Morreale joins 1,000-point club at Peters Township
Bri Morreale’s basketball career has been much like the Bruster’s Real Ice Cream she loves. A sweet success topped with two cherries.
One year after scoring the game-winning 3-pointer to vault Peters Township to a WPIAL championship, Morreale did it again. She drained a trey to surpass 1,000 points in her scholastic career.
Morreale became the 20th 1,000-point scorer in school history on Jan. 28 during a 52-48 victory at Trinity. She is the 11th female and seventh since the turn of the century to accomplish the feat.
Emily Correal, a 2009 graduate, holds the Peters Township all-time scoring record with 1,832 career points.
“This means a lot,” Morreale said of the milestone. “I put in a lot of hard work, especially after practice. I really worked on my shooting, so it was really nice to have all my hard work pay off.”
On a daily basis, Morreale shoots 50 treys. In practice, she added, the Indians “do a lot of live action play, going up and down” so she gets additional attempts.
The 3-pointer is Morreale’s bread and butter. In fact, she holds the school record with 241 for her career.
“She is an elite shooter,” said PT coach Steve Limberiou. “She is without question the best shooter I have ever coached.
“Bri is also the highest IQ player I have coached in my 5 years of being a head coach. She understands the game at a high level.She is extremely dependable and reliable.”
Morreale honed her skills playing on the AAU circuit and training with her father, Bryan, who played scholastically while attending high school in Buffalo.
“SLAAM helped my development a lot, especially with the fundamentals,” said the 18-year-old daughter of Kelly Morreale, a Seton LaSalle graduate.
“My dad has been my coach for my whole life, so everywhere he went, I was always with him in the gym. So that’s really made me the player I am today, too.”
Morreale, indeed, is a reliable scorer for the Lady Indians.
This winter, she is averaging 14.6 points per game.
As a junior last year, she averaged 10.2 points to go along with 2.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists a game.
With 61 seconds to play in the 2025 Class 5A championship game, she buried a trey to propel Peters Township to victory against South Fayette, 40-36. The Lions had won the WPIAL title three years in a row and they had held an 11-point lead at one point in the third quarter. Morreale finished with six points in the game, all off a pair of 3-pointers.
“Winning the WPIAL title and scoring that critical 3-pointer in the rally was the best thing ever,” Morreale said.
“We were the underdogs, but we just came out and played together and pulled out the win,” she recalled. “It was the best day of my life probably so far.”
Winning the WPIAL, Morreale admitted, was so much better than scoring 1,000 points, but she noted two key similarities. Her 1,000th point came on a shot from beyond the arc and on the right wing. Immediately after she threaded the net, she was swarmed by her teammates.
“I did want it to be a 3-pointer. I banked it, but a three’s a three,” she said with a laugh.
“It’s a great experience to have with my team. Both, winning a WPIAL title and getting 1,000 points, were kind of a team thing.”
Morreale always gravitated toward team sports. She started playing basketball when she was four years old. She also played soccer until she entered eighth grade.
“I love how I have a team behind me while I’m playing,” she explained.
“I enjoy basketball way more though. I liked how it was a smaller team, that I got to play with five people at a time. It’s about relationships and these are some of my best friends.”
Having lost their inside presence of a pair of 6-footers to graduation, one being Natalie Wetzel, who scored over 1,000 points, too, before matriculating to Miami, Morreale noted the 2026 campaign has been one of rebuilding. The Indians needed to win out to clinch a postseason berth. They were 5-6 after beating Uniontown on Feb. 2 and 11-9 overall heading into their final Section 4 fray against Bethel Park.
“We didn’t have a good first half of the season because we were figuring out what we had and how to maneuver everything,” Morreale said. “From the beginning of the season until now, we definitely progressed a lot. We’ve just kind of learned how to play without those other girls. It took a lot but we definitely figured that out.
“We’ve been working really hard because the goal’s to make the playoffs and then whenever we make the playoffs, hopefully, we make it back to The Pete.”
Once the season concludes, Morreale returns to focusing on her schoolwork where she maintains a 4.3 GPA as well as her preparation for the next level. She plans to major in chemical engineering while playing basketball at Washington & Jefferson College.
“I’m really excited,” she said about taking the next step in her career. “I wanted to stay local because I’m a homebody. I love the coaches and I love the campus. I can’t wait to get started.”
Limberiou sees a solid career ahead for Morreale at W&J.
“Shooting is a skill that is transferable to any level and I believe she will have a lot of success playing there,” he said.
PLAYOFFS
The WPIAL basketball steering committee meets Feb. 9 to format the playoff brackets. The first tournament playing date is scheduled for Feb. 12. The championship games will be played Feb. 26-28 at the Petersen Events Center on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
Upper St. Clair clinched a playoff berth in Class 6A. The Lady Panthers improved to 5-4 in Section 2 and 10-10 overall with a 55-34 victory over Hempfield on Feb. 2.
In the win, Caroline Barnard fired in 16 points, 12 coming off four 3-point field goals. Ryan Prunzik and Kenzie Pope followed with 11 tallies each for the Lady Panthers, who played rival Mt. Lebanon (3-6, 5-13) on Feb. 5 in the section finale.
In Class 5A, South Fayette is expected to be the No. 1. The Lady Lions were WPIAL runners-up last winter after a three-year championship run then went on to capture the PIAA title.
The Lady Lions improved to 20-1 overall and finished undefeated in Section 3 after thumping Chartiers Valley, 65-18, on Feb. 2.
In the victory, Haley Lamonde surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for her career. She finished with 15 points. Lamonde joins teammate Juliette Leroux in the scoring club. Leroux scored her 1,000th career point on Jan. 10.
Leroux (17) and Lailah Wright (11) joined Lamonde in double figures against the Lady Colts, who qualified for the Class 5A playoffs with their 7-4 section slate. CV was 8-13 overall after the loss.
Defending WPIAL Class 5A champion Peters Township needed a win on Feb. 6 against Bethel Park to clinch a playoff berth. The Indians improved to 5-6 in Section 4 with a 46-40 win over Uniontown on Feb. 2. In the victory, Taylor McCullough fired in 18 points while Alina Sopko pitched in with 14 tallies for the Indians, who were 11-9 overall.
Bri Morreale
Info box
Who is she: Peters Township senior who recently scored her 1,000th career point in basketball.
Age: 18
Birthdate: Oct. 24
Parents: Bryan and Kelly
Siblings: Ashlyn and Kaylin
Year: Senior
GPA: 4.3
College choice: Washington and Jefferson
Major: Chemical engineering
Career goal: Own a business
Color: Pink
Food: Chicken or ice cream
Flavor: Chocolate
Soft or hard: Prefer hard. Bruster’s is my No. 1.
Restaurant: Pasta Too
What do you watch on television: Crime shows
Musical artist: Morgan Wallen
With whom would you like to have dinner: My great grandma, Anna Morreale. “She was always at our house, always baking, and we would do her recipes. So I would be happy seeing her again.”
Life lesson sports has taught you: “It’s gonna be full of so many ups and downs, and you have to get through them. It’s always good to have support, but also, it’s about the relationships that you build with people. That’s really what sticks with you.”