Author: Beaver County Radio

Six-Month Road Closure Began Today In New Sewickley Township

A six-month closure of part of Freedom Crider Road in New Sewickley Township began at 7:00 this morning. Crews are shutting down the road between Lovi Road and Route 989 to continue work of the Freedom Road Upgrade Project. The work is being done in Freedom and New Sewickley Township. The project includes utility relocations, completion of the Snake Run and Park Quarry bridges, guiderail and sign updates and other improvements. Local traffic will be able to access their property. Detours will be posted.

WPIAL First Round Matchups For Beaver County Basketball Teams

BOYS

BYE TEAMS IN ROUND 1
Quaker Valley [4A]
New Castle [4A]
Lincoln Park [3A]
Sewickley Academy [2A]
OLSH [2A]

Friday, February 16

6:30pm
[3A] Ellwood City vs. CW North Catholic (at Ambridge)

8:00pm
[3A] Riverside vs. Burrell (at North Catholic)
[3A] South Side Beaver vs. Aliquippa (at Ambridge)
[1A] Winchester-Thurston vs. Cornell (at Northgate)

Monday, February 19

TBA
[3A] Lincoln Park vs. Brownsville/Charleroi winner

Tuesday, February 20

8:00pm
[5A] Albert Gallatin vs. Moon (at Baldwin)
[5A] Laurel Highlands vs. West Allegheny (at Peters Twp.)

Wednesday, February 21

8:00pm
[4A] Uniontown vs. Central Valley (at Peters Twp.)
[4A] Deer Lakes vs. Ambridge (at Fox Chapel

GIRLS

BYE TEAMS IN ROUND 1
Blackhawk [4A]
Beaver [4A]
OLSH [2A]
Quigley Catholic [1A]
Sewickley Academy [1A]

Friday, February 16

6:30pm
[5A] Woodland Hills vs. West Allegheny (at Fox Chapel)

Saturday, February 17

12:00pm
[1A] Cornell vs. Avella (at West Allegheny)
[1A] Eden Christian vs. Rochester (at North Hills)

3:00pm
[4A] Ambridge vs. South Park (at West Allegheny)
[4A] Deer Lakes vs. Central Valley (at North Hills)

Wednesday, February 21

6:30pm
[3A] Laurel vs. South Side Beaver (at North Catholic)
[3A] Seton-LaSalle vs. Riverside (at North Hills)

Allegheny County Executive Today Honors West Penn Nurses For Record Third Magnet Recognition

ALLEGHENY COUNTY EXECUTIVE RICH FITZGERALD TODAY WILL HONOR A GROUP OF WEST PENN HOSPITAL NURSES…FOR A SPECIAL RECOGNITION. WEST PENN HOSPITAL IS THE FIRST HOSPITAL IN THE PITTSBURGH REGION TO EARN MAGNET RECOGNITION DESIGNATION THREE TIMES. IT IS THE HIGHEST NATIONAL CREDENTIAL FOR NURSING EXCELLENCE. LATE THIS MORNING FITZGERALD WILL ISSUE A PROCLAMATION HONORING THE NURSES FOR THIS EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Pens cruise past Senators 6-3!!!

By DAN SCIFO, Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored twice, Zach Aston-Reese scored his first two NHL goals and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Evgeni Malkin scored his 31st and Kris Letang his fourth for the Penguins, who have won seven of nine and 12 of their last 16. Sidney Crosby, who scored his 400th career goal on Sunday, finished with three assists.
Pittsburgh is riding a nine-game home winning streak, the longest since a franchise-record 13-game run during the 2013-14 season. The Penguins haven’t lost in Pittsburgh since a 4-0 defeat by Carolina on Jan. 4.
Matt Murray stopped 30 shots for Pittsburgh.
Derick Brassard, Colin White and Mike Hoffman all scored for the Senators, who lost for the third time in five games. The Senators dropped to 7-16-4 on the road. They were 22-17-2 away from home last season.
Guentzel scored his 17th on the power play and his 18th in the second period. Aston-Reese scored the first of his career in the second period and added an empty-net goal with 1:05 to play.
Mike Condon made five saves on nine shots before he was pulled after Aston-Reese’s goal. Craig Anderson stopped 17 of 18 shots.
Guentzel, who set a Penguins rookie record with 13 goals in the playoffs, scored 12 goals in his first 27 games this season, but he had just four in his previous 30.
Aston-Reese, a finalist for the 2017 Hobey Baker Award, played in his first NHL game Feb. 3 at New Jersey and recorded his first point at Dallas six days later.
The Penguins opened the scoring with their first power-play goal in five games. Guentzel tipped a Justin Schultz point shot behind Condon for the early lead.
Brassard evened the score at 4:18 of the second period with a blocker-side slap shot from the left faceoff dot.
The Penguins reclaimed the lead for good 52 seconds later with Guentzel’s second goal, a rebound from the top of the crease.
Murray made a sliding stop on Cody Ceci off the rush shortly after Guentzel’s goal, allowing Malkin and Aston-Reese to break it open.
Carl Hagelin pulled Condon out of position when he circled the net. An unsuspecting Condon thought Hagelin still had the puck, but he blindly dished it to Malkin, who dumped a spinning bad-angle backhander into a partially open net.
Aston-Reese made it a 4-1 game 1:20 later. He took a pass from Crosby off the rush and flicked a wrist shot that hit Condon’s glove and went across the line.
NOTES: Crosby and Phil Kessel both have nine-game home point streaks. Kessel’s matches his longest with the team. Malkin has points in five straight home games. … This was Ottawa’s first visit to Pittsburgh since the Penguins’ double-overtime victory in Game 7 of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. … Senators F Nate Thompson missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury. … Pittsburgh scratched D Chad Ruhwedel, D Matt Hunwick and F Teddy Blueger. Forward Alexandre Burrows and defenseman Fredrik Claesson sat for Ottawa.
UP NEXT
Senators: Play two games at home starting Thursday against Buffalo.
Penguins: Continue a three-game homestand Thursday against Los Angeles.
___
More NHL hockey: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

Boston College tops Pitt 81-58!! Panthers still winless in ACC!!!

Boston College tops Pitt 81-58.

By ALAN SAUNDERS, Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Coming into Tuesday’s game at Pittsburgh, Boston College had gone nearly three years without a victory on the road against an Atlantic Coast Conference foe.
The last time the Eagles won a road conference game was March 3, 2015, at Virginia Tech. Starting with the Eagles’ 0-18 season in conference play in 2015-16, they lost 23 straight games against ACC opponents before finding another team down on its luck in the Panthers.
Boston College upended Pitt, 81-58, to end one streak and perpetuate another, as the Panthers lost their 14th straight game in conference play.
“We’re not that team anymore,” Boston College head coach Jim Christian said after the victory. “We’ve been close. We had Virginia to one. We were down 18 at Louisville and cut it to two. We’ve showed signs, but that last step has got to be taken by these guys, together.”
Despite Pitt’s struggles and the lopsided final score, it wasn’t an easy victory for the Eagles (16-10, 6-7 in ACC). Pitt opened up a big lead midway through the first half. The Panthers were ahead by 15 at one point and had Eagles’ star Jerome Robinson off his game and in foul trouble with three early personals.
With Robinson struggling and the hapless Panthers out to a big lead, it would have been easy for the Eagles to accept another defeat, but they instead doubled down on their leading scorer, moving him to the middle of Pitt’s 2-3 zone and working the offense from there.
It worked, as Boston College went on a long run late in the first half that nearly erased the Pitt advantage by halftime. From the 6:42 mark in, the Eagles went on a 16-4 run to close to within two. Early second half, it was more of the same, as the Eagles started with a 9-0 run to take a lead they never relinquished.
“Catching it in the high post, I knew I had the five man on me a lot,” Robinson said. “Once I got a couple easy jump shots in the middle, I got to be able to take it to the paint.”
Robinson led the way with 27 points. Jordan Chatman added 17 points, helped by 5-of-12 shooting from 3-point range.
Freshman guard Parker Stewart had 16 points to lead the Panthers (8-19, 0-14 in ACC).
BIG PICTURE
Boston College: Robinson, the Eagles’ leading scorer, had just two points at the half, but was a big part of the Eagles’ second-half run. After shooting 1 of 6 from the floor before the break, he went 10 of 12 the rest of the way. The ACC’s leading scorer in conference play, Robinson has scored 20 points or more in three straight games and five of his last six.
Pitt: The Panthers entered the game 314th in Division I by averaging just eight offensive rebounds per game. They record just two against the Eagles, while conceding 18, which allowed the Eagles to attempt 66 field goals compared to the Panthers’ 48. Of the two, one was a team rebound after Boston College deflected the ball out of bounds and the other was a long rebound collected by guard Jared Wilson-Frame.
“At some point, our frontcourt guys should be getting an offensive rebound,” Pitt head coach Kevin Stallings said. “You shouldn’t play 20 or 30 minutes and not get an offensive rebound, but I’m just going to say that’s on me. I’ve got to do more in practice to get them there.”
UP NEXT
Boston College: Returns home to host Notre Dame on Saturday. The Eagles are 0-9 against Notre Dame since the Fighting Irish joined the ACC in 2013.
Pitt: Will visit Florida State on Sunday. The Panthers beat the Seminoles in 2017, one of four ACC wins over two seasons for Pitt under Stallings.

2018 High School Basketball Play-off brackets revealed!!!

The W.P.I.A.L 2018 high school basketball playoff brackets were revealed during the annual pairings meeting Tuesday, February 1, 2018 on Beaver County Radio and the Trib Live Network. . Click on the Trib Live logo below to see all of the playoff brackets and then tune into Beaver County Radio on Valentine’s day and we’ll let you know what games will air on Beaver county Radio in the first round.

http://tribhssn.triblive.com/highschool-brackets/

Governor Wolf rejects GOP redistricting map as deadline looms

By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf will not submit a new Republican-drawn map of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts to the state’s high court, saying Tuesday that it uses the same unconstitutionally partisan tactics as the 6-year-old boundaries struck down in a gerrymandering case.
Wolf’s move came six days before the deadline set by the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court to impose new boundaries for Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional districts. However, Wolf’s office did not immediately say whether he would submit his own map to the court, and he has not publicly released his own proposed map.
Redrawing the map of Pennsylvania districts could boost Democrats nationally in their quest to take control of the U.S. House, and leaves district boundaries up in the air barely three months before May’s primary election.
The governor said his office’s analysis of the plan put forward Friday night by leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature concluded that it was clearly designed to help their own candidates.
“There is basically no chance it wasn’t drawn in a way to benefit Republicans,” Wolf press secretary J.J. Abbott said.
The governor’s office retained a mathematician with an expertise in redistricting, Moon Duchin of Tufts University, to review the GOP-drawn map. In a one-page summary released Tuesday by the governor’s office, Duchin called the GOP’s revised plan “extremely, and unnecessarily, partisan.”
Republicans who drew the proposal said it adhered to the court’s line-drawing benchmarks, eliminating dozens of municipal and county divisions and creating more compact districts. It also kept nearly 70 percent of residents — and every incumbent congressman — in their old districts.
The governor was notifying lawmakers of his specific problems with the Republican leaders’ proposal, but is also leaving open the possibility of working with the Legislature to submit a consensus map by Monday’s deadline, Abbott said.
The court ruling Jan. 22 said a Republican-drawn map created in 2011 put partisan interests above other line-drawing criteria, giving GOP candidates an unfair edge.
In the three elections under that map, Republicans have maintained a 13-5 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
Pennsylvania is politically divided — Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania by less than 1 percentage point in the state. Democrats have more registered voters than Republicans, and hold the governorship and three elected statewide row offices, as well as the high court majority.