Trending
County basketball scholarships
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Basketball Coaches Association awarded $12,000 in scholarships to county seniors at the 39th Columbiana County Classic on Sunday night.
Receiving $500 scholarships were Beaver Local's Nicolas McKenzie, Luke Rettos and Bella McLevey; Columbiana's Trey Snyder and Megan Moser; Crestview's Tyler Savage and Ava Bucey; East Liverpool's Elliottt Fitch; East Palestine's Amara Wilson; Heartland Christian's Isaiah Matthews and Kelleigh Shodd; Leetoni'a Ethan Mathia and Kasey Williams; Lisbon's Ashton Hinchliffe, AJ Ramgeet and Jayden Smyth; Salem's Braydon Fennema, Maddy Andres and Garyn Rohm; Southern's Jacob McCurdy and Maddy Jones; United's Kadin Schonauer and Marin Stryffeler; and Wellsville's Austin Adkins.
Hornets, Mustangs win in Salem
SALEM -- The top-seeded Kirtland and second-seeded Orwell Grand Valley boys basketball teams captured Salem Division VI district at Cabas Gymnasium on Saturday.
Kirtland scored the first seven points and beat 10th-seeded Oberlin, 63-43, as the Hornets make a run at a second straight state berth.
Lucas Renfro totaled 20 points and five rebounds and Ben DiFranco had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Hornets. Jake LaVerde added eight points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.
In the opener, Grand Valley topped 24th-seeded Warren JFK, 71-57.
Carter Turk scored 27 points and Solomon Schultz 22 to lead the Mustangs. For Warren JFK, Henry Phillips scored 19 points and Preston Geracitano finished with 17, including his 1,000th career point.
Kirtland (22-3) and Grand Valley (21-4) will meet in a regional semifinal at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Canton Fieldhouse.
Novak leads Penguin win
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Tommy Novak scored 17 seconds into overtime to complete a wild comeback in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
Anthony Mantha scored two third-period goals to help Pittsburgh -- playing without franchise cornerstones Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin -- snap a three-game losing streak. Second in the Metropolitan Division, Pittsburgh has points in 16 of its last 19 games.
Crosby is out a minimum of four weeks because of a lower-body injury and Malkin served the second of a five-game suspension for slashing Buffalo's Rasmus Dahlin in the head.
Egor Chinakhov added a power-play goal, Connor Dewar also scored and Arturs Silovs stopped 22 shots. Chinakhov has 14 goals this season and 11 goals in 25 games with Pittsburgh.
Pavel Zacha had his second career hat trick, and David Pastrnak also scored for Boston. The Bruins have lost five of their last eight. They have a three-point lead for the final wild-card spot in the East.
Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves for the Bruins.
Pittsburgh had its second three-goal comeback this season. The last time the Penguins had a three-goal comeback without Crosby and Malkin was February 10, 2001, against New Jersey.
Mantha became the first Pittsburgh player to score multiple game-tying goals in a third period since Alex Kovalev on March 23, 2002, against Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh trailed 3-1 in the third period, but Dewar and Mantha scored 33 seconds apart to tie it.
Zacha completed his hat trick at 8:34 of the third period, but Mantha tied it again for Pittsburgh with 8:42 to go when he tapped in a rebound from the left post.
No. 2 UCLA rolls past No. 9 Iowa
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Gianna Kneepkens scored 19 points and Kiki Rice added 15 points and eight assists Sunday as No. 2 UCLA rolled past No. 9 Iowa 96-45 to win its second straight Big Ten Tournament crown.
Rice was named the tourney's Most Outstanding Player.
It's the first time the Bruins (31-1) have captured back-to-back postseason conference titles, and it's also the first time they have won regular-season and league tournament titles in the same season. The Bruins also extended their school-record win streak to 25 games and their Big Ten win streak to 24, dating to last season's tourney run.
And they did it with most the lopsided championship-game margin in tournament history, easily surpassing Iowa's 33-point win over Ohio State in 2023. Six UCLA players scored in double figures, including Sienna Betts -- the younger sister of star center Lauren Betts -- who matched a season high with 14 points. Lauren Betts had 10 points in 24 minutes and was dancing with her teammates after the final buzzer.
"For us to come out the way we did, it means a lot because we're doing it against really good teams," UCLA coach Cori Close said. "I want to just say thank you to the incredible players who really fulfilled their mission and stayed committed to the character qualities we needed to make this run."
Ava Heiden scored 15 points for the Hawkeyes (26-6). Addie Deal added 11 points while all-conference forward Hannah Stuelke struggled as she played through a right elbow injury and an illness for the third straight day. Stuelke was scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting and had only three rebounds as Iowa's eight-game winning streak was snapped.
The Hawkeyes never looked right after Taylor Stremlow opened the game with a 3-pointer to give them their only lead.
"Their staff had them prepared and locked in, ready to roll," Iowa coach Jan Jensen said.
"What they've done this year has been really impressive, and they were great today."
UCLA answered with 13 consecutive points. The Bruins extended the margin to 22-5 after one quarter and led by 25 in the second before Iowa closed the half with a 3 to get within 42-20. It only got worse for Iowa in the second half.
The Bruins had 34 assists on 40 baskets.
UCLA's two-year title reign was preceded by Iowa's three-peat and Maryland winning two straight. Last weekend, the Bruins became the first Big Ten team to complete a perfect conference season since the Terrapins in 2014-15. Maryland also won the tourney crown that season.
Up next
Both teams wait a week for Selection Sunday to find out their women's NCAA Tournament matchups. UCLA is certain to host the first two rounds, while Iowa could also play at home.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women's college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball.