Dave Mackall stories, Page 12
Washington drops Mt. Pleasant boys basketball team in playoff primer
Don’t expect Washington coach David Bunting to embrace the idea of the Little Prexies playing Mt. Pleasant in another boys basketball game anytime soon. He’s seen quite enough of the Vikings and their first-year coach, Annie Malkowiak, the first woman to lead a Westmoreland County boys team. Even though Washington...
Robert Morris men fall to conference-leading Green Bay in OT
How many times can Andy Toole say it? How many times can the longtime Robert Morris basketball coach explain the process of becoming a consistent winner? “We’ll say it as many times as we have to,” said Toole, whose Colonials are deep into their fourth season in the Horizon League...
Duquesne’s winning streak snapped at hands of Davidson
Usually a seeker of postgame cheer, Keith Dambrot to an extent is known even for uttering a light-hearted word in defeat. Wednesday night, however, Duquesne’s basketball coach was in no mood to mince words following a 72-59 loss to Davidson at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse that short-circuited the Dukes’ recent surge....
Deer Lakes preps for playoffs with win over Valley
Deer Lakes held a 20-point lead over Valley when Wayne Love Jr. stopped in his tracks under the Lancers’ basket. Trailing the fast break, Valley’s Keyziyah Clay was anticipating a shot by Love, who instead held the ball while Clay went up for a block before landing on top of...
Duquesne’s Grant takes moment to soak in career milestone, refocuses on A-10 foes
In Lorain, Ohio, Cleveland’s sports teams rule. It is the hometown of Duquesne basketball star Dae Dae Grant, a self-proclaimed beholder of NBA superstar LeBron James, a native of nearby Akron, whose prolific professional career began in 2003 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs and Cleveland Browns put basketball and...
Derry boys clinch playoff spot for 5th time in past 6 seasons with win over Valley
Derry made a trip to Valley and came away with a big boys basketball victory Friday night. Huge, in fact. The Trojans clinched a WPIAL playoff berth for the fifth time in the past six seasons, beating the Vikings, 78-51, behind four double-digit scorers, led by Nate Papuga’s 20 points....
After wife’s successful surgery, Duquesne men’s coach Dambrot will travel with team to Rhode IslandVideo
Duquense men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot will be on the sidelines after all for the Dukes’ Atlantic 10 game at Rhode Island. Dambrot, in the wake of his wife Donna’s successful surgery for breast cancer, had been undecided about his travel plans until after learning of Thursday’s positive outcome. He...
Gateway gets much-needed win, surviving against Kiski Area in overtime
Alvis Rogers slid the final bite of a pretzel into his mouth and looked around the visitor’s locker room. Satisfied that everything was in order, the Gateway boys basketball coach, happy to get out of Kiski Area with a victory Thursday night, followed the last of his players into the...
Duquesne men’s basketball avoids trap, beats Chicago State
Beware of the trap. Duquesne’s coaches warned their players of that classic situation as they were preparing for the unusual challenge of facing a nonconference opponent at home with the regular season headed into the February stretch run. Luckily for the Dukes, they survived Chicago State’s upset bid Wednesday night...
Greensburg Central Catholic presses home-court advantage in win over rival Jeannette
It seems like only yesterday to Greensburg Central Catholic boys basketball coach Christian Hyland that he was playing in the Centurions’ bandbox gymnasium for championship-caliber teams that generally were torturing visiting opponents. Now, some 10 years later, Hyland is coaching at his alma mater. And his teams are making things...
Duquesne prepares for rare late-January nonconference game vs. Chicago StateVideo
It’s not often college basketball teams encounter a nonconference opponent this late in the season. Duquesne, however, will see one Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. “It was a tough deal for us to get enough games on the schedule,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot was saying before the start of...
Duquesne pushes past Fordham for 2nd straight Atlantic 10 victory
Duquesne is showing it can win ugly. All of a sudden, that’s fine with the all-of-a-sudden resurgent Dukes. Just ask David Dixon, their electric sophomore forward, whom coach Keith Dambrot often jokes about as “taking the bad with the good.” In Saturday’s 68-59 victory against Fordham at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse,...
Franklin Regional finds another gear in overtime to get past Penn-Trafford
Franklin Regional needed its leader to find another gear, and that’s what Cooper Rankin did. The senior guard scored 10 of his 26 points in overtime Friday night to power the fourth-ranked Panthers to their third straight victory, a 63-58 decision over visiting Penn-Trafford in Section 3-5A boys basketball. “I...
Keith Dambrot, Duquesne forge ahead amid emotional season
During their recent five-game losing streak, a torturous stretch that saw the Duquesne Dukes drop three of their first five Atlantic 10 men’s basketball games by no more than five points, the team says it has remained locked in solidarity. Despite what others may think. “Adversity is always going to...
Burrell shuts out Greensburg Salem en route to section title
Never mind the score. That was expected. So, too, for Burrell, was securing its 20th consecutive WPIAL section championship in wrestling. It was, in fact, a mere formality Wednesday night at Greensburg Salem. No. 2 Burrell needed just 25 minutes to complete a 72-0 rout of the outmanned Golden Lions...
Duquesne gets 1st A-10 win of season, holding off long-time nemesis St. Bonaventure
The chip squarely was placed on Duquesne’s shoulder. Despite playing for the third time in a row without its leading scorer Tuesday night, the Dukes, against an old nemesis, finally ended a five-game losing streak that began with the start of its Atlantic 10 schedule on Jan. 3, a span...
Deer Lakes boys steamroll Ligonier Valley
After a few wrong turns, top-ranked Deer Lakes managed to make it up the mountain in time to face Ligonier Valley on Saturday afternoon in a rescheduled boys basketball game that had been postponed a day earlier by the elements. Turns out the extra time off benefited the hobbled Lancers,...
Deer Lakes boys steamroll Ligonier Valley
After a few wrong turns, top-ranked Deer Lakes managed to make it up the mountain in time to face Ligonier Valley on Saturday afternoon in a rescheduled boys basketball game that had been postponed a day earlier by the elements. Turns out the extra time off benefited the hobbled Lancers,...
Robert Morris men survive in wild double-OT win over Detroit Mercy
TJ Wainwright considered the possibility of Robert Morris being “that team,” but he said the Colonials were determined not to allow Detroit Mercy to get its first men’s basketball victory of the season. Even when things were looking bleak. “I kept telling the guys, ‘We’re still going to win this...
Duquesne can’t hold lead vs. Richmond as losing skid hits 4 games
Back in October, when the college basketball buzz was picking up, Duquesne’s optimism for a successful Atlantic 10 season was everywhere. The Dukes were chosen to finish fourth in a preseason poll of conference coaches and select media members. There was talk, even, of a long-awaited return to the NCAA...
Robert Morris men rebound in big way, top Purdue Fort Wayne on OT buzzer-beater
The dust hadn’t settled from a frantic finish Friday night at UPMC Events Center, where Markeese Hastings’ buzzer-beating 3-point shot lifted Robert Morris to a 91-88 overtime victory over Purdue Fort Wayne, when Colonials coach Andy Toole was swarmed by his ecstatic players. “Is your shirt wet?” Toole was asked...
Unbeaten Franklin Regional wrestlers take down undermanned Penn-Trafford
It wasn’t a question of who would win the WPIAL Section 3-3A wrestling match at Penn-Trafford — No. 4 Franklin Regional came in Wednesday night as a heavy favorite against the undermanned Warriors — but rather how it would be won. Indeed, Franklin Regional captured a 43-16 victory, but the...
Franklin Regional gives up huge lead before rallying to beat Kiski Area
A boys basketball blowout at Kiski Area turned into a nail-biter before it was over Friday night, but Franklin Regional will take the road victory just the same. Cooper Rankin scored 23 points, and Cam Rowell added 21, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute, as the Panthers held...
Robert Morris men score most lopsided Horizon League win, 92-48 over IUPUI
Another season of struggles in the Horizon League provided a reprieve for Robert Morris on Thursday night at UPMC Events Center as the Colonials scored their most lopsided victory against a conference opponent in four seasons in the league. Josh Corbin’s 15 points led six RMU players in double figures...
Burrell wrestlers overcome early upset, defeat Derry
How good has the Burrell wrestling team been so far? Hmm, the second-ranked Buccaneers were pretty good Wednesday night, remaining unbeaten with a 40-18 victory over No. 8 Derry. “I’m satisfied. It was a good team win,” Burrell coach Josh Shields said. Derry, despite an upset victory early in the...
