Kirtland falls to Hiland

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 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.

Div. VII teams fall

DAYTON — Malvern and Jeromesville Hillsdale both suffered losses in the Division VII boys basketball state finals 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.

Golden Bears drop opener

NEW MANCHESTER, W.Va. ä Oak Glen’s baseball team opened the season with a 5-0 loss to Brooke on Friday.

The Golden Bears (0-1) will host Weir on Tuesday.

BR: 0-0-0-0-0-3-2–5-10-0

OG: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0–0-2-2

Buckeyes to play for title

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (AP) — Ohio State scored four goals in the final 10 minutes of the first period, and the No. 1 overall seed Buckeyes beat fifth-seeded Northeastern 5-0 on Friday in the first of two semifinals Friday night at Pegula Ice Arena.

Ohio State (36-4-0), which set the program’s single-season wins record with 36, advanced to its fifth straight national title game to improve to 14-4 in the NCAA Tournament and 7-4 in the Frozen Four.

Northeastern (29-9-1) was making its fourth Frozen Four appearance in program history and first since 2023 when Ohio State defeated the Huskies 3-0. The Huskies dropped to 5-7-0 in the NCAA Tournament.

Five different players scored for the Buckeyes and 10 players recorded a point.

Joy Dunne, a Patty Kazmaier top-10 finalist, scored on a rebound 10 minutes into the game for her 27th goal of the season.

Then Kaia Malachino and Sanni Vanhanen scored a minute apart for a 3-0 lead.

Emma Peschel beat the first-period buzzer with a slap shot to make it 4-0 and Sara Swiderski sent a shot from the blue line that deflected into the goal in the third.

Hailey MacLeod recorded her fifth shutout this season with 15 saves — five coming in the first 10 minutes. She ended a breakaway chance five minutes in and finished the frame with eight saves.

Northeastern goaltender Lisa Jönsson made 37 saves.