Chartiers Valley girls win second straight WPIAL title
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Aislin Malcolm (24) hopes to help Chartiers Valley raise another trophy this basketball season. The junior is ranked as the best player in the state and is undefeated in her varsity career. She led the Colts to a 58-40 victory in last year’s WPIAL Class 5A championship game, scoring 23 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Malcolm is joined in the picture by Megan McConnell, left, and Amaleen Malcolm.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Trinity’s Marlaina Bozek and Chartiers Valley’s Aislin Malcolm battle for a rebound during the WPIAL Class 5A girls championship game.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Trinity’s Courtney Dahlquist holds her ground as Chartiers Valley’s Perri Page attempts to drive to the basket during the WPIAL Class 5A girls basketball game.
Trinity head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller instructs her players during the WPIAL Class 5A championship game. She is a Mt. Lebanon resident.
The Chartiers Valley girls basketball team enters the PIAA Class 5A tournament this weekend undefeated.
A 25-0 record — rather than a second straight WPIAL title, which the Colts earned Feb. 29 with a 58-40 victory over Trinity at the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center — is what stuck with CV head coach Tim McConnell.
“I’m surprised that we are undefeated,” he said. “I’m not surprised that we were in the WPIAL championship because I knew we had a lot of talent.”
McConnell discovered in December that he would be dependent on youth as he set out to refashion a 30-0 state championship team from a year earlier depleted by the graduation of two Division I starters.
With four sophomores in the starting line up, McConnell said he was impressed with his new team early on in the 2019-20 season.
McConnell said the Colts defeated an “athletic” and “really good” team from Thomas Edison High School in Virginia at the KSA Classic in Orlando.
After then defeating West Orange by 27 points in Orlando, CV beat Argyle, a five-time Texas state champion to win the tournament title.
“We played some real good teams in Florida,” McConnell said. “When we played those teams, I felt, we would not face anybody back home as good. So we built on that.”
The Colts raced through a difficult league to capture a section championship with a 14-0 record and catapulted into the WPIAL final with an impressive 57-37 victory over Penn Hills and a 65-43 win over Thomas Jefferson.
“I knew we had a chance,” McConnell said of playing for a third title in four years. “Sure, something always could go wrong, but we knew we had the talent and the make up to get back there.
“To be undefeated, I would be lying if I said ‘yeah, I thought we could be,'” he continued. “When you talk about four sophomores every night answering the bell, you would think at one time they would not be ready, or not answer. So, give these girls a lot of credit for what they have accomplished so far.”
CV has Aislin Malcom to credit for much of its success. She scored a game-high 23 points and pulled down eight rebounds in the WPIAL championship game.
The sophomore, who has Division I offers from Duke and Princeton among other schools, was 7 of 10 from the field and was 3 of 6 from 3-point range against Trinity. She was also and 6 of 7 from the free throw line.
Malcolm had an impressive run to start the second half. She scored eight points as CV’s 24-19 halftime advantage swelled to 40-28 by the end of the third quarter. She then scored her team’s first five points in the fourth quarter.
“Before the start of the third quarter, I said to Aislin, ‘big-time players come to perform on the big-time stage,'” said McConnell, who now has two WPIAL girls titles to go along with the four he earned as head coach of the CV boys program. “She performed big-time in that second half.
“She is a big-time player,” he continued. “Somebody is going to be lucky to have her.”
Duquesne University already has Megan McConnell. The coach’s daughter scored 10 points against Trinity.
Page Perri, whose father played at Pitt, also scored 14 points and buried two 3-pointers.
Sophomore Hallie Cowan, who exploded for 29 points in a semifinal win against TJ, scored five points against Trinity. Her twin sister, Helene, added four points.
“We are going to lose Meg, but the thing I like best is we start four sophomores. All four are coming back,” McConnell said. “So I am excited about the future for the next couple of years at Char Valley.”
Not to mention the next few weeks.
The Colts will continue their quest for a record for consecutive victories – North Catholic holds the mark at 56 – as well as a second straight state championship.
CV faces Warren (17-8) in a PIAA first-round game at 3 p.m. March 7 at South Fayette High School.
The PIAA Class 5A girls final is set for 6 p.m. March 21 at the Giant Center in Hershey.