Peters Township beats Gateway to advance to WPIAL championship finals
Peters Township last won a WPIAL championship in boys’ basketball in 2009. At the time, Joe Urmann was on the losing end, coaching as an assistant at Mt. Lebanon.
Urmann now coaches the Indians and thanks to a victory against Gateway on Feb. 25, ironically, in the Lebo gymnasium, he gets a chance to again compete for a title.
The Urnmann-led Indians defeated the Gators, 62-55, to advance to the Class 5A finals set for 9 p.m. March 2 at the Petersen Events Center on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
The Indians used a huge, third-quarter surge to separate themselves from the Gators. The teams were deadlocked, 15-15, after one frame and 28-28 at halftime.
Behind the point-guard play of Brendan McCullough, Peters Township opened up a 49-41 lead by the end of the third quarter. McCullough scored five of his 11 points and dished up several assists, particularly to Jake Ziegler, during the breakaway frame. Ziegler finished with 15 tallies, 10 coming in the eight-minute span.
Jack Dunbar was Mr. Consistent, scoring at will from beyond the arc as well as in the paint. He buried five, 3-pointers, four in the first half, on his way to a game-high 29 points. The performance was punctuated by a game-ending dunk.
Earlier, with 3:17 to play, Dunbar cashed in a 3-pointer that afforded PT a 54-50 edge. He and McCullough also cashed in a critical free throws in the final frame.
With the win, PT improved to 21-3 overall. The Indians will face Penn Hills (20-3) in the finals. The match-up will be between the No. 1 and the No. 2 seed.