Contrasting styles with same goal in mind

Tri-State Sports & News Service

When it comes to filling the basket, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic and Blackhawk are in a league of their own.

It’s the way the teams go about scoring their points that makes them look more like the odd couple.

It will be a contrast in styles when No. 1 North Catholic (22-2) takes on No. 2 Blackhawk (16-8) for the WPIAL Class 4A championship at 7 p.m. Friday.

North Catholic, which averages a WPIAL-best 65 points per game, has a tall, talented frontcourt led by Sam Breen, the top post player in the WPIAL. Blackhawk relies heavily on a potent perimeter attack that has seen its sharpshooting guards knock down a schoolrecord 240 3-pointers (10 per game). The Cougars average 64.5 points per game.

“I think it’s a matchup problem both ways. They have to match up with our bigs, but we have to defend their perimeter players,” said North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann, who is trying to become only the fifth coach to win six WPIAL titles.

Breen, a Dayton recruit, is averaging 22.6 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. She has 2,396 career points and 1,128 rebounds. Breen (6 feet 1) is joined down low by 6-2 Kylie Huffman and 6-1 Dani Short. Huffman is second on the team in scoring with 11.5 points a game. Short missed Monday’s semifinal win against Beaver because of an illness.

Madison Amalia leads Blackhawk with 78 3-pointers. Her sister, freshman Mackenzie, has 57, and Mady Aulbach 53. The team’s tallest player is 5-11 Tailyn Silver, who scored 16 points against South Park in the semifinals.

“They’ll be looking to get the ball inside as much as they can,” Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico said. “We’re going to try to make it an uptempo game. We have to really try to contend with their size.”

Class 6A

Bethel Park coach Jonna Burke said she has been shaking her head a lot the past few days trying to figure out how her team advanced to the WPIAL final. The No. 7-seeded Black Hawks (19-6) are the lowest-seeded team to reach the championship game. They will take on No. 1 North Allegheny (23-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The Black Hawks stunned No. 2 Pine-Richland, 52-44, in the quarterfinals and topped No. 3 Penn Hills, 41-36, in the semifinals. They have won nine games in a row, a streak that coincided with the return of star Justina Mascaro, who missed the first 16 games of the season while recovering from a torn ACL. Mascaro is averaging a team-best 15.3 points in the playoffs.

North Allegheny has won 13 consecutive games and is outstanding defensively. The Tigers give up 37.8 points a game, the fewest in 6A. They present Bethel Park with a much different challenge after the Black Hawks faced two teams with high-volume scorers — PineRichland’s Amanda Kalin and Penn Hills’ Desiree Oliver.

“They certainly are not a team that we can say we have to stop this player or stop that player,” Burke said. “We can’t say let’s contain [Hailey] Zeise, because then there’s [Piper] Morningstar or then there’s [Rachel] Martindale. They’re so balanced and so strong defensively.”

Bethel Park beat Chartiers Valley to win its only title in 2013. North Allegheny coach Spencer Stefko was the coach at Chartiers Valley at the time. Stefko, who went on to win two WPIAL titles at Seton-LaSalle, will try to guide North Allegheny to its first title since 1972. The Tigers lost to Norwin, 63-57, in overtime in last year’s 4A championship.

Class 5A

Oakland Catholic (22-3) and Chartiers Valley (18-7) are two of the youngest finalists. Oakland Catholic starts three sophomores. Chartiers Valley starts two sophomores and a freshman. The teams will play at 3 p.m. Saturday. Oakland Catholic has won six titles. Chartiers Valley is seeking its first.

Freshman guard Megan McConnell has averaged a team-best 16 points per game during Chartiers Valley’s 10game winning streak, but it was her play on the defensive end that helped the sixth-seeded Colts beat No. 2 Trinity, 47-35, in the semifinals. McConnell held Trinity star Sierra Kotchman scoreless. Kotchman came in averaging 19 points a game. Chartiers Valley’s last loss was to Oakland Catholic, 4133, Jan. 21.

Oakland Catholic, the No. 4 seed, has the top scoring defense in 5A at 33.6 points per game. The Eagles usually play a 2-3 zone, but switched to man-to-man after falling behind No. 1 Trinity, 26-18, at the half of their semifinal game. It worked, as the Eagles went on to win, 44-37.