Thursday afternoon Sports Update 3/8/18

HS Basketball: First round action at the Girls Sweet 16 at Northern Kentucky University this afternoon saw Mercy Academy crush Knott County Central 85-56. Mercy will get the winner of this evening’s Ryle-Simon Kenton game in the quarterfinals tomorrow night.

In the second game, Dupont Manual defeated Scott County 60-45. Manual will face the Webster County-Boyd County game in the quarterfinals also to be played tomorrow evening.

HS Football: Bowling Green High has named Mark Spader as its new head coach. Spader has been the Purples defensive coordinator and also serves as the school’s athletic director. He replaces Kevin Wallace who recently resigned to become the head coach at St. X in Louisville.

College Basketball: Louisville lost today to top seed and top ranked Virginia 75-58 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn. The Cardinals were led by Ray Spalding’s 16 points with Deng Adel adding 13. Louisville is 20-13 and will now wait to see if they are selected for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

At the SEC Tournament in St. Louis, Alabama edged Texas A&M at the buzzer 71-70. The Crimson Tide will face Auburn in the first quarterfinal game at noon tomorrow.

Western Kentucky’s Lady Toppers defeated UTSA 78-50 in its opening game of the Conference USA tournament in Frisco, TX this afternoon. Ivy Brown had 23 points and 12 rebounds in the win as WKU will play either Louisiana Tech or North Texas in the semifinals tomorrow.

The University of Pittsburgh announced the firing of head coach Kevin Stallings after two seasons today. Stallings-who was the longtime coach at Vanderbilt-went 24-41 in his Panther tenure. Pitt was 8-24 this season and did not win an ACC game.

MLB: The St. Louis Cardinals will be without closer Luke Gregerson for a while. He’s expected to miss at least a few days as he deals with tightness in his oblique. The 33-year-old has appeared in just one exhibition game so far this spring. Gregerson signed a two-year, $11 million contract with the Redbirds during the offseason.