A consolations. The Big Macs have been eliminated.
Triple-A Seneca Valley and Double-A Burrell won Round III consolations but were eliminated in the consolation semifinals. Links to our coverage, on-air and online, as well as bracket updates will be available on our dedicated Wrestling Page WJPA Wrestling 2020
Here’s Saturday’s schedule/results for the WPIAL teams:
2A Round III Consolation Burrell 35, Hamburg 29
3A Round III Consolation Seneca Valley 34, Spring-Ford 27 3A Round III Consolation Cathedral Prep 29, Canon-McMillan 26 (Big Macs eliminated)
2A Round IV Consolation Chestnut Ridge 44, Burrell 10 (Burrell eliminated)
3A Round IV Consolation Bethlehem Catholic 33, Seneca Valley 31 (Seneca Valley eliminated)
