Section opponents meet again in finals

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

If familiarity does breed contempt, then a number of teams in the WPIAL championships should have a strong dislike for their opponent.

The three days of titles games started Thursday night at Petersen Events Center and will continue through Saturday. These are supposed to be WPIAL championships. But in a way, they are also section championships.

Four of the championship games Friday and Saturday match teams that come from the same section and met twice already this season. The section rematches are Pine-Richland vs. Butler in Class 6A, Hampton vs. Moon in 5A, New Castle vs. Quaker Valley in 4A and Sewickley Academy vs. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in 2A.

It is highly unusual for so many title games to match teams from the same section. Over the past two years, section opponents met in a title game only once. Over the previous 20 years, section opponents played for a championship only 19 times. The only year that had three title games matching teams from the same section was 2005.

“It just gets to the point where you’re so familiar with your opponent,” said Moon coach Adam Kaufman. “Not only are you familiar as coaches, but the kids are sometimes playing against each other in summer leagues, and they grow up playing the same kids. Then you play twice in the regular season. There is so much familiarity that, as a coach, there’s only so much you can do. It comes down to what guys make more plays.”

The PIAA’s expansion to six classifications this season certainly has a lot to do with the section rematches. The WPIAL doesn’t have as many sections in each classification, which increases the likelihood of a section rematch in the title games.

But the WPIAL’s alignment of sections also is a factor. The league made some “super sections” that were much stronger than others.

“This is a natural by-product of going to six classes,” said Sewickley Academy coach Win Palmer. “But when the WPIAL came out with the section draws, I thought, ‘My goodness some of these sections will be just dominant.’

“For us, we didn’t put as much emphasis on winning the section this year as we normally do because we knew there was a good chance of playing the same teams in the playoffs. Yeah, every regularseason game is important, but sometimes you spend so much energy when you face each other in the regular season that psychologically you’re down when you play in the playoffs. But I don’t really see an advantage for either team just because you played each other twice.”

Here is a look at the four WPIAL championship games over the next two days:

Class 6A

Butler had to win a game on the final night of section play just to get a spot in the WPIAL playoffs. Now the Golden Tornado gets to play for a WPIAL title. Butler (178) will meet Pine-Richland (23-1) at 9 Saturday night.

No. 1 seed Pine-Richland is rolling, scoring 87 and 85 points in two playoff games.

“I think Butler is playing well right now, but I really like the way we’re playing,” said Pine-Richland coach Jeff Ackermann.

Butler lost twice this year to Pine-Richland, once on a controversial ending when Phil Jurkovec scored the winning basket at the buzzer. Officials originally waved off the basket, but eventually ruled it was before the final buzzer.

Pine-Richland is led by senior guard Andrew Petcash and Jurkovec, a junior forward. For Butler, standout freshman point guard Ethan Morton has been impressive in the playoffs, but senior forward Tyler Frederick also has played well.

Pine-Richland is trying to win its second consecutive championship, while No. 7 seed Butler is trying for its first since 1991 and the fourth in school history. The others were in 1914-15.

Butler coach Matt Clement almost had a championship as a Butler player in 1993 when he was the starting point guard for a team that lost in the final to New Castle. It was a controversial championship because two of New Castle’s best players, Marcus Thomas and Rick Steele, moved to New Castle from Texas without family members or guardians.

Class 5A

Moon (19-5) beat Hampton (16-9) twice this season by scores of 72-65 and 47-46. They meet for a third time at 9 p.m. Friday.

“Hopefully we learned a few things from the first two games,” said Hampton coach Joe Lafko.

One of Hampton’s biggest concerns has to be Jarrod Simmons, Moon’s 6-foot-7 senior forward. Simmons had 24 points and 15 rebounds against Hampton in the last meeting and is averaging 26 points and 19 rebounds in