Chartiers Valley girls face off against Trinity in semifinals
Gabi Legister keeps her eyes focused on the basket during WPIAL Class 5-A girls’ basketball playoff action. The 6-2 sophomore scored 21 points to lead Chartiers Valley to victory, 48-31, against South Fayette in a quarterfinal playoff game at Canon-McMillan.
Mackenzie Wagner gets knocked to the ground as she battles Samantha Kosmacki and her sister, Lauren, for a loose ball during WPIAL 5-A girls’ basketbal playoff action. The Wagner sisters helped hold Kosmacki to six points as Chartiers Valley defeated South Fayette, 48-31, to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. The Colts play Trinity at 8 p.m. March 1, at Moon for the right to play in the championship game set for 3 p.m. March 4 at the Petersen Event Center.
A determined Alyssa Hyland drives to the basketball during Mt. Lebanon’s victory against Norwin, 47-44. Hyland fired in 14 points in the victory while Kenzie Bushee provided 18 tallies. With the win, Lebo advanced to play No. 1 seed, North Allegheny, in the semifinals.
Kristi Lippert from Keystone Oaks attempts to pass off the basketball while heavily defended by Beaver’s Kristi Buckenheimer. The Bobcats defeated KO, 58-45.
Chartiers Valley looks to reach the WPIAL finals in girls’ basketball for the first time since 2013 when the Lady Colts lost to Bethel Park, 47-34, in the Quad-A championship game at the A.J. Palumbo Center.
On March 1, at 8 p.m. at Moon High School, the Lady Colts (17-7) will challenge Trinity (22-2) for the right to play in the Class 5-A final set 3 p.m. March 4 at the Petersen Event Center.
“We are pleased to be playing in the semifinals,” said CV skipper Dan Slain, “but we are not satisfied. We are never satisfied. We are humble and hungry.”
The Colts certainly were that when they attacked South Fayette in a quarterfinal contest played Feb. 25 at Canon-McMillan. CV dispatched its Section 5 foe, 48-31, to win the rubber-match between the teams, 2-1. The Lions were the section champion, splitting previous decisions with the Colts during the regular season.
Defense sparked the Colts as they limited South Fayette to nine, first-half points.
“We played tremendous defense,” agreed Slain. “We had good communication among all the players. I tell them that mimes do not make good defensive players. You need to talk to each other out on the court.”
Offensively, Gabe Legister did most of the talking. The 6-2 sophomore forward exploded for 21 points.
“When you have a Division I prospect like Gabby, you want to be an inside-out team,” Slain said. “We wanted to get her touches. We have kids that can score 30 a game but that isn’t our style. They would rather get the W then see what they can do in the box score. That is what is so great about this group of kids.”
Abbey Collins, Mackenzie Wagner, Megan McConnell and Lauren Wagner complement Legister with their ability to knock down the 3-point field goal and engineer the defense, combining for steals and turnovers.
“This is a good group,” Slain said. “You know the formula for success? It’s 70 percent talent, 20 percent coaching and 10 percent luck.
“We have a talented group and they play well together. There are some things we need to do to fine tune but we play well especially defensively.”
The Colts held SF’s leading scorer Sam Kosmacki to six points while Carlee Kilgus and Jordyn Caputo led with nine and eight markers.
For CV to reach the finals, the Lady Colts must play better defense than they did the first time they played Trinity this season. On Dec. 27, 2016, they dropped a 58-41 decision to the Hillers. Sierra Kotchman is the Hillers’ leading scorer, averaging 19.4 points per game.
Class 6-A girls
On Feb. 28, Mt. Lebanon (18-5) and Bethel Park (18-6) battled North Allegheny (22-1) and Penn Hills (21-2) for the right to play in the Class 6-A championship game set for 7 p.m. March 4 at the Petersen Center. (The semifinal result was too later to be published in this edition of The Almanac.)
After a bye in the opening round of the tournament, Mt. Lebanon reached the semifinals by defeating two-time defending champion, Norwin, 47-44. In the game played at Baldwin, the Lebo ladies opened with an 8-0 run and settled into a lead of 20-11 before the Knights rallied to tie the contest at 24 by halftime. Lebo led, 40-31, after three quarters but needed strong foul shooting down the stretch to clinch the victory.
With seven seconds to play, Jamey Napoleon convert a pair of free throws to seal the victory. She scored six points.
Kenzie Bushee led the offensive attack with 18 markers. Alyssa Hyland followed with 14 tallies. She buried three critical 3-point field goals, two in the decisive third quarter where the Blue Devils outscored the Knights, 17-6.
Meanwhile, Bethel Park (18-6) upended No. 2 seed, Pine-Richland, 52-44, in the quarterfinals and Penn-Trafford, 38-36, in the first-round of the playoffs.
In the win against the Rams, Justina Mascaro pumped in 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Kam Lach also finished in double digits with 10 tallies. Lach also excelled on defense, limiting Amanda Kalin to 14 points. The Duquesne recruit averaged 20.4 points per game.
In the triumph against Penn-Trafford, the Hawks bolted to a 22-9 lead in the second stanza and settled into a halftime advantage of 22-13 before the Warriors rallied.
Lach sparked BP in the first half while Mascaro carried the team in the second half.
Lach exploded for 12 points, all on 3-point field goals, to vault BP into its large lead. Lach tacked on a free throw with 24.2 seconds to play and finished with 13 markers.
“She’s done that for us all season. She’s relatively accurate,” said BP skipper Jonna Burke of Lach’s hot hand. “When she is hitting, her confidence is up as is all of players’ confidence.
“We were fortunate that we had a big enough lead and hung on,” Burke added.
Each time the Warriors closed the gap, however, Mascaro responded. She fired in 12 of her 14 points in the second half. Her three-point play enlarged BP’s lead to 35-29 with 4:57 to play. Mascaro also cashed in on two free throws to keep the distance at four points before Bella Long connected on two of three free throws in the last tenth of second to narrow the gap to the final score.
“Mascaro got her muscle points. Big baskets that kept us in it,” added Burke.
“You know the first round is always so difficult because it’s one and done,” continued Burke. “It’s a tense match-up.”
C-M, KO eliminated
For Canon-McMillan and Keystone Oaks, it was indeed one and done as both were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
The Lady Macs succumbed to Hempfield, 65-47. Cheyenne Trest fired in 22 markers for C-M, which finished the season at 8-15 overall.
Keystone Oaks dropped a 58-45 decision to Beaver. The Golden Eagles trailed, 30-19, by halftime. Maleyah Agurs and Gillian Piccolino scored in double figures, finishing with 16 and 11 tallies, who the Eagles, who ended the year at 20-3 overall.
The Bobcats had double-digit scoring from three players: Bella Posset (18), Sydney Barney (13) and Paige Ziggas (12).
Peters Township, meanwhile, succumbed in the second round.
After eliminating Seneca Valley, 55-41, the Lady Indians lost to Penn Hills, 58-55. Mackenna Marisa fired in 23 points in the loss. She supplied 17 points in the win against the Raiders. Lillian Young and Isabella Mills also finished in double digits with 14 and 12 tallies.
Canevin wins
Bishop Canevin (17-5) opened up its title defense with a victory against Riverside, 54-25. Brionna Allen and Sarah Green each tallied 13 points for the Crusaders, who have been in the semifinals seven straight seasons.
The Crusaders battle Carlynton (17-6) at 8 p.m. March 1 at Ambridge for the right to compete in the Class 3-A final set for 11 a.m. March 4 at the Petersen Event Center.