St. Joseph pulled out all the stops in trying to prepare to play against Union star Kelly Cleaver.
“We tried to simulate Kelly all week,” St. Joseph coach Geoff Dutelle said. “We were holding up foam hockey sticks [in practice] to simulate her length.”
Keeping Cleaver, a 6-foot senior forward, in check is a tall task. And while St. Joseph did a great job of it for a half Saturday, Cleaver came alive in the second half to help the Scotties rally for an overtime win and seize their second WPIAL title in a row.
Cleaver scored 17 of her 25 points in the second half and overtime to lead No. 1-seeded Union to a 50-43 win against No. 3 St. Joseph in the Class 1A final at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.
“It feels great,” said Cleaver, a Millersville recruit who led Union to a PIAA title a season ago. “We came in knowing we had a lot of pressure on our backs. We started off a little bit shaky. We didn’t come out the way we wanted to, but when you think back to last year and that state run, we were down almost every game at halftime, so [coach Rob Nogay] told us it’s nothing we’re not used to. And it wasn’t. We battled back. And I’m so proud of my teammates and the way they knocked down shots.”
When St. Joseph lost to Union in the 2023 semifinals, the Scotties scored the first 19 points of the game. But it was a different story Saturday as the Spartans, who boast the No. 1 scoring offense in Class 1A, jumped to a 20-9 second-quarter lead behind 10 points from senior guard Julie Spinelli, a Frostburg State recruit who finished with a team-high 19.
St. Joseph (21-4), which was making its finals debut after losing in the semifinals each of the past two seasons, took a 30-25 lead on a Spinelli 3-pointer with 3:04 left in the third quarter. That’s when Cleaver, who had just nine points at the time, began to take over. Cleaver scored 10 of Union’s next 13 points, the final two coming on a driving layup with 5:09 remaining in the fourth quarter that gave the Scotties a 38-36 advantage, their first lead since the opening quarter. With the score tied, 40-40, Spinelli’s layup with 1:28 left gave the Spartans a brief lead before Cleaver scored on a put-back with 1:08 left that sent the game into overtime.
And while Union (19-5) had to earn every bit of this win, that’s not to say the Scotties didn’t take advantage of some freebies. All of Union’s points in overtime came from the free-throw line, as it went 8 of 10. That included a 4-of-4 performance from Cleaver. St. Joseph went 0 for 5 from the field in overtime and scored its only point of the extra period on a Spinelli free throw with 7.8 seconds left.
“That’s their calling card. They play tremendous defense,” Dutelle said. “We said all week, if we wanted to win, it would probably need to be like a 42-38 kind of game. And that’s the pace where it was. We were patient and I think we played the exact kind of game we needed. We just couldn’t hit shots when we needed to.”
Union won despite giving up its most points since its most recent loss, 45-43, Dec. 29 to Class 4A finalist Blackhawk. Since then, the Scotties have won 14 in a row. They allow only 30.9 points a game on the season and limited their first two playoff opponents to 16 and 13 points. St. Joseph, which averages a Class 1A-best 61.5 points per game, was 15 of 48 from the field (31%) and was limited to its lowest point total since their third game of the season.
Cleaver finished 9 of 16 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line while adding 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Nogay made a second-half adjustment in which he moved Cleaver to the point in hopes of creating some mismatches, and it worked.
“I thought at halftime to bring Kelly out and let her get some penetration, and if she could get to the hole, then we would go ahead with that. And if not, then we’d tell our shooters to spot up and be ready to shoot the ball,” Nogay said.
Kylie Fruehstorfer (11 points) also scored in double-figures for Union, while Mia Preuhs added 14 rebounds. The Scotties were 15 of 44 from the field (34%).
“We knew we were in for a fight,” Nogay said. “They’re well-deserving to be in this game. I thought we battled hard and competed. Things weren’t going our way in the first half, but we were still competing and still battling. We calmed ourselves down at halftime and we were able to give ourselves a chance to win it.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.