WPIAL champion advances
Fox Chapel tops City’s Allderdice to reach quarters
Fox Chapel star Eli Yofan wore a boot on his left foot before and after Saturday’s gameagainst Allderdice.
In between, he and his teammates used their physicality to boot the Dragons fromthe PIAA playoffs.
For the first time since winningits only state title 45 years ago, Fox Chapel is headed to the PIAA quarterfinals, this after the WPIAL champions defeated City League champ Allderdice, 61-52, in a secondround game at Peters Township.
“Ithink we have a real shot, and this is just one more step to the state championship, so it feels great,” said Yofan, who scored a game-high 19 points despite playing with an ankle injury that forced him to miss some of his team’s first-round win against Cumberland Valleythree nights earlier.
It was the 25th consecutive win for Fox Chapel (26-1), which will face the winner of Sunday’s game between District 11 third-place team Northampton and District 3 runner-up Warwick in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. The Foxes haven’t advanced this far since 1977. Allderdice (20-8) fell short in its attempt to reach the quarterfinals for the fourthtime in eight seasons.
Just like it did against North Hills in the WPIAL championship a week earlier, Fox Chapel relied on its defenseand physical play to take down Allderdice. The Foxes pounded the offensive glass, finishing with 15 offensive rebounds. And they got to the foulline frequently, going 18 of 21 from the charity stripe, while Allderdice was just 6 of 9. The Foxes held the Dragons to 38% shooting from the field (19of 49).
“It was a lot of the North Hills game plan, just trying to beat them on the boards and make sure they don’t get that positioning inside,” Fox Chapel coach Zach Skrinjar said. “Dice is a great team. Well coached. [Allderdice coach] Devin [Crummie] is a personal friend of mine. We knew they were going to be ready, and we just thought that could maybe be a little advantage we had if we collectively crashed the glass.”
Crummieactually watched that North Hills game from a private box with some of Skrinjar’s family and friends. The two were classmates at CentralCatholic.
Allderdice connected on eight 3-pointers Saturday, which helped the Dragons make this a tight game for three quarters. Mike Quigley, the star of Allderdice’s firstround overtime win against Central Catholic, had three of them and led the Dragons with11 points.
But after taking a 20-19 lead with 2:10 left in the first half, Fox Chapel led the rest of the way. The Foxes led by five after three quarters and took its largest lead, 61-47, with 50 secondsleft.
Fox Chapel got another strong performance from 6foot-5 senior Colin Kwiatkowski, who finished with 10 pointsand eight rebounds. Yofanadded nine rebounds.