HERSHEY, Pa. — Hoodies up and with the boombox it brought all the way from Beaver County pumping out music during the pregame shootaround, Aliquippa was an inspired bunch Friday as it hoped to wipe away the heartache of losing consecutive PIAA championship games.
The Quips finally got over the championship hump, with the irony of it being that the kid whose memorable performance highlighted the win didn’t even play on those past teams.
Aliquippa wasn’t joshing around Friday, as standout sophomore Josh Pratt scored a game-high 36 points and the Quips played their usual lockdown defense to run to a 74-52 win against District 2 champion Holy Cross in the PIAA Class 2A championship at Giant Center.
It was the sixth PIAA title all time for Aliquippa (26-5) and its first since the 2016 team went unbeaten. And it also gave the school a historic PIAA championship double, as Aliquippa became just the fifth school to win PIAA basketball and football championships in the same school year. Jeannette (2007-08), then led by Terrelle Pryor, was the only other WPIAL school to do it.
“It really doesn’t get any better than this, especially after the last two years of coming up short. To finally get it my last year is great,” said Aliquippa senior Cameron Lindsey, one of the team’s many two-sport standouts who closed his career with 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Against Holy Cross (24-4), it was a Quip who doesn’t play football that made the most giant impact at the Giant Center. Pratt, a 6-foot-1 guard, was a freshman on Lincoln Park’s state championship team a season ago, but played strictly on the junior varsity team and didn’t see any varsity minutes. But at Aliquippa, his role was much more pronounced this season, and he sure was locked in Friday.
“I used it as motivation,” said Pratt, who made seven 3-pointers and scored 30 points in the WPIAL championship. “Last year I didn’t get in, so I knew I would be back, and I wanted to impact the game and help the team win.”
And by doing so, Pratt looked like one of his former teammates. A night after Brandin Cummings went off for 37 points to lead Lincoln Park to its second consecutive Class 4A title, Pratt poured in 36 and did it on 14-of-19 shooting, including 3 of 4 from behind the arc. Cummings had gone 14 of 18 from the field to arrive at his 37.
“He was phenomenal, but he’s been doing stuff like that all year,” Aliquippa coach Nick Lackovich said of Pratt, who averaged 19 points a game on the season. “Josh gives us that consistent scorer night in and night out we know we can depend on.”
Pratt scored regularly in transition and on drives to the basket, using nifty finishes to rack up many of his points. Nine of his points came in the first quarter, and he tallied 20 in the first half as Aliquippa ran to a 41-21 lead. When that total rose to 27 points by the end of the third quarter, the only question was would he reach Cummings’ total from the night before.
“I definitely was aware of it, but I didn’t care about passing him,” Pratt said with a laugh. “I just wanted to win.”
But Pratt wasn’t the only Aliquippa player to shoot the ball well. The Quips were 19 of 30 from the field in the first half (63%) and shot 31 of 56 for the game (55%). They used a 17-0 run that stretched from late in the first quarter to midway through the second quarter to open up a 28-9 lead. Holy Cross went more than six minutes without a point and trailed, 41-21, at the half.
Aliquippa came within two points of invoking the mercy rule when Pratt knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:30 remaining in the game, but Holy Cross instead went on an 11-0 run to pull within 66-49 with 4:23 left to play. They then drew within 16 points before the Quips pulled away.
Of course, Aliquippa’s outstanding man-to-man defense played a huge part in the win, too. Aliquippa, which boasted the top scoring defense in the WPIAL this season, held Holy Cross to 20-of-47 shooting (42%) and used its pressure and athleticism to force 21 turnovers.
Holy Cross scored 78 points in beating Philadelphia power Constitution in the semifinals, but against Aliquippa, the Crusaders were held to their second-fewest points of the season.
“We thought it was a similar opponent, but their length, their speed and their strength is something I truly thought was a major difference,” Holy Cross coach Al Callejas said. “And when they went on runs, they were big runs. We didn’t manage the runs well. Give them credit. They’re championship kids in multiple sports and have been there three years in a row. They deserve it, and I give them all the credit in the world.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.