Dave Mackall stories, Page 6
Fort Cherry’s Welsh earns only gold for WPIAL at Class 2A wrestling regionals
ALTOONA — The WPIAL nearly was shut out Saturday in the championship matches of the PIAA Class 2A Southwestern Regional wrestling tournament at Altoona High School. Fort Cherry’s Braedon Welsh made sure there was a winner. Down to the final two weight classes — PIAA Districts 5 and 6 dominated...
Duquesne heats up from 3-point range, drops George Mason
They made the old guys proud. On Senior Day and with members of Duquesne’s 1977 Atlantic 10 men’s basketball champions in the house, the current Dukes put on a championship-caliber show on Saturday at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Tre Dinkins III scored 20 points, Cam Crawford added 16 and the duo...
Robert Morris men win, clinch their 1st Horizon League regular-season titleVideo
After four agonizing seasons in the Horizon League, Andy Toole finally is back on top. And the longtime Robert Morris men’s basketball coach is hoping for even more. “We’ll enjoy this tonight and then we’ll be back to work (Friday) trying to figure out what we’ve got to do to...
Duquesne men never trail, defeat La Salle in Philly
Duquesne reverted to a familiar playing style from last season’s Atlantic 10 championship team and won a men’s basketball game Wednesday night for just the second time on the road this season. That’s right, it wasn’t pretty. Taking a page from former coach Keith Dambrot’s guide to winning ugly, Tre...
Playoff magic carries Peters Township past Mars into WPIAL Class 5A title game
Peters Township junior Dylan Donovan, wearing sweats and a hoodie, stood on the court and talked to friends Tuesday night not long after the Indians beat Mars in overtime and advanced to the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball championship game. He also appeared dry, even though in the locker room...
Robert Morris men roll past Milwaukee for 12th victory in past 13 games
And just like that, Robert Morris is in first place in the Horizon League men’s basketball standings. For the first time. Ever. Don’t tell coach Andy Toole, though. He’s not biting. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we do,” Toole said Sunday after Robert Morris’ 72-59 victory over Milwaukee...
Duquesne can’t overcome early deficit in loss to St. Bonaventure
They staged their 136th meeting in a men’s basketball series dating to 1920. St. Bonaventure is Duquesne’s most frequent all-time opponent. And get this: The average score in the first 135 games? Duquesne 71.6, St. Bonaventure 70.9, a difference of less than a point. The latest affair Saturday at Reilly...
Robert Morris men top Green Bay for 11th win in past 12 games
Everyone in the Robert Morris locker room was delighted with another victory. Nobody could’ve been thrilled with much else. Not even Kam Woods, the Colonials senior guard who flirted with a triple-double. This was Green Bay, after all. “It’s your biggest fear as a coach,” Robert Morris’ Andy Toole said...
Duquesne drops Fordham at home to stay in A-10 race
David Dixon raised the roof multiple times Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse to the delight of a home Duquesne basketball crowd energized by the sounds of the Mt. Pleasant High School marching band, which was making a guest appearance alongside the Duquesne pep band. The Dukes, led by Dixon’s...
Latrobe hockey hopes to make push for playoff seeding in final stretch
Some day, maybe Adam Ferguson will fulfill an ambition to join college hockey’s coaching ranks. For now, he’s content with the high school level. “I’m enjoying it, for sure,” said Ferguson, Latrobe’s second-year coach. “I’m enjoying my staff. I’m enjoying being around the players. I certainly can’t complain about how...
Robert Morris basketball stays hot, defeats Purdue Fort Wayne
The ball worked its way inside the paint and back to the arc as the shot clock ticked into single digits. Back inside and out to Kam Woods in the right corner. Woods’ 3-point shot went up and bounded off the back of the iron before kissing the backboard and...
With tenacious coach Andy Toole leading the way, Robert Morris surges in Horizon League
When Andy Toole took the men’s basketball reins at Robert Morris in 2010, he was going by his given name, Andrew. As time passed, it, naturally, morphed into Andy. A decade later, the Colonials, for years among the top contenders in the lightly regarded Northeast Conference, made their way to...
Scoring leader Dinkins, Duquesne prepare for final stretch of A-10 schedule
The way Duquesne’s Tre Dinkins III sees it, basketball is a pretty simple game. At any level. The 6-foot-2 guard from Chester seems to have played the game with ease everywhere he’s been. He was an all-Philadelphia Catholic League second-team player at Cardinal O’Hara. He was an NJCAA All-America third-team...
Robert Morris defeats Horizon leader Cleveland State
Robert Morris sent a stern message Wednesday night to the rest of the Horizon League men’s basketball teams. League-leading Cleveland State certainly heard it loud and clear: “Beware.” “You can’t beat a team like Cleveland State on the road unless you get contributions from everybody, and that’s what we did...
Duquesne grinds out victory over Loyola Chicago to end 5-game skid
A 13-point victory? With the way Duquesne’s offense was broken, how did that happen? The Dukes went scoreless for nearly 7 1/2 minutes to open the second half Saturday, missing their first 11 shots along the way, yet they recovered on the strength of their defense and beat Loyola Chicago,...
Jeannette boys make memories in win over Clairton
It was a special moment Friday on senior night for one Jeannette boys basketball player. Oh, how Casen Clary knows it. He scored the first points of his high school career for the second-ranked Jayhawks in the final minute of their 60-45 WPIAL Section 1-2A victory over visiting Clairton moments...
Robert Morris looks to follow path of fellow mid-major Duquesne to NCAA Tournament
Remember last season? Who could forget when Duquesne won the Atlantic 10 Tournament in men’s basketball and surged to its first NCAA Tournament in something like a million years? Remember that? It had been 47 seasons — the year was 1977, to be exact — since the Dukes made The...
Robert Morris men bounce back to swat away Detroit Mercy
Amarion Dickerson appeared in disbelief. “A school record?” the Robert Morris junior forward said, repeating what someone just told him. “Really, a school record?” But for Dickerson, honestly, it was business as usual. He entered the night fourth in Division I in blocks with 59. The total swelled to 67...
Duquesne falls short at home against Massachusetts
He’d counted on his teams’ ability to hold down opponents in the Big 12 at Kansas State and in the SEC at South Carolina, but even here in the Atlantic 10, Massachusetts coach Frank Martin tends to get defensive. Just ask Duquesne, which was held to a season-low in scoring...
Southmoreland boys warm up, top Waynesburg to clinch section title
When Southmoreland, the unbeaten Section 4-3A leader in boys basketball, stepped onto its home floor Friday night for the opening tip against runner-up Waynesburg Central, Scotties coach Frank Muccino wasn’t expecting a chilly start. Southmoreland was ice-cold. But despite trailing for much of the game, the Scotties, behind Noah Felentzer’s...
7 players score in double figures as Robert Morris men rout IU Indy
As the seasons progress in men’s basketball, Robert Morris’ desire to make noise in the Horizon League grows stronger. The surging Colonials were deafening Thursday night at UPMC Events Center, doubling up IU Indianapolis, 106-53, for their sixth consecutive victory and 10th in the past 12 games. “We’re getting hot...
Jeannette rises to occasion, routs Derry at Seton Hill
The high school boys basketball playoffs might have started a bit early this season for Jeannette. Not really. But the Jayhawks certainly were in a playoff state of mind Sunday at Seton Hill. Xavier Odorisio-Farrow scored 21 points to top four players in double figures, and Jeannette defeated Derry, 74-51,...
Fordham knocks off Duquesne on go-ahead 3-pointerVideo
Duquesne’s latest visit to Fordham’s historic Rose Hill Gymnasium in New York on Sunday left the Dukes in a bitter mood for their return trip to Pittsburgh. Again. Josh Rivera’s 3-point shot with 24 seconds left erased a 1-point deficit and gave Fordham a 65-63 victory, the Rams’ first in...
Robert Morris men edge defending league champion Oakland for 5th straight victory
Robert Morris is on a roll in men’s basketball, and the Colonials are doing it by winning the close ones. They claimed another one Saturday, their fifth consecutive victory and fourth by three points or fewer during that time to keep pace with the Horizon League leaders. “(Again) a pretty...
Duquesne resets after big loss to Dayton
The question seemed simple enough for David Dixon, one-third of Duquesne’s primary rim patrollers: “Does a result like that last game make you realize that maybe there was some complacency setting in?” His answer, too, referring to the Dukes’ state of mind following their shocking 82-62 loss to Dayton on...
