LOCAL

LOCAL

Duffett to speak to Curbstone

BOARDMAN — Dr. Raymond Duffett will speak about sports injuries on Monday at noon when Curbstone coaches meet at Blue Wolf Tavern Catering Center. The meeting is open to the public.

Austintown’s Frank wins in Fla.

DAVENPORT, Fla. — Garrett Frank of Austintown earned his first Florida Professional Golf Tour victory on Friday at Ridgewood Lakes. Frank overcame a six-stroke deficit after the first round, posting 71-70—141 to win by two strokes. He earned $2,000 from the $10,760 purse. Ty Capps of Palm Coast, the first round leader at 65, closed with 79-144, tied for third.

The fourth tournament of the FPGT’s fourth season drew 45 starters.

REGION

Cavaliers’ O’Neal questionable

CLEVELAND — Cavaliers center Shaquille O’Neal plans to travel with the team to Oklahoma City after leaving Friday night’s game against Portland with a bruised left eye.

O’Neal is listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Thunder.

He got poked by Portland’s Joel Przybilla while going up for a shot in the third quarter on Friday night. He was taken to the Cleveland Clinic after the game for precautionary tests.

O’Neal finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds in Cleveland’s 104-99 win.

NATION

Whitewater wins

WHITEWATER, Wis. — Jeff Donovan completed 17 of 26 passes for 276 yards to lead Wisconsin-Whitewater to a 27-17 victory over Linfield in the Division III semifinals.

The Warhawks advanced to their fifth consecutive Stagg Bowl appearance, where they’ll face undefeated Mount Union in the final on Saturday in Salem, Va.

The Warhawks went up 20-17 on Jordan Wells’ 68-yard reception and a one-yard run by Antwan Anderson.

Levell Coppage added a 40-yard touchdown run for Wisconsin-Whitewater with 1:05 to play.

Montana hangs on to beat App. St.

MISSOULA, Mont. — Jabin Sambrano caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Selle with 1:31 left, and Montana survived a last-second rally by Appalachian State in 24-17 win Saturday that propelled the Grizzlies into the Football Championship Subdivision title game.

Montana (14-0) reached the title game for the second straight year, and will play Villanova on Friday night in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The Mountaineers (11-3) had a chance to tie it after marching inside the Montana 5, but Armanti Edwards’ pass fell incomplete in the end zone as time expired.

Chase Reynolds had 193 yards rushing and two touchdowns for Montana.

Penn St. streak now at 100

The top-ranked Penn State women’s volleyball team swept California in three sets to advance to the NCAA tournament semifinals and stretch its record-win streak to 100 matches.

The Nittany Lions (36-0) defeated the Golden Bears 25-18, 25-17, 25-22 in a regional final Saturday in Gainesville, Fla., to advance to its third straight national semis.

Penn State extended the second-longest winning streak in Division I team sports, behind just the 137 straight match wins by Miami men’s tennis.

Megan Hodge led Penn State with 14 kills, while Alisha Glass had 35 assists and a team-high 12 digs.

Saturday’s win also gave Nittany Lions coach Russ Rose his 999th career victory.

The national semifinals will take place Thursday in Tampa, Fla.

Phelps captures two more wins

ANNAPOLIS — Michael Phelps picked up two more victories at the North Baltimore Aquatic Center Christmas Meet at the U.S. Naval Academy’s Lejuene Hall.

Appearing before a standing-room only crowd early in the evening, the 14-time Olympic gold medalist won the 400 individual medley with ease, clocking 3 minutes, 42.53 seconds.

Then, after a wait of about an hour, he won the 100 backstroke in a close race, clocking a time of 46.73 to edge NBAC teammates Ben Hesen and Todd Patrick.

In the 400 IM, Phelps finished almost 11 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer, 17-year-old NBAC teammate Drew Cosgarea. He had a tougher go of it in the 100 backstroke, trailing Hesen after the first 50 yards and making the final turn virtually even with Hesen and Patrick.

On the meet’s first night Friday, Phelps won the 200 freestyle with the best time recorded by an American swimmer this season.

Northwest Missouri wins Div. II title

FLORENCE, Ala. — Northwest Missouri State running back LaRon Council says he’ll never forget the feeling of losing a national championship game.

Now, he has something to take the place of that bad memory.

Council rushed for 172 yards and two touchdowns to lead Northwest Missouri to the NCAA Division II championship with a 30-23 win over Grand Valley State.

The Bearcats (14-1) won their first title since 1998 and ended a string of four consecutive losses in the national championship game.

Council scored twice within the first 18 minutes of the game to stake the Bearcats to a 21-0 lead and then made an 18-yard catch to set up the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Sumlin declines Cincinnati interview

HOUSTON — University of Houston head football coach Kevin Sumlin says he has declined to interview for the head coaching vacancy at the University of Cincinnati.

That vacancy arose with Bearcats coach Brian Kelly’s departure for the Notre Dame top job.

Sumlin said he had spoken with University of Cincinnati representatives yesterday and today, but “declined an interview.”

The Bearcats were 34-6 in Kelly’s three years at Cincinnati.

Sumlin’s 18-8 after two seasons at Houston and led the Cougars to a 10-3 2009 season and the Conference USA Western Division title before falling to East Carolina in the conference title game, 38-32. He’s leading the Cougars against 7-5 Air Force in the Dec. 31 Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas.

WORLD

Klitschko wins

BERN, Switzerland — Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over American contender Kevin Johnson.

The 38-year-old Ukrainian kept Johnson against the ropes for much of the fight but landed few heavy shots to hurt the 30-year-old challenger. Johnson proved a durable opponent and did his best work with counterattacking straight left jabs.

Staff/wire reports