Dave Mackall stories, Page 18

Andy Toole turned and pointed to his bench. Brandon Stone immediately popped up and headed to the scorer’s table. It was hard to miss the slender, 6-foot-11, 200-pound Stone, who grew up in the southwestern Westmoreland County village of Alverton, as he was buzzed into the game during a stoppage...

Joe Lafko has been coaching boys basketball for a long time, and he’s won his share of games during a 32-year high school career. Hampton provided Lafko with win No. 499 on Monday night as the Talbots, behind Eric Weeks’ 19 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers during an explosive third-quarter burst,...

After losing to the worst team in Division I, Robert Morris looked as though Saturday night it would come out on top against a more formidable foe. But even a big lead against Illinois-Chicago wasn’t safe for the Colonials, who followed up an embarrassing, 10-point home loss two nights earlier...

Duquesne’s free fall in basketball has reached 12 consecutive losses, but coach Keith Dambrot insisted he is not going to stop searching for a successful formula. “We’re just trying to find some guys who will compete and who care about winning and competing,” Dambrot said. “Even if they don’t win,...

Andy Toole immediately realized it. The Robert Morris basketball coach surmised early on that his players weren’t prepared for their Horizon League rematch Thursday night with lowly IUPUI. He was right. Toole said the Colonials were “the dummies” who lost at home to a team dead-last among 358 Division I...

Duquesne has hit bottom. The last-place Dukes completed a stretch of three games in five days by sputtering to their 11th consecutive loss Wednesday night, in part because of a horrendous offensive showing against George Washington at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Joe Bamisile scored 21 points to lead the visiting Colonials...

He is the second-leading scorer in boys basketball at Greensburg Salem High School, having topped the list for a nine-year period from his graduation in 1993 until 2002, when his record was broken. His 2,160 career points in men’s basketball at Pitt-Greensburg from 1996-2000 represents the most at the Hempfield-based,...

Duquesne basketball coach Keith Dambrot — his team mired in a long losing streak — isn’t planning any new wrinkles just now. There’s no time, he said, with a schedule crammed with four games in eight days. “We just have to keep getting at it,” Dambrot said Monday night after...

Robert Morris finally found a way to win a close basketball game Sunday after falling short in nine of its first 10 single-digit decisions. Kahliel Spear scored a career-high 27 points, and the Colonials rode their hot second-half shooting to rally from a 10-point deficit and beat Youngstown State, 73-68,...

File this one away in the stinker category — as in someone had to win. Fordham took the honors, despite playing without its leading scorer. Duquesne continued to reel, falling for the ninth time in a row. “I’m not used to this. It’s super hard,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said...

The closely contested losses continue to pile up for the Robert Morris men’s basketball team in its second season in the Horizon League, and it’s starting to wear out the Colonials. This time, they fell just short against Oakland, 71-68, on Friday night at UPMC Events Center, dropping to 1-9...

Duquesne’s losing streak expanded to eight games Wednesday night with its second lopsided loss of the season to Dayton. “They just have better players than we do,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said, clearly upset with another lackluster finish from his team. Kobe Elvis scored 13 points, and Toumani Camara added...

Robert Morris has seen enough of Detroit Mercy and its shooting star, Antoine Davis. Nearly a year after the Titans and Davis torched the Colonials three times in a span of seven days, they made their first-ever appearance on Robert Morris’ Moon campus and did it again Wednesday night. Davis,...

He could’ve been impatient. Instead, Jaden Datz showed discipline. For the former Southmoreland High School multi-sport star, who is the top winner this season for the Washington & Jefferson College wrestling team, his patience has paid off after he endured a long period of heartache and sweat. A senior, Datz...

Not much has been easy for the Robert Morris men’s basketball team since joining the Horizon League a year ago. The Colonials have had their moments, but most times — even in battles down to the wire — they’ve come up short. Saturday’s matchup against shorthanded IUPUI in the teams’...

Duquesne’s basketball woes just keep continuing. Even without its leading scorer and rebounder, VCU survived the reeling Dukes’ challenge Saturday and handed them their seventh consecutive loss, a 71-62 decision at Siegel Center in Richmond, Va., behind Hason Ward’s 13 points and 10 rebounds. “They tried hard,” Duquesne coach Keith...

If there’s one thing that irks Robert Morris men’s basketball coach Andy Toole as much as anything, it’s when his teams fall asleep on defense. As much as he tried Thursday night in Chicago, Toole wasn’t able to wake up the Colonials long enough to see them get their first...

In a season of few victories, Robert Morris finally has won back-to-back games for the first time. Michael Green III scored 21 points, Enoch Cheeks notched a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds and the Colonials held off Green Bay, 62-60, on Saturday night at UPMC Events Center. It...

Hushed, composed and humble, Keith Dambrot met his detractors head-on. It was as good a time as any for Duquesne’s fifth-year men’s basketball coach to reflect on the past and wonder what might be down the road. Dambrot, in the aftermath of a blowout loss at home, was searching for...

Though he had to wait an extra year to win his second county diving championship, Ligonier Valley senior Nick Roddy never lost confidence in his abilities. As the school’s lone male diver, Roddy was determined to come through again. That he did, overpowering the pack Friday to repeat as the...

In the days of the Northeast Conference, not too very long ago, it would have been a rare occasion for NBA scouts to attend a Robert Morris basketball game. In the higher-profile Horizon League, the Colonials’ home since 2020, it also isn’t an every-day occurrence. But, while both conferences have...

Ping … ping … “Matt, keep that elbow in tight, bud! Where ya at?” With his first relay team of the day taking aim, Hempfield rifle coach Jason Wilkinson looks through a telescope at a magnified view of the targets as the hollow, pinging sound of the Anschutz 22 long-range...

Elizabeth Tapper made history last season at Hempfield as the first female from a Pennsylvania high school to qualify simultaneously for a throwing event and the dissimilar pole vault competition at the PIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Is she fazed by the feat? Spartans coach Dave Murray is. “She’s...