Leetonia boys win opener

LEETONIA — Leetonia’s boys basketball team was on the ball with a 52-21 win over Youngstown Urban Scholars on Monday in the opener for the Bears.

Dylan Johns sparked the winners with 16 points, while Kyle Brown had 10 points.

Leetonia is at Badger today.

US: 6-2-4-9–21

LE: 17-17-16-2–52

URBAN SCHOLARS SCORING: Kam’reon Black 2-3-7, Louis Henderson 1-0-2, Deon McKinney 0-0-0, Jayden Taylor 1-0-2, Bruce Knapp 2-0-4, Ladeylon Williams 3-0-6. TEAM TOTALS: 9, 3: 21

LEETONIA SCORING: Caleb Hamilton 0-0-0, Kadyn Taylor 0-0-0, Chase Bondi 0-0-0, Cam Price 1-2-4, Ethan Mathia 4-0-8, Dylan Brown 3-2-8, Grayden Henderson 0-0-0, Jason King 2-0-4, Dylan Johns 6-2-16, Aiden Hunter 0-2-2, Kyle Brown 5-0-10. TEAM TOTALS:21, 8: 52.

Three-point goals: Leetonia 2 (Johns 2).

Gregory named Horizon player of the week

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State sophomore forward Sophia Gregory, a West Branch High School graduate, was named the Under Armour Horizon League Player of the Week for her performances against a pair of Mid-American Conference opponents in the final week of November, the league announced Monday.

It is the first Player of the Week honor for Gregory, who was a three-time Horizon League Freshman of the Week last season before earning the conference’s Freshman of the Year award. She follows teammate Casey Santoro, who won the award last week, giving the Penguins two honorees in the first four weeks of the season.

Gregory led the Horizon League in field-goal percentage last week, shooting 81.8% while ranking among the conference’s top four players in scoring, rebounding and blocks. She averaged 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocks as YSU split its two games and recorded its largest margin of victory at Akron in 46 years.

In Tuesday’s four-point loss to Toledo, which was picked second in the MAC preseason poll, Gregory went 8-for-9 from the field and finished with team highs of 16 points and eight rebounds. She added two assists, two steals and two blocks. In Sunday’s 90-63 win at Akron, she posted game highs of 24 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 10-for-13 and going 4-for-4 at the line.

Through the first month of the season, Gregory ranks second in the Horizon League with 8.4 rebounds per game and third with 1.0 blocks per game. She is shooting 63.8% from the field while averaging 9.7 points.

Youngstown State opens a three-game Horizon League stretch on Friday at Milwaukee at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Crosby has 59 goals vs. Flyers

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby scored his 58th and 59th career goals against the Philadelphia Flyers and his continued excellence in the cross-state rivalry helped lead the Penguins to a 5-1 win on Monday night.

Crosby, who has 18 goals this season, has dominated the Flyers like no other visiting player has done in Philadelphia’s franchise history. Crosby has 59 goals and 137 points in 92 games against Philadelphia, the most in both categories any opponent has ever put up on the Flyers.

He owns the Flyers.

The Flyers promoted the game all night as a Keystone Rivalry game but the series — even as fans voraciously booed Crosby with each touch — has never been much of a rivalry. Crosby has won three Stanley Cup titles while the Flyers have won only two in franchise history, in 1974 and 1975. Crosby wasn’t even born until 1987.

Crosby did enough damage to snap the Flyers’ modest three-game winning streak.

Rick Tocchet has the Flyers hopeful of a playoff berth in his first season since he returned to the franchise as coach. Tocchet knows how to win a Stanley Cup. He won one as a player and two as an assistant coach — both with the Penguins.

Crosby scored to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead — his 60th career road game-opening goal — and added a wrist shot through traffic on the power play for a 2-1 lead in the second period. Bryan Rust scored his eighth goal in the second for a 3-1 lead. Thomas Novak and Kevin Hayes scored in the third.

The 38-year-old Crosby has 1,716 career points and is close to eclipsing Mario Lemieux’s 1,723 for most in franchise history. Lemieux owned the team when Crosby captioned the Penguins to championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017.

Tyson Foerster scored his 10th goal for the Flyers. Foerster dropped to his knees and clutched his right arm on a shot later in the period and skated straight to the locker room. He leads the Flyers in goals.

Elks hoop shoot open to all

SALEM — The Salem Elks No. 305 basketball hoop shoot contest will be held on Dec. 6 at the Salem Memorial Building. Registration starts at 1 p.m. with the hoop shoot going off at 1:30 p.m. Boys and girls age groups are 8-9, 10-11 and 12-13. The event is free and open to the public.

Mitchell scores 43 in Cavalier win

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 43 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 135-119 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night.

Mitchell, who made 16 of 27 shots from the field, also had nine rebounds and six assists. Jaylon Tyson added 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting and a team-high 11 rebounds. Evan Mobley and DeAndre Hunter each scored 13 for the Cavs.

Stoops fired at Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky has fired the Southeastern Conference’s longest-tenured coach, ending Mark Stoops’ tenure in his 13th season with the Wildcats after back-to-back losing records.

Athletic director Mitch Barnhart said in a statement Monday morning that he informed Stoops they decided to go in a new direction and started a national search for his replacement.

“We will continue to make the necessary investments to recruit an elite head coach, players, and support staff,” Barnhart said. “That includes fully funding revenue-sharing and NIL opportunities, providing state-of-the-art facilities, and ensuring our student-athletes have every resource to thrive.”

Kentucky has become the sixth SEC program to change coaches this season, joining Auburn, Arkansas, Florida, LSU and Mississippi.

Stoops had been tied with N.C. State coach Dave Doeren for the fifth longest-tenured coach at a Bowl Subdivision program. He trailed only Kirk Ferentz with 27 seasons at Iowa, Kyle Whittingham with 21 at Utah, Troy Calhoun with 19 at Air Force and Dabo Swinney with 18 at Clemson.

Stoops signed an extension in November 2022 taking him through June 2031 and paying him $9 million for the 2025 season. That made him the fifth-highest paid coach in the SEC.

But Kentucky went 5-7 and missed becoming bowl eligible when shutout 41-0 by in-state rival Louisville in its season finale.

Kentucky had faced paying Stoops a $37.6 million buyout within 60 days of his firing, though reportedly Stoops has agreed to a change in the payment schedule. Stoops made clear he wouldn’t leave on his own after the loss to Louisville.

“Zero percent chance I walk away,” Stoops said Saturday, adding the decision was not his to make. “I’m going to be here as far as I’m concerned.”

He was one of only 17 head coaches who coached at least 13 seasons at an SEC school since the league debuted in 1933. He was Kentucky’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 82-80, though 10 wins were vacated by the NCAA.

Stoops coached Kentucky to seven bowl games, a Top 10 ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 and a school-record 16-game winning streak against nonconference competition. He led the Wildcats to their first home win over Florida since 1986.

After going 2-10 in his debut season, Stoops put together consecutive 5-7 seasons before winning the TaxSlayer Bowl to finish 7-6 in 2016. That was the first of eight straight bowl berths with Stoops’ best season coming in 2018 at 10-3 and a Citrus Bowl berth.

Kentucky had only three more winning seasons after that, including 2021 with games vacated by the NCAA leaving the Wildcats officially with an 0-3 record. The last were back-to-back 7-6 seasons in 2022 and 2023, and he appeared to challenge fans to “pony up” to help bring players to the Wildcats.

“I just encourage them to donate more, because that’s what those dudes are doing,” Stoops said in October 2023. “I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days.”

Stoops went 4-8 in 2024 with a 1-7 record in the SEC for his worst mark since his debut season at Kentucky. He lost top recruiter Vince Marrow, who had been with him since 2013, to in-state rival Louisville in June.

Trying to turn around the Wildcats, Stoops turned heavily to the transfer portal for this season, bringing in 27 players. That didn’t help as Kentucky started 3-5, losing its first five SEC games and couldn’t score a point losing to Louisville.

“It is critically important that we are competitive and successful in football,” Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said. “That is our goal. It is our focus. We intend to be successful.”

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