Losing teams hoping to regroup in a hurry
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Tess Myers and Jordan Edwards were two of the stars of the WPIAL championships, hitting winning shots in the final seconds to lead their teams to victories.
While those teams were celebrating thrilling wins, the teams whose hearts were broken were left trying to regroup for the PIAA playoffs, which get underway Friday and Saturday.
Beaver and Oakland Catholic now have an opportunity to start fresh. Beaver plays Belle Vernon in a Class 4A first-round game Saturday, while Oakland Catholic takes on Hickory in its Class 5A opener that same day.
Ahead by 12 points after three quarters, Beaver (18-6) witnessed Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic win its record 18th WPIAL title when Myers drove the length of the court and drained a jump shot at the buzzer to give the Trojanettes a 50-49 victory.
“I don’t mean to sound wrong or anything, but I think we should have won that game. I think we outplayed them,” said Beaver coach Greg Huston, whose team was playing in the final for the first time. “I think that shows that we have the capability of making another run. We know there are a lot of good teams out there, including those guys, which hopefully we can see again in the semis or something like that. We would more than welcome the challenge of facing all those teams that we’ve faced already this year.”
Oakland Catholic (17-9) coughed up an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and fell victim to Gateway after Edwards nailed a jumper with 3.7 seconds left to help the Gators prevail, 29-27.
“We have to stay the course,” Oakland Catholic coach Shannon Kearney said. “We talked about it in the locker room, when you want to be a champion, you have to live through a lot of battles and you get a lot of scars. You use them to make you stronger. We were a No. 8 seed coming in. We talked about a clean slate for the WPIAL’s and the state playoffs is exactly the same. You’re at a clean slate. Everybody is 0-0. So it could be anyone’s ballgame.”
The underdog
Gateway was the surprise team of the WPIAL playoffs, winning its first championship and doing it as the No. 7 seed. The Gators were the lowest-seeded team, boys or girls, to win a title, and the lowest-seeded girls team to capture a title since PennTrafford also did it as the No. 7 seed in 2014. The Gators beat No. 2 Thomas Jefferson in the quarterfinals and No. 6 and defending champion Chartiers Valley in the semifinals.
Edwards, a senior guard and Niagara recruit, said the Gators have enjoyed being a team many have overlooked.
“I think being the underdog, that’s what motivated us all season long,” Edwards said. “I feel people looked at us like an inferior team in 5A. A lot of people didn’t believe in us. I think that really drove us to be better.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for Gateway (23-3), which opens the PIAA playoffs against Trinity (20-4). Trinity was the No. 1 seed in the WPIAL playoffs, but was upset by Oakland Catholic in the quarterfinals. Trinity was the PIAA runner-up last season. Gateway is trying to win a PIAA playoff game for the first time since 2013.
Rematches
Three first-round matchups are rematches of WPIAL playoff games: Peters Township-Bethel Park and North Allegheny-Upper St. Clair in Class 6A, and Beaver-Belle Vernon in Class 4A.
Peters Township defeated Bethel Park, 55-39, in the semifinals. North Allegheny beat Upper St. Clair, 45-26, in the quarterfinals. Beaver topped Belle Vernon, 63-32, in the quarterfinals.
Defending champs
Boyertown (6A), Archbishop Wood (5A), Bethlehem Catholic (4A), Neumann-Goretti (3A), Minersville (2A) and Lebanon Catholic (1A) are the defending champions. Boyertown did not qualify for the tournament this season.
Local success
No WPIAL team won a PIAA title last season, which had not happened since 2008. North Allegheny (6A), Trinity (5A) and Bishop Canevin (3A) all lost in the finals a season ago. The WPIAL has not gone two consecutive years without winning a title since no team claimed gold in 1991 or 1992.