South Fayette rolls into the PIAA quarterfinals
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Erica Hall (32) goes up for a basket against Faith Walker (3) during South Fayette’s first-round PIAA playoff win against West York, 73-33. She scored 20 points in the victory.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Erica Hall (32) and Ava Leroux (2) of South Fayette battle Faith Walker (3) and Landyn Angell (35) from West York for a rebound during PIAA Class 5A girls’ basketball action.
By Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
By Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Maddie Webber (34) drives past Elysa Myers (24) on her way to a layup during South Fayette’s win against West York in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A girls’ basketball playoffs.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Despite the defensive efforts of Faith Walker (3) from West York, Maddie Webber (34) of South Fayette puts up a successful shot during first-round PIAA Class 5A girls’ basketball playoff action.
South Fayette the reached quarterfinals in the PIAA Class 5A girls’ basketball tournament with easy wins over West York (13-14) and Mechanicsburg (20-8).
The Lions opened tournament action at home on March 11 by whipping West York, 73-33.
In the win, Maddie Webber and Ava Leroux provided 21 and 13 tallies while Erica Hall pitched in with 20 markers.
While Webber and Leroux are big-time recruits for Villanova and Elon, Hall is just a junior.
“Erica doesn’t get enough credit. She is our unsung hero,” said SF skipper Bryan Bennett. “We have a lot of really talented kids and she is one of them.
“If you watch our games, she does the little things night in and night out. She is tough defensively, she scores, handles the ball, and a lot of the stats you don’t see, she makes those plays.”
The Lions made the plays early, using 10 first-frame turnovers to jump ahead, 27-10. The advantage swelled to 43-20 by halftime.
The Lions also dominated the smaller Bulldogs on the boards. Seven players pulled down at least five rebounds including Leroux, Lainey Yater, Sydney Burns, Ryan Oldaker and Juliette Leroux, but Webber and Hall led with 11 and 10 respectively.
In the second round of the tournament, the Lions thumped Mechanicsburg, 69-29, on March 15 at Altoona High School.
South Fayette again jumped on its opponent early. The Lions staked an 18-7 advantage after one quarter and a 40-14 edge by intermission, even with Webber sitting out seven minutes of the second frame with two fouls.
While Webber and Hall scored 10 points each, Yater led the Lions with 12 tallies, six in each half.
South Fayette met Cathedral Prep (22-1) in a quarterfinal match-up played March 18. (Results of the contest were unavailable for the print edition of The Almanac.)
Class 6AIn Class 6A state playoff action, Upper St. Clair (23-3) advanced to the quarterfinals with victories over McDowell (19-7) and Pennsbury (21-9).
In the opener played March 10 in the Panthers’ lair, USC dispatched McDowell, 56-34.
Rylee Kalocay was the big gun, firing in a game-high 30 points. Kate Robbins followed with 10 tallies.
In a second-round game played March 14 at Chambersburg, USC used a 25-point performance by Kalocay to vault past Pennsbury, 42-31.
After beating Altoona (17-10) in its PIAA first-round game, 58-50, Mt. Lebanon (18-8) ended its season with a loss to North Allegheny, 57-34, on March 14 at North Hills High School.
Thanks to Shea McCarthy, the Blue Devils forged a 19-11 first-frame advantage against the Tigers. The sophomore came off the bench and buried two, 3-pointers. Lebo drained four, long-range shots in the quarter.
The Tigers roared in the second stanza. As the Blue Devils cooled off, totaling only three points in the next eight minutes, NA went on a 19-0 tear to turn the deficit into a 30-19 advantage.
Although Gina Smith scored a layup late in the frame, NA went into the locker room with a 32-22 lead at halftime. The NA defense held Lebo to 12, second-half points.
Jennifer Smith (10) was the lone Blue Devil in double figures while Pitt recruit Jasmine Timmerson and Kellie McConnell led the Tigers with 19 and 18 tallies.