WPIAL scoreboard
25-0 Colts win 5A crown over Thomas Jefferson
Class 6A boys
Mt. Lebanon ........... 62 Butler ...................... 57
Class 6A girls
Peters Township ..... 43 North Allegheny ..... 40
Class 5A girls
Chartiers Valley ...... 64 Thomas Jefferson .. 48
Class 4A boys
New Castle ............. 60 Quaker Valley ......... 54
Class 3A girls
Neshannock ........... 47 Shady Side Acad. .. 42 On the web: Video from WPIAL championship weekend at post-gazette.com. Monday: Mike White wraps up the 2019 championships.
Chartiers Valley wasn’t flawless in Saturday’s WPIAL Class 5A championship.
There were those 13 turnovers and eight missed free throws.
But the Colts were perfect in the sense that they walked out of Petersen Events Center the same they walked in. Without a loss. Megan McConnell and Aislin Malcolm each scored 18 points as undefeated Chartiers Valley put an emphatic stamp on its WPIAL season and etched its name in the history book by beating Thomas Jefferson, 64-48.
Chartiers Valley became just the 17th girls team to win a WPIAL championship with an unbeaten record. The Colts improved to 25-0.
“To be undefeated and to win a WPIAL championship with these girls is very special. It’s not an easy thing to do,” said Chartiers Valley coach Tim McConnell. “When a team can go 25-0 and not lose one game, it shows the character of these girls of how they came ready night in and night out.”
It was the second WPIAL championship in three seasons for Chartiers Valley, but first with McConnell as coach. McConnell won six WPIAL titles as the school’s boys coach before taking over the girls team this season. He has now coached all three of his children to WPIAL titles.
T.J., who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, and Matty, who plays at Robert Morris, each won one WPIAL title and neither of their teams did it with an undefeated record. Megan, a junior point guard, now has two WPIAL titles, which she said gives her bragging rights.
“I have two and they have one,” said Megan, “and this is great because this is my first one with my dad and it’s been the best. I love him.”
Chartiers Valley players were all giggles after the game, but it was business as usual for the Colts when they defeated section rival Thomas Jefferson (19-6) for the third time this season. They shot 53 percent (18 of 34) from the field and limited Thomas Jefferson to 14 points below its season average.
It was a one-possession game a few minutes into the second quarter before Chartiers Valley ripped off a 15-0 run to take a commanding 2710 lead. Malcolm, a talented freshman, began and capped the run with 3-pointers. She made four in the game.
After Thomas Jefferson countered with two baskets, McConnell drilled a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to send the Colts into the half leading, 30-15.
“We had some opportunities ourselves and couldn’t finish at times. When they had their opportunities they did,” Thomas Jefferson coach Lisa Fairman said.
It was more of the same in the third quarter when Chartiers Valley outscored Thomas Jefferson, 20-9. The Colts took their biggest lead, 53-24, less than a minute into the fourth.
Chartiers Valley’s two Division I-bound seniors also scored in double figures. Gabi Legister (Kennesaw State) had 14 points and Mackenzie Wagner (Loyola, Md.) scored 10.
Jenna Clark, an outstanding guard and Yale recruit, led Thomas Jefferson with 19 points, and Alyssa DeAngelo had 17.
Wagner laughed afterward when asked how she felt when she first found out Tim McConnell would be her coach this season.
Said Wagner: “I personally was a little scared because watching him coach the boys, it was like, ‘Oh, no.’”
But being undefeated WPIAL champs has the Colts saying, “Oh, yeah.”