Feb 8, 2018 3 min read

Phillips wins WPIAL rifle championship

Waynesburg High School’s Selena Phillips won the 2018 WPIAL Individual Rifle Championship with a 200-2x.

Phillips was two shots better than the rest of the field, including Avella’s Ehron Jones, McGuffey’s Kyle Dietrich and Washington’s Oliver Kilgore, each of whom finished with 200-18x. They all placed in the top seven.

Avella also had two other shooters in the top 10. Katina Haskakis and Alaina Walther each shot 200-17x for ninth and 10th place, respectively.

The top 15 finishers qualified for the PIAA individual tournament.

Steelers hire Bradley to coach DBs

The Pittsburgh Steelers overhauled a portion of their defensive coaching staff Thursday, hiring Karl Dunbar as defensive line coach and Tom Bradley as defensive backs coach.

Bradley replaces Carnell Lake, who stepped down after seven seasons Wednesday, citing an urge to spend time with his youngest son as he finishes his high school career in California. Dunbar will take over for John Mitchell, who will move into a role as assistant head coach.

Dunbar spent the last two seasons as defensive line coach at Alabama. He previously spent 11 seasons as a defensive line coach in the NFL, with stops in Chicago, Minnesota, Buffalo and the New York Jets.

Bradley worked the last four seasons as defensive coordinator at UCLA. Prior to that he worked for over three decades at Penn State as an assistant under Joe Paterno.

Sports betting bills advance in W.Va.

Committees in the West Virginia Legislature have advanced bills that would introduce sports betting in the event that a U.S. Supreme Court case leads to the repeal of a nationwide ban.

The House and Senate judiciary committees approved separate bills Wednesday and sent them to their respective finance committees.

The bills would allow sports betting at West Virginia licensed casinos and on mobile device applications approved by the Lottery Commission.

Later this year the U.S. Supreme Court will decide New Jersey’s challenge to a law banning sports betting in all but four states.

New Mexico suspends coach

The University of New Mexico suspended head football coach Bob Davie for 30 days without pay, following multiple investigations that examined whether he and coaching staff interfered with criminal investigations or misconduct cases involving players.

The suspension comes after an initial investigation requested by university officials had found through confidential interviews with players that Davie had told them in an all-team meeting to “get some dirt” on a student who had reported that a fellow player had raped her. However, a report released by the university Thursday showed a follow-up probe conducted by a Chicago-based law firm could not confirm the same allegations.

In college basketball

Joel Berry II scored 21 points and No. 21 North Carolina rallied from 12 down in the first half to beat No. 9 Duke 82-78 in Thursday’s renewal of the fierce rivalry.

Kenny Williams made six 3-pointers and matched his career high with 20 points for the Tar Heels (18-7, 7-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), who roared out of halftime with a 16-2 run that erased what was left of Duke’s early lead.

Cameron Johnson added 18 points and 13 rebounds, helping the Tar Heels overcome the Blue Devils’ significant size advantage to own the glass (28-17) after halftime.