Thursday basketball rundown: Penn-Trafford blows past Indiana to remain perfect, win outright section title; RJ Sledge’s heroics help Imani Christian beat Central Catholic in OT

Penn-Trafford coach John Giannikas was a one-armed man Thursday. Giannikas coached with a sling on his right arm after undergoing triceps surgery a day earlier. “I tripped on some ice going into work,” Giannikas said. No worries. Giannikas was unable to do it, so his team flexed their muscles for him as they earned an…

PUP girls basketball notebook: Section champs for the first time in 48 years, Seneca Valley ready to take aim at winning a first WPIAL championship

Following a win at Butler that clinched a section title last Friday, Seneca Valley players sprayed coach Dorothea Epps with water as she entered the locker room. “We thought she was going to be mad because you never know with her,” senior Gracie Cato recalled, “but she was laughing about it.” This specific win was…

PUP boys basketball notebook: New coach Corey Dotchin, star senior Jayden Davis restoring Chartiers Valley’s place among top title contenders in Class 5A

Few programs in the area can match Chartiers Valley’s rich tradition in basketball, and Corey Dotchin knows that as well as anyone. So when Dotchin left his post at Highlands after three years as head coach and nine as an assistant to take the helm for the Colts, he made his intentions clear from the…

Downtown Pittsburgh tunnel work shifts light rail closure Thursday

Traffic disruptions in Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Downtown Pittsburgh subway tunnel will shift Thursday as the agency begins the final phase of a project to replace the plinth, the concrete beam that supports light rail tracks. For this phase, the tunnel will be closed from the Steel Plaza Station to the Gateway Station until early March.…

Schenley Park Visitors Center work prompts closure until March 10

It’s time for the historic Schenley Park Visitors Center to get a refreshed look, and to make that happen, the facility will be closed until March 10. The renovation upgrades will include a brighter interior with new flooring throughout the first floor, according to a Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy news release. New contemporary furniture, lounge chairs…

Shapiro’s state budget falls far short of Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s needs to avoid service cuts, fare hikes and layoffs

Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s push for a hefty increase in state subsidy to avoid serious service cuts appears to have gotten off to a slow start. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget Tuesday called for essentially the same increase that failed to win legislative approval last year: a 1.75% hike in the allocation of funds from the…

‘He was homeless’: Once left with nowhere to go in a country new to him, 6-10 Ama Sow finds a home in Montour, flourishes on and off the court for one of the state’s top teams

Montour’s Ama Sow might be the most exciting high school basketball player to watch in all of Western Pennsylvania. He might be the very best, too. Standing 6 feet 10, Sow, a senior, has used his skills, athleticism and drive to become a double-double machine. He throws down big dunks regularly, swats away shots with…

In other news …

City honors first Black opera company founded here and efforts to maintain its legacy in history exhibit

Pittsburgh has been the birthplace of many entertainment legends and firsts. The city has decided it is time to recognize an important trailblazer, the National Negro Opera Company. The company, its founder and the nonprofit working to save the house where it began will be celebrated in a display in the City-County Building, Downtown, during…

Going all in: Seneca Valley product Easton Bazzoli reaffirms Gannon men’s basketball team’s place among Division II’s elite in first season as head coach

Easton Bazzoli was not exactly sure what his future might hold. A Cranberry native and 2013 Seneca Valley graduate, basketball took Bazzoli from a stellar playing career on WPIAL hardwoods to NCAA Division II Cedarville University in Ohio where the 6-foot-5 guard started for four seasons. With his collegiate career winding down, though, Bazzoli said…