Trending
Hiland tops Kirtland
DAYTON -- Berlin Hiland held Kirtland scoreless for an 11-minute span midway through the game on the way to the Hawks' 65-43 win in a Division VI state semifinal Friday at Wright State University's Nutter Center.
Hiland has won 20 games in a row to improve to 25-3 heading into the state championship game against Maria Stein Marion Local (26-1) at 7:30 p.m Saturday at University of Dayton Arena. This is the Hawks' 15th state appearance, including state titles in 1992, 2011 and 2012.
Senior Caleb Yoder led the Hawks with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and 10 rebounds.
Junior starter Sammy Ridgeway topped Kirtland with a team-high 10 points and five rebounds in 22 minutes. He is the son of former United standout Matt Ridgeway.
Kirtland finishes the season with a 24-4 record and a Salem district title on the way to a second straight state semifinal appearance.
The Salem district has produced three eventual state champions over 55 years -- Youngstown Rayen in 1985, Campbell Memorial in 1993 and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary led by sophomore LeBron James in 2001.
Malvern, Hillsdale fall at state
DAYTON -- Malvern and Jeromesville Hillsdale both suffered losses in the Division VII boys basketball state semifinals on Friday.
Unbeaten Delphos St. John's beat Malvern, 61-32, while Kalida stopped Hillsdale, 58-46, at Wright State University's Nutter Center.
Delphos St. John's (28-0) will play Kalida (17-11) in the state championship game at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at University of Dayton Arena.
Two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball runner-up Cameron Elwer led Delphos St. John's with a game-high 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field along with seven rebounds and four steals. He is Ohio's sixth all-time leading scorer with 2,790 points in his career. Elwer has signed with NCAA Division I Furman (S.C.) University.
Delonte Simmons paced Malvern with 11 points. Malvern finishes the season at 19-10, which included a 57-54 loss at Minerva on Jan. 3.
Hillsdale led 16-5 late in the first quarter and 35-30 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. Kalida held a 28-11 scoring edge in the final 13 1/2 minutes.
Kalida's bench outscored Hillsdale's 29-0.
Kael Lewis topped Hillsdale with a game-high 21 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Hayden McFadden contributed 10 points.
Hillsdale (20-8) edged Heartland Christian, 58-57, in the regional championship game.
Attendance for the semifinal games was 5,609.
Calhoun leads Utah State
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- MJ Collins' steal and emphatic one-handed slam dunk with 1:13 left gave him 20 points and Utah State opened its fourth straight NCAA Tournament by beating Villanova 86-76 on Friday.
Mason Falslev, the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, scored 22 and helped bring the Aggies back from a 10-point deficit early in the second half.
Both players came on strong in the second half for Utah State (29-6), the No. 9 seed in the West Region that will play No. 1 seed Arizona in the second round on Sunday. The Aggies are in the second round for the second time in three seasons.
Collins had only four points and Falslev just six in the first half before turning it on in the final 20 minutes.
"The ball was a little too pumped up for me," Collins joked. "But I kind of, I had to lock in. It was winning time. So the ball started to go in."
Head coach Jerrod Calhoun, an East Liverpool native, is in his second year at Utah State after seven seasons at Youngstown State.
"Our guys in the last seven, eight minutes, I thought we really buckled down," Calhoun said. "Our execution offensively was tremendous, our screening, getting to the next action. And I thought what won the game was our will-to and our want-to."
Army-Navy game alone at top
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday barring College Football Playoff and other postseason games from airing during the annual Army-Navy matchup in December.
Trump directed the commerce secretary and the FCC chairman to coordinate with the playoff committee, the NCAA and media rights partners to ensure an exclusive broadcasting window for a storied rivalry played on the second Saturday each December.
Trump's order makes reference to potential expansion of the CFP, which likely would lead to an earlier start for the playoff. In the first two years of the 12-team format, the first-round games were the weekend after Army-Navy, which moved off the first Saturday in December in 2009 because of conference championship games.
This year, Army-Navy is scheduled for Dec. 12 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the home of the NFL's New York Giants and Jets. The CFP first-round games are set for Dec. 18-19.
World record swimmer
SHENZHEN, China (AP) -- Olympic and world champion swimmer Cameron McEvoy has broken the men's 50-meter freestyle world record which had stood for 17 years.
The 31-year-old Australian posted a time of 20.88 seconds on Friday at the China Open in Shenzhen, taking 0.03 second off Brazilian CÈsar Cielo's previous mark.
Cielo set his world record of 20.91 during swimming's so-called "super suit" era in 2009. Those suits were later banned because they increased buoyancy and reduced drag, resulting in nearly 150 world records falling in 2009 before being prohibited in 2010.
"I knew I had a chance to do a PB (personal best)," McEvoy said. "My old PB was 21.06, so maybe 20.99? But doing 20.88 is unreal. It's crazy."
Cielo was quick to congratulate McEvoy on social media, tweeting: "Congrats, Cam. Lightning fast swim! Incredible!"