Feb 11, 2020 4 min read

Trinity second at WPIAL team rifle

The Trinity rifle team shot almost as well as possible Tuesday at the WPIAL Team Championships.

However, the gold medal demanded perfection.

Trinity shot 799-59x but finished as the runner-up to champion Butler, which registered a stunning 800-67x score.

Waynesburg and West Greene also were solid, finishing fourth and sixth, respectively. Waynesburg, the Section 1 champion, shot 798-55x. West Greene, the Section 1 runner-up, shot 797-55x.

Butler was the lone wild-card entry into the championships. Trinity was the Section 2 runner-up behind Bethel Park. The latter placed seventh at the team championships.

Butler’s 10 shooters didn’t drop a shot as each shot 100-6x or better.

The WPIAL Individual Championships will be held Thursday at the Mt. Lebanon-Dormont Sportsmen’s Club.

Monessen hires Swope

Shane Swope, a former assistant coach at Yough High School, was hired Tuesday night as Monessen High School’s football coach.

Swope succeeds Mike Blainefield, who resigned after leading the Greyhounds for three years.

In the NHL

Florida’s fourth line of Mike Matheson, Mark Pysyk and Noel Acciari each scored and accounted for eight points as the Panthers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.

• Sam Reinhart jammed in a loose puck for the go-ahead goal 57 seconds into the third period in the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

In the NBA

Ben Simmons had 26 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Clippers 110-103 on Tuesday night.

Joel Embiid also scored 26 points and Tobias Harris added 17 points and 12 boards for Philadelphia, which has the NBA’s best home record at 25-2. Josh Richardson scored 17 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 30 points, and reserve Landry Shamet scored 19 against his former team.

• Bradley Beal scored 30 points, and the Washington Wizards held off Zach LaVine and the Chicago Bulls for a 126-114 win.

Rui Hachimura added 20 points for Washington, which won for the fourth time in six games. Shabazz Napier and Ian Mahinmi had 15 apiece.

In college basketball

Tyrese Maxey scored 25 points, and the 12th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats rallied from their biggest halftime deficit of the season to beat Vanderbilt 78-64 Tuesday night.

With the win, Kentucky (9-2, 19-5) keeps a piece of the lead atop the Southeastern Conference standings with Auburn and LSU. The Wildcats also won their eighth straight over Vanderbilt, though this was the fifth time in this streak that they’ve had to rally from a double-digit deficit. This time, they trailed by as much as 14 in the first half and were down 36-27 at halftime.

• Obi Toppin scored 22 points and led an opening 17-point spurt Tuesday night as No. 6 Dayton surged to an 81-67 victory over Rhode Island, dominating a match-up of the Toppin brothers and the Atlantic 10’s top teams.

Both teams brought double-digit winning streaks into a chippy game that included seven technical fouls. Dayton (11-0, 22-2) got the better of it in every way, winning its 13th in a row.

• Devon Daniels scored 23 points, including seven straight in the second half, C.J. Bryce added 19 and North Carolina State defeated shorthanded Syracuse 79-74.

Syracuse played all but three minutes without leading scorer Elijah Hughes, who suffered a lower body injury during pre-game warmups. He went out with 17:27 remaining in the first half and did not return.