Fox Chapel’s defense frustrating foes
Fox Chapel coach Zach Skrinjar said he and his assistants had a good feeling about this season.
But coach, still undefeated at the end of January good?
“I didn’t think that,” Skrinjar said, laughing. “I saw us being pretty good at this point. This has been a great experience.”
At 18-0, Fox Chapel is the only remaining unbeaten team in the WPIAL. The Foxes are ranked No. 1 in Class 6A and clinched the Section 3 title outright by winning Tuesday at Norwin. It’s the program’s ninth section title and second in four seasons.
“I probably wouldn’t have expected this at the beginning of the year,” sophomore guard Eli Yofan said.
If you’re this good, you’re doing something right. For Fox Chapel, that something has been defense. There are 133 teams in the WPIAL. None have a defense as stingy as the Foxes, who are allowing only 42.1 per game.
“It’s been really rewarding,” said Skrinjar, who is in his 11th season. “I think [playing good defense is] one of those things ingrained in their minds. If you do it consistently, you win basketball games. I give them credit. It’s not the most glamorous thing to harp on them about, but the way they embrace it has been the key to our success.”
Yofan, the team’s leading scorer (16.7 ppg), said the Foxes set goals of holding each of their opponents to fewer than 50 points. And so far, only one foe has exceeded that … barely. Hempfield tallied 51.
Like many great defensive teams, Fox Chapel has a lockdown defender. Well, it actually has two. Senior Shane Susnak usually draws the opponent’s best guard, while senior Will Livingston matches up against the top post player.
“We are nowhere without those two defensively,” Skrinjar said.
Fox Chapel is getting healthy, too. A pair of returning starters, senior guards Arnold Vento and Sam Brown, both missed time with injuries — Vento was out for five games, while Brown missed the first month of the season. Because of that, Skrinjar has played a lot of younger players (including a deep group of sophomores) and has used nine or 10 different starting lineups. Vento and Brown are both back.
Despite being undefeated, Fox Chapel still has some doubters. Section 3 is perceived to be the weakest of the three Class 6A sections and the Foxes haven’t played the strongest non-section schedule.
“People think that we haven’t played anyone,” Yofan said, “but we beat Penn Hills by 20 and they’re the top team in 5A, and we beat Bethel Park, who’s going to be a playoff team in the South Hills section. We’re
definitely a little overlooked.”
Nazareth Prep
Nazareth Prep seemingly came out of nowhere to win the WPIAL Class 1A championship last season. Now the school located in Emsworth and playing in just its fourth season as a WPIAL member hopes to make it back-toback titles.
The Saints are once again one of the top teams in the class. They are ranked second in the latest Post-Gazette rankings. The Saints are 12-7 overall and their 8-3 mark in Section 1 is third behind Vincentian and Cornell. Four of their seven losses have been to teams from larger classes, including a one-point defeat to City League power Allderdice. The Saints have won seven of their past nine games.
“We’re getting better and I think there is still a lot of room to grow,” coach Nehemiah Brazil said.
Nazareth Prep lost two starters from last year’s team, including guard Tre Harvey, who scored 31 points against Vincentian in the championship. But the Saints are not short on talent or height. Their starting five consists of 6-6 senior Jabriel Johnson, 6-5 junior Isaiah Thomas, 6-3 senior Marcus Johnson, 6-2 senior Will Taylor and 5-10 senior Nehemiah Brazil (son of the coach).
Taylor was an all-section choice last season and appears to be on his way to earning similar recognition this season. He leads the team in scoring with 20 points per game.
“He’s been really good,” said Brazil. “One of the things with Will has been transitioning to a new position. The first three years he played power forward, but this year he moved to shooting guard. It was an adjustment, but he’s getting more comfortable.”
The Saints have played top-ranked Vincentian twice, losing by slim margins each time (51-48 and 7472).
Don’t be surprised if the two meet again in the later rounds of the WPIAL playoffs, perhaps again in the championship.
“I hope so,” Brazil said, “but we need to do what we need to do to make that a possibility.”
North Catholic
Not since the 2015-16 season has a WPIAL team went through a season averaging at least 80 points a game (Monessen averaged 90.3 that season), but North Catholic is making a push toward that number this winter.
The Trojans (15-2), ranked No. 2 in Class 3A, are averaging 79.6 points per game, the top mark in the WPIAL. They have scored at least 90 points three times and at least 80 nine times, and are averaging 87.5 points over their past six games.