Feb 23, 2016 By Eleanor Bailey 4 min read

For several girls’ basketball teams, the season was on the line Feb. 22 as teams that lost their bid to compete in the WPIAL championships battled to stay alive in the PIAA tournament.

Canon-McMillan (16-8) and Mt. Lebanon (15-9) survived their first trial and now will face each other 6:15 p.m. Feb. 25 at West Allegheny to decide the fifth and final Quad-A girls’ representative from District 7. While the Lady Macs defeated Bethel Park, 57-50, and ended the Hawks’ season at 18-7, the Lebo ladies dispatched Hempfield, 54-50. The Lady Macs, who improved to 16-8 overall, used balanced scoring a a strong defensive effort from Taylor Waller to quell Bethel Park. Cheyenne Trest fired in 16 points. Kierra King chipped in 14 markers. Becca Turney provided a dozen points and grabbed eight rebounds. Isabella Allen also finished with 12 tallies. She scored 10 in the first half as C-M jumped to a 26-23 lead at halftime.

Meanwhile, Waller contained BP’s high-scoring junior Justina Mascaro, limiting her to seven tallies, well below her average. Shannon Conley led the Hawks with 18 markers. Rebbeca Rodriguez followed with 11 points, nine of which came off three 3-pointers.

A combination of four free throws and a bucket by Turney, a 3-point field goal by Trest and a pair of points from the charity stripe coupled with Waller’s free throws provided the Lady Macs with an insurmountable lead, 53-28, with under 2:30 to play.

The Lady Macs and the Hawks earned their confrontation by splitting their WPIAL playoff games.

By virtue of its failed upset bid against North Allegheny, 44-41, in the quartefinals, Bethel Park dropped into the play-in game against the Lady Macs. In the loss to the Tigers, Mascaro scored her 1,000th career point. She fired in 23 markers in the loss. She scored all 10 of her team’s points in the first quarter as the Hawks fell behind, 11-10.

After posting a historic victory against Fox Chapel, 51-49, Canon-Mac’s bid for its first WPIAL girls’ basketball title vanished during a 58-47 defeat to Penn Hills in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. Both games were played at Baldwin.

In the win against Fox Chapel, Trest scored the game-winning bucket. She finished with 27 tallies. In the loss to Penn Hills, Trest tossed in 16 points. Turney fired in 12 markers and pulled down 11 rebounds.

“This has been an exciting time,” C-M coach Lou Waller said. “We’ve been saying, only among ourselves, that this part of the season is all about history. With every game we win, it’s history. Now, we’re one win away from the state tournament. That would be more history.”

Meanwhile Lebo triumphed against the Spartans by relying upon Mackenzie Bushee and Maura Wallace. They fired in 14 and 12 points respectively.

The Blue Devils dropped into their play-in game after falling to Norwin, 56-54. The Knights are the top-ranked team in the state and undefeated at 23-0. In the loss, Alyssa Hyland and Wallace finished in double figures with 19 and 15 tallies respectively.

Peters Township dropped out of the Quad-A playoffs in the first round, a 62-56 victim to Hempfield, which was seeded No. 13 in the tournament. For the fourth-seeded Indians, Madison Kerr pumped in 22 points.

Class AA

Bishop Canevin advanced to the WPIAL Class AA semifinals with victories over Mohawk, 40-34, and Neshannock, 42-36. The Crusaders played Our Lady of the Sacred Heart last night (Feb. 23) for the right to compete in the championship contest for the second year in a row.

Shamyjha Price led the Crusaders’ attack in both wins, scoring 10 tallies against the Warriors and 15 against the Lancers.

Seton-La Salle dropped a 56-54 decision to Greensburg Central Catholic in the first-round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs. Shaunay Edmonds and Madalena Psillidis, as they have all season, led the Rebels, tossing in 19 and 18 markers. With the defeat, the Rebels ended their season at 15-7 overall. They were the 2015 WPIAL champions and PIAA runners-up.

Despite back-to-back losses to Our Lady of Sacred Heart, 48-38, and Neshannock, 44-31, Chartiers-Houston remained alive in the playoffs. The Buccanneers will play 5 p.m. Feb. 25 at Canon-McMillan for the right to compete in the PIAA tournament.

The Buccaneers were forced into their play-in games because of the loss to OLSH in the WPIAL quarterfinals. The Chargers converted 17 of 20 free throws to seal their victory over Chartiers-Houston. In the loss to OLSH, Jala Walker led the way with 25 points. Jules Vulcano and Kearia Walker each followed with four markers.

In the loss to the Lancers, Walker had 19 points for the Bucs (17-7).