Allderdice gets rematch it wanted
Already this season, City League member Allderdice has defeated the WPIAL 6A champ, 5A champ and 1A champ, along with eight other WPIAL teams. But all season, Allderdice has been eyeing one more WPIAL team.
Come Saturday, Allderdice will finally get to meet Pine-Richland.
Allderdice (26-2) and PineRichland (22-6) play in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal — and talk about going green. Allderdice’s school colors are green and white — and so are Pine-Richland’s. Plus, it’s St. Patrick’s Day. And it’s almost like Allderdice will be green with envy from last year, when Pine-Richland beat Allderdice in a PIAA second-round game the day before St. Patrick’s Day. Pine-Richland eventually went all the way tothe PIAA title game.
“We feel like it’s déjà vu. That’s a word coach [Buddy Valinsky] taught us this year,” said Terrell Childs, a junior forward for Allderdice. “He taught us retribution, too.”
It’s not as if Allderdice is trash talking about playing Pine-Richland again. It’s more that Allderdice enters the game with anticipation after last year when PineRichland defeated Allderdice, 58-47, in a game where both teams shot only 33 percent.
Pine-Richland advanced to this game by defeating State College in the second round while Allderdice defeated WPIAL champ Penn Hills.
“I think it’s just about any time a team ends your season,” said Valinsky. “If we had to play State College, that would have been fine. I think [Pine-Richland] just adds a little more excitement to the game. We don’t have any bad blood with them. The thing is, they ended our season last year.”
Class 5A
Highlands and Mars played in the same section for 18 consecutive seasons, until six classifications came into Pennsylvania basketball in 2016 and the WPIAL placed the two teams in different sections. But Mars (23-4) and Highlands (20-5) will get reacquainted when they meet in a PIAA quarterfinal at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Gateway.
The two teams are opposites, at least in terms of personnel. Mars’ Robby Carmody averages more than 30 points a game. Highlands doesn’t have a player averaging more than 12.
Mars has made it to the semifinals only once in school history while Highlands has never advanced past the quarterfinals. Mars isthe WPIAL 5A champ.
“Forus, it has to be defense and rebounding,” said Highlands coach Tyler Stoczynski. “Those two things don’t take any talent. They take effort and heart. As long as we’re playing with everything we have, I’ll put our guys against anybody.”
Class 4A
It’s possible New Castle and Quaker Valley could meet for a fourth time this season in the PIAA semifinals. But both face excellent teams Friday in the quarterfinals.
New Castle (23-4) plays Sharon(25-2), 7:30 p.m. at Slippery Rock University, while Quaker Valley (25-1) meets Huntingdon (23-2), 7:30 p.m. at Johns town High.
Itwill be a tall task for New Castle to beat Sharon. The Tigers feature 6-8 junior Ethan Porterfield, who averages 17 points a game, and 6-5 senior Tristan Ballard.
Sharon also has one of the best names in Pennsylvania basketball this season in junior guard Elite Williams, who averages 10 points. So it will be Elite in the elite 8 of Class 4A.
Thisis one of Sharon’s best seasons in more than two decades. The Tigers won their first District 10 championship since 1991 and they are riding a 22-game winning streak. This is Sharon’s first time in the quarterfinals since1998.
Huntingdon is having its best season in more than 70 years. The Bearcats were last in the quarterfinals in 1945. Huntingdon is led in scoring by 6-2 junior forward Nick Rigby, who averages 17.
Class 2A
Three of the four teams left in the Class 2A bracket are from the WPIAL. The only non-WPIAL team is West Middlesex. In the quarterfinals Saturday, Jeannette (214) plays Sewickley Academy (23-4), while Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (24-3) takes on West Middle sex (21-6).
Sewickley Academy is the defending PIAA champ and has a 14-game postseason winning streak (WPIAL and PIAA), going back to last year. It will be interesting to see if Jeannette can create enough offense to win. Only oneteam has scored 50 points or more against Sewickley in six post season games.
In the other game, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart faces a West Middlesex team that doesn’t have much size or a big scorer. But the Big Reds win a lot. They are riding a 13-game winning streak and are in the quarterfinals for the third time in four seasons. West Middlesex doesn’t havea starter taller than 6-2.
OLSH has never made it to the semifinals. The Chargers have made the PIAA playoffs nine times (the first was 1985) and lost in the quarterfinals lastyear.