When Serra Catholic girls basketball coach Matt Bacco takes a look at his bench during games, he sees more assistant coaches than he does players.
Serra likely has the smallest roster in the WPIAL. The Eagles dress only seven players. That number had been eight, but they lost a starter to a torn ACL a few weeks ago.
It’s a numbers game for Serra, which, despite having such a thin roster and no seniors, is 16-2, has won eight games in a row, earned a share of a section title, and is the No. 3 seed in the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs. The Eagles play host Friday to Rochester (6-14) in a first-round game.
And when it comes to small numbers, the size of the roster might not even be the most significant one. The Eagles give up only 27.9 points per game, the fewest of any team in the entire WPIAL.
“I think for us, we know that our defense is sort of where our ability to succeed really starts,” Bacco said. “We have to play good defense. We’re not a team that can score in the 70s and we can’t sub very much. We want to be able to hold you in the high 20s or the 30s.”
Bacco is in his second season at Serra. He’s a 1997 graduate of the school who has a WPIAL championship on his resume as coach. That came at South Fayette, a program he guided for 10 seasons. The Lions made the playoffs each season and won their first WPIAL title in 2016. Bacco said he has never had a team with a roster so thin in all of his years of coaching. It’s so thin that Bacco, 43, and three of his assistant coaches — Bria Shanty, 33, Autumn Mozick, 24, and Carlee Kilgus, 24 — sometimes join the action in practices so the team can go 5-on-5.
Serra didn’t suddenly become this suffocating defensive team this season. The Eagles were extremely stingy last season, too, when they ranked second in the WPIAL in scoring defense at 28.8 points a game. That number has dipped a bit more this season, as only three teams have reached 40 points against the Eagles. Bacco said he sets a magic number of 36 points and no double-digit quarters. If they do that, Bacco likes his team’s chances. Offensively, the Eagles average 51.2 points a game.
“I can’t even explain it,” junior guard Cate Clark said of the stellar defensive play. “We work on defense a whole lot. We work on the basics and a bunch of different defenses that can work against different offenses. We’re good at changing up defenses.”
Bacco said the Eagles “play a little bit of everything” on defense. They play man-to-man, matchup zone, three or four types of trapping zones, and just about whatever it might take to slow down an opponent. He said that the Eagles have forced more than 30 turnovers in some games.
That’s a lot of effort given on the defensive end, which is made all the more impressive by the fact that Serra is doing it with only seven players. The “Super Seven” include juniors Clark, Bri Battles, Caitlyn Cooley, Ashley German and Aryanna Richards, sophomore Kendalyn Niedermeyer and freshman Abby Genes. Junior Rylee Allebach, a 5-foot-11 junior and the team’s tallest player, injured her knee in a Jan. 25 against South Park and was lost for the season.
With just seven players, one would think the Eagles would get winded quicker than most other teams, but Clark said that’s not the case.
“I think we’re really prepared for that,” she said. “We’re in really good shape and mentally prepared, and we all just love to play basketball.”
Serra played in the same section as Clairton star Iyanna Wade, the WPIAL’s leading scorer, but the Eagles don’t have any prolific bucket-getters on their side. Clark leads the way at 12 points a game and is among four players who average between 8 and 12. Clark, Battles and Cooley each started as sophomores, as did Allebach.
“I don’t think we’re methodical on offense. I just think we may be a team who is at our best when our defense leads to offense,” Bacco said. “I don’t think we want to play in a game in the 50s or 60s because that’s not our style. We want to get 50. Especially this time of year, we see it as a race to 50.”
Serra has dropped only two games. The Eagles lost to Class 4A Belle Vernon, 39-32, Jan. 14, and at section rival Greensburg Central Catholic, 47-43, Jan. 5. The Eagles avenged the second loss when they topped Greensburg C.C., 40-35, Jan. 30. The Centurions are seeded fourth in the WPIAL tournament.
It has been 18 years since Serra previously won a WPIAL title. It came under legendary coach Bill Cleary, who guided the Eagles to four WPIAL titles and a PIAA title before retiring in 2021. The court at Serra now is named after Cleary. That’s a tough act to follow, but Bacco has been excellent since taking over. He has gone 37-5 in his two seasons. Last season, the Eagles finished 21-3 after losing to eventual champion Neshannock in the WPIAL semifinals and to Homer-Center in the second round of the PIAA playoffs.
Bacco isn’t the only member of the Serra coaching staff that has won a WPIAL championship as a head coach. Assistant Dan Slain guided Chartiers Valley to its first title in 2017. Tim McConnell took over the following season.
Speaking of WPIAL titles, Bacco, Slain and company would love to win another in a few weeks. The roster might not be big, but the number of points the Eagles give up is minuscule, as well. It’s an unorthodox combination, one that continues to work.
“I think that we have the potential to go all the way,” Clark said. “We just have to play how we play and not let the other team dictate the pace.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.