WPIAL Hoops Championship Recaps

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Class AAAA

BOYS

Mt. Lebanon 57 vs. Gateway 51

Surrounded by giants, Mt. Lebanon's Evan Pierce and Luke Hagy stood tallest.

Pierce, the Blue Devils' star 6-foot-3 guard, was held pointless for two quarters but scored 21 in the second half Saturday night to lead top-seeded Mt. Lebanon to victory over Gateway, 57-51, in the WPIAL Class AAAA Championship Game at Palumbo Center.

"Evan really put us on his back offensively," Mt. Lebanon coach Joe David said. "He's got a lot of guts and a lot of determination. They had everyone on him. Their big kids were banging him left and right. I'm so proud of him."

Hagy, a 6-foot guard, added 17 points despite being the smallest starter for either team and facing the tallest lineup in the WPIAL.

Gateway junior Devon Cottrell, a 6-foot-7 junior, led Gateway (18-5) with 18 points. At one point in the second half, there were five players on the Duquesne court standing 6-foot-7 or taller, but that didn't seem to bother Pierce or Hagy, who made a game-clinching steal in the final seconds.

This was the third WPIAL title for Mt. Lebanon (25-1), including those won in 1961 and 2006. The Blue Devils lost to Peters Township in the 2009 title game.

"I knew in my heart we were going to win this basketball game, no matter what," David said.

The score was tied, 46-46, with 4:30 left in the fourth quarter when Gateway's Mike Kromka made two free throws. From there, though, Mt. Lebanon finished with an 11-5 run, including five consecutive points by Pierce.

"We didn't come down here to lose," Gateway coach Mitch Adams said. "We knew we could play them. We knew what it would take. The outcome is just very disappointing."

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GIRLS

Mt. Lebanon 59 vs. Baldwin 43

Mt. Lebanon can exhale. For now, at least.

Thanks to another all-around game from junior Madison Cable and a stout defensive effort on Belma Nurkic, the No. 1 seed Blue Devils defended their WPIAL Class AAAA title with a 59-43 victory against No. 3 Baldwin on Saturday at Palumbo Center.

Cable scored 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had three blocks and three steals for the Blue Devils (24-2), who came into the season ranked as one of the top 10 teams in the nation by USA Today.

Now the USA Today's No. 9-ranked team, Mt. Lebanon can focus on defending its state title, beginning with a first-round game on Friday against the winner of Fox Chapel/Westinghouse.

Even though the Blue Devils' work isn't finished, coach Dori Oldaker said hearing the buzzer sound Saturday offered some reprieve in a season full of lofty expectations.

"It was a big exhale, a little relief," Oldaker said. "It's just a lot of stress and pressure, and you're just hoping to get a 'W.'"

Lauren Arbogast added 11 points for Mt. Lebanon, and Jess Babe and Chelsea Apke had nine. Apke, though, was charged with defending Nurkic, the Baldwin junior who is committed to Duquesne.

Nurkic led Baldwin (20-5) with 12 points but shot just 4 of 11 from the field. This after she scored 34 points in a semifinal win over Bethel Park.

"They did a nice job," Baldwin coach Dan Thayer said. "They can guard her well. They have athletic kids and the size to go with it, and that makes it tough."

Cable, deemed by Oldaker both a "pure athlete" and a "gamer," had two of her three blocks in the first half, and hit two quick 3-pointers in the first minute of the game, leading Mt. Lebanon to an 11-0 lead. Arbogast added five points in the first quarter while the Blue Devils held Nurkic without a field goal.

Baldwin got within three midway through the second quarter. The Highlanders went on an 8-2 run, capped by back-to-back buckets by Samantha Walsh.

The Blue Devils weathered the push, however, and went into halftime up, 32-20. Apke scored all of her seven first-half points in the second quarter, and Cable added three blocks to her 10 points in the first half.

"It was really exciting getting off to a good start," Cable said. "They came back a little bit, but we pulled away."

Arbogast, Babe and Cable carried the Blue Devils through the second half, scoring all but five of Mt. Lebanon's 27 second-half points.

Walsh added 11 points for the Highlanders, who will play City League champion Perry on Friday in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.

The Blue Devils, who will learn their first-round opponent after Tuesday's play-in round, still have another title to defend.

"The kids understand that," Oldaker said. "We're next-game. We're pretty happy, but this is a business trip."

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Class AAA

BOYS

Charties Valley 63 vs. Hampton 50

T.J. McConnell finally can call himself a WPIAL champion.

The Chartiers Valley senior earned the title he had pursued with persistence throughout his record-setting high school basketball career at Chartiers Valley. McConnell scored 34 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, as the top-seeded Colts toppled Hampton, 63-50, in the Class AAA title game Friday at Palumbo Center.

"This is probably the happiest day of my life," T.J. McConnell said. "I honestly couldn't be happier."

The Chartiers Valley fans stood and cheered as the gold medal was draped around McConnell's neck by his father, coach Tim McConnell.

"That makes it a little extra special, the fact that he's my son," Tim McConnell said. "I'm going to brag, I'm sorry, but the year he's having is just a tremendous year. This is just icing on the cake."

McConnell scored nine consecutive points for Chartiers Valley during a third-quarter span, stretching the Colts' lead to double figures for the first time. The 6-foot guard also made seven of nine free throws in the fourth quarter to stall any Hampton rally.

Sophomore Wayne Capers scored 16 points while starting in place of injured teammate Matt Noszka, the Colts' second leading scorer. Steve Burda added 11 points, including three 3-pointers.

Noszka injured his knee during Chartiers Valley's semifinal victory over West Allegheny.

"I probably don't give my teammates enough credit," T.J. McConnell said. "We couldn't have done this without them."

This was only the third game for Capers, who missed almost the entire season with his own injury. Capers injured his foot and needed surgery during football season, where he's the Colts' starting quarterback.

"It could have been a career ending injury," T.J. McConnell said. "He's one of the toughest kids I know."

This was the fifth WPIAL basketball title for Chartiers Valley (25-1) under Tim McConnell and the first since 2004, when the Colts won the Class AAAA championship. Hampton (21-3) was the defending WPIAL Class AAA champion, but the Talbots spent most of this season perceived as the underdogs.

Bill Luther led Hampton with 16 points, and Tim Donegan added 14.

Chartiers Valley took a 10-0 lead in the first three minutes, with five points each from Capers and Burda.

Hampton finished the first quarter with an 11-2 run, which included seven points by Luther, cutting Chartiers Valley's lead to one point, 12-11. Hampton took the lead with a layup by Nathanael Sayles just second into the second quarter.

Hampton's lead reached five, but Chartiers Valley rallied just before halftime, including a game-tying 3-pointer by McConnell with 2:30 left in the half. Nobody scored during those final 150 seconds, and the score was tied, 20-20.

In the third quarter, McConnell provided his own run, scoring nine consecutive points for Chartiers Valley, stretching the Colts' lead from six points to 13 during that span. With 1:50 left in the third, Chartiers Valley led, 41-28.

In the fourth, Hampton cut the lead to six points with a turnaround jumper by Donegan with 4:08 left but could get no closer.

"This is his house," the Chartiers Valley student section chanted for McConnell.

And, for once, it finally was.

McConnell had come close to winning a WPIAL title three other times, including as a freshman when McConnell's Colts lost the championship game here at Palumbo Center. As a sophomore and junior, Chartiers Valley was top-seeded but lost in the semifinals.

"I thought a little bit about how it felt when we lost here," McConnell said, "and I didn't want that to happen again."

GIRLS

Hopewell 61 vs. New Castle 66

When it counted most, New Castle found a way to beat Hopewell.

After dropping two section games to the unbeaten Vikings by a combined three points during the regular season, New Castle rallied from a 19 points down in the second quarter to gut out a 66-61 overtime victory in the WPIAL Class AAA girls basketball championship game Saturday at Palumbo Center.

"To give (Hopewell) their only loss of the season feels great," sophomore New Castle guard Kaylynn Waters said. "We owed them one and wanted revenge, and we got it."

Waters scored a game-high 33 points to propel the Red Hurricanes to their second consecutive WPIAL title and fourth in program history. And she was at her best late, scoring eight points in overtime — including a go-ahead driving layup with 39 seconds to go and a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left to ice the game.

"She just took over. She was tremendous," New Castle coach Jason Rankin said. "Not only did she give us offense, on one of the timeouts, she said to me, 'I'm guarding (Hopewell guard Elise Farris),' who has been a nemesis for us for two years."

Farris again gave New Castle (21-3) fits while pacing the Vikings with 24 points. But she was held scoreless in overtime, and Hopewell (25-1) suffered its first loss this season.

"You never want to finish second when you're playing for a piece of hardware," Hopewell coach Jeff Homziak said. "It's going to hurt for a while. It's going to sting, but I told them I couldn't be prouder of a bunch of kids who never quit and played as hard as they could. Sometimes the shots fall, and sometimes they don't."

Hopewell still led by six midway through the fourth quarter, but New Castle went on an 8-0 run to grab a 55-53 lead with 57 seconds left in regulation. Three seconds later, Vikings senior forward Paige Alviani hit a pair of free throws to tie the game and send it to overtime.

"You're talking about two teams that are evenly matched," Rankin said. "We have a few more things that we do well, and they have a few things that they do well. I told somebody after the game, 'You should pay a little extra,' because it's one of those games where we've had three great ones."

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Class AA

BOYS

North Catholic 51 vs. Rochester 48

Christian Wolosik's first love is baseball. But the WPIAL basketball playoffs have shown that the North Catholic senior enjoys a game of hoops, too.

Wolosik scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to help North Catholic hold on to beat Rochester, 51-48, on Saturday at Palumbo Center and claim its second consecutive WPIAL Class AA boys championship.

"He's been telling me he's not a basketball player. He's a baseball player," North Catholic coach Dave Long said. "It's taken me 3 1/2 years to convince him that he legitimately is a basketball player, not just during practice but at game time. The last two to three weeks, he's demonstrated that he truly can play the game."

Martin Long added 12 points for top-seeded North Catholic (23-2), which led at halftime, 26-23.

"Playing at the Palumbo Center, we're not used to it," Rochester coach Paul Long said. "This is a first-time thing for us. We tried. The important thing is we were there at the end."

With North Catholic clinging to a three-point lead, neither team scored in the final 1:43. Rochester (23-3) failed to tie twice on missed 3-point shots by Jasson Adamson and Giovanni Ellis.

North Catholic trailed by as many as nine points in the first half. The teams were tied twice in the second half, the last time at 38-38, before Jesse Long's layup with 43 seconds remaining gave North Catholic the lead for good.

Ellis led Rochester with 11 points, and Trey Johnson and Terry Gettings added 10 points each.

Wolosik, a star on North Catholic's WPIAL Class AA runner-up baseball team, shot 8 for 13, including 2 for 5 from 3-point range.

"I was getting open shots and shooting them, and they were falling," he said.

Rochester held a 35-31 rebounding edge but couldn't control the boards late.

"We uncharacteristically kept the ball alive with tips, and that's something we didn't do well throughout the whole game," Dave Long said. "Rochester did a tremendous job of rebounding."

North Catholic's players have rallied around their coaching staff, led by Long, who missed 11 games following quadruple bypass surgery and was replaced by assistant Mike Fratto on an interim basis.

"It's been tough for us, but we're like a family," Wolosik said. "We always stick together with each other."

GIRLS

Jeannette 39 vs. Seton-La Salle 36

Kayla Cook has been the offensive focal point for the Jeannette basketball program for four years and a big reason the Jayhawks advanced so quickly from section also-ran to the WPIAL championship game.

With Cook struggling mightily against Seton-La Salle in the Class AA final Saturday, freshman Ciara Gregory picked up the slack and led the Jayhawks to their first WPIAL championship.

Gregory scored 14 points, including four free throws in the final minute, to cap a come-from-behind, 39-36 victory against Seton-La Salle at Palumbo Center.

"This team is not going to be denied and just because Kayla's having a bad day doesn't mean the rest of the team isn't going to play hard," Jeannette coach Janine Vertacnik said. "We fought every minute of this game, and at the end of this game, it was just a matter of how the ball was going to fall."

Jeannette (24-2) trailed by as many as nine in the first half but came back and took the lead, 30-29, with 4:30 to play when Cook — the school's all-time leading scorer and a Coastal Carolina recruit who finished 1 for 15 from the floor — hit a layup for her only two points of the game. From there, the lead changed hands five more times. Finally, Gregory converted a three-point shot foul with 52.7 seconds remaining to put the Jayhawks ahead to stay, 38-36.

"I was very nervous, and I just wanted them all to go in," Gregory said. "It was scary. Everything was going through my head. It was just crazy."

Jordan Dwyer had a chance to tie the game late for Seton-La Salle, but she missed a layup with 7.6 seconds remaining, and Jeannette senior Kirstie Cortazzo fell to the floor with the ball. Gregory closed it out by converting the front end of a 1-and-1 with 3.7 seconds left, then stole the rebound from a Rebels player and fired up a wild 3-pointer to run out the clock.

Katie Gattuso finished with a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds for Seton-La Salle (20-6), which lost in the finals for the second consecutive year. The Rebels committed 20 turnovers and shot just 5 for 19 (26.3 percent) in the second half after Jeannette switched from its base man-to-man to a 2-3 zone defense after intermission.

"They really did a god job packing it in, a couple of kids missed some shots, and I think it got to them a little bit," Seton La Salle coach Bryan Bennett said. "We did a tremendous job on (Cook) holding her to two points, but it came down to us missing shots. But that's the game of basketball. Some days you're hot, some days you're not, and we just couldn't hit shots."

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Class A

BOYS

Sewickley Academy 49 vs. Lincoln Park 48

It didn't matter that Tom Droney was held in check during the WPIAL Class A championship game. Almost everyone knew the shot was going in.

Droney hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 9.8 seconds remaining, and Sewickley Academy survived a furious comeback from Lincoln Park to win its second consecutive championship with a wild, 49-48 victory Friday night against the Leopards at Palumbo Center.

Droney, who scored 40 points in last year's final, had 14 last night for the top-seeded Panthers (22-2), mostly because of Lincoln Park's defense, led by 6-foot-9 sophomore Devontae Watson, who had 13 blocks.

Droney, the 6-foot-6 senior headed to Davidson, got the ball behind the 3-point line with 10 seconds remaining and prepared to shoot.

"I just said, 'Oh, no,' " Lincoln Park coach Mark Javens said. "That's why he's a big-time player."

Droney's 3 came on the possession after Lincoln Park, which trailed by 15 at the start of the fourth quarter, took its first lead of the game, when Alex Kross hit a 3 with 36 seconds left to put the Leopards ahead, 48-46.

Sewickley then broke Lincoln Park's pressure and drove down the floor, and the ball ended up in Tyler Palmer's hands. Palmer, who had hit three 3-pointers to that point, attempted another this time but had it blocked by Watson. Palmer, though, fought for the ball and got it back.

"When Tyler got the ball, I said, 'Please find Droney,' " said Sewickley Academy coach Win Palmer, Tyler's dad. "I didn't even know where Tom was, but I said, 'Find him, because he's going to make the shot.'

"And that's Tom. Tom's not Michael Jordan, but Michael Jordan was great at that. He could be struggling all game long, but (the other team) didn't want the ball in his hands at the end of the game."

Droney said he knew there weren't many fouls being called underneath, so he didn't try to attack the hoop as much as he did in last season's final. He had three field goals in the second half until Palmer looked up and passed to him.

"I was just hoping Tyler would get me the ball," Droney said. "Honestly, I knew it was going in. I could feel it."

Kross' 3 capped a 21-4 run Lincoln Park made in the fourth quarter. After Droney's shot, Kross got the final shot off, another 3-pointer, that bounced off the rim and the backboard before falling to floor as the buzzer sounded.

Chaquille Pratt, who came into the game averaging 27 points per game, led Lincoln Park with 23. Watson added 11.

Sophomore Carrington Motley scored all 10 of his points in the first half for Sewickley Academy, and Peter Schramm added 12.

A rematch between the teams might not have to wait until next season. Both qualified for the state playoffs.

"We still have a lot of basketball to be played yet," Javens said. "I said to my team, 'Keep this loss right in your gut' because you're probably going to see this team in the western final.' "

GIRLS

North Catholic 31 vs. Vincentian 57

After 11 consecutive losses to North Catholic, the Vincentian Royals figured it was their time.

The Royals broke open a low-scoring game in the second half and rolled to the school's fifth WPIAL championship with a 57-31 victory Friday at Palumbo Center.

"Each game we've played them in past, we couldn't put a full game together," Vincentian coach Ron Moncrief said. "I felt if we could play the whole 32 minutes, we'd have a good chance of beating North."

Junior Keturah Vactor led Vincentian with 20 points. Mallory Silbert added 15 points, including four 3-pointers.

For Vactor, getting a WPIAL Class A championship had a much deeper meaning.

"What drove me was that my mom (Alice) passed away last Sept. 9, so I dedicated my season to her, and my teammates knew that," Vactor said. "When I got on that court, I knew I was just going to play my best."

The Trojans were paced by Kendall Hoffman's 14 points and 11 rebounds. North Catholic, in the playoffs for a record 35th consecutive season, was going for its 16th WPIAL title overall.

Vincentian (16-7) will enter the PIAA tournament next Saturday against the fourth seed from District 9, Otto-Eldred. North Catholic (22-4) will face the third seed from District 6, Conemaugh Valley.

The game started out as if lids were on the baskets. The scored was tied, 4-4, after one period.

With Vincentian ahead, 8-6, toward the middle of the second period, Silbert hit a 3-pointer to put the Royals in front, 11-6, and the offense finally started to work.

"It gave us some confidence, and it gave us some breathing room," Moncrief said. "I think it kind of relaxed us and got us to start playing basketball."

The first half ended with Vincentian leading, 15-13, after shooting 5 for 24 from the field. North Catholic hit only 6 of 25.

"I could tell our kids were so nervous," North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann said. "I told them it's a game and they've got to keep it in perspective. I said 'What's the point of being afraid?'"

In the second half, Vincentian began to dominate.

In one sequence, Vactor grabbed the ball from Lauren Wolosik and scored to give Vincentian its first double-digit lead. Then, another steal by Vactor led to a basket by Gabby Baldasare on a follow-up shot.

Silbert added two more 3-pointers and the Royals were well on their way, leading 36-22 after three quarters.

It was more of the same in the fourth quarter. Even after Ashlee Darby missed two free throws, Vactor rebounded the second miss and scored a basket to make it 42-26.

Vincentian's defense held the Trojans to single digits in all four quarters, and 11 field goals overall.

"I'm very happy with the defense; defense wins championships," Moncrief said. "That's one thing we stressed coming into the season."

"You've got to give Vincentian a lot of credit," Rottmann said. "There was not a good facet of our game. They were being aggressive and attacking the hoop."

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