A year ago, Shamar Simpson and Courtney Wallace sat in the media room at Petersen Events Center answering questions following the team’s WPIAL championship debut.
The Bulldogs lost to Imani Christian in that game, but Wallace and Simpson vowed then that they would return to the final this season.
“Last year we said that we would be back and we made a promise on that,” Simpson said, “and we made sure we did it with emphasis, too.”
The Bulldogs decided to make the most of a second chance, and this time spoke to the media not as runners-up but as WPIAL champions.
Neighborhood Academy, the No. 1 seed, claimed its first WPIAL championship following a 69-46 win against No. 2 Serra Catholic in the Class 1A final.
In what is just Neighborhood Academy’s fifth season competing in the WPIAL — it previously played in the Southwestern Christian Athletic Conference — the school located in Stanton Heights reached heights it never had before.
“It means a lot to all of us, the whole team, the whole school. All the families and the communities. It just means a lot to get the win this time,” Wallace said.
In what has been a rarity this season, Wallace, a fabulous senior point guard, didn’t produce a triple-double like he had 17 times before. Instead, he finished with just a double-double, collecting game highs of 21 points and 18 rebounds. But the slick-passing Yale recruit was limited to 5 assists.
“I don’t know, other guys were making shots and making their own plays, so I didn’t have to pass it so much,” Wallace said with a smile.
Two other Neighborhood Academy seniors scored in double-figures, with Simpson adding 14 points and Syncer Nicholson 10.
It was the 14th win in a row for Neighborhood Academy (24-1), which beat section-rival Serra (21-4) for the third time after thumping the Eagles by 29 and 26 points in the regular season. Serra was playing in the final for the first time since 2019 and fell short of winning its first title since 2008.
Serra acclimated itself well early, and trailed just 11-10 after one quarter. But Neighborhood Academy turned up its play and tempo in a dominant second quarter that saw the Bulldogs close the half on an 11-0 run to give them a 28-14 lead.
“I just told them, ‘Let’s calm down. Relax. Get a good shot. Everything is going to work out,’” Neighborhood Academy coach Jordan Marks said. “And in the second quarter I think we just started getting back to what we always preach, which is to penetrate to make a play for someone else. And that’s what they started doing.”
That strong play carried into the second half as Neighborhood Academy saw its lead grow to as many as 22 points in the third quarter. The Bulldogs took their largest lead, 58-30, when Wallace followed his own miss with a layup with 4:51 left in the game.
Neighborhood Academy thrived off of second- and third-chance opportunities. The Bulldogs held a 47-29 rebounding edge. Of their 18 offensive rebounds, Wallace had 10 of them.
“There was one point where [Wallace] was getting his own shot three times in a row, and that just can’t happen to beat a good team,” Serra coach A.J. Corso said.
Serra threw everything it could defensively trying to slow down a Neighborhood Academy squad that came in averaging 71 points per game. That included 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones and a box-and-1. Unfortunately for the Eagles, nothing seemed to work. While it wasn’t the Bulldogs’ finest offensive showing, they still shot 42% from the field (29 of 69) and went 9 of 26 from 3-point range. Serra shot 39% (18 of 46) and 3 of 18 from behind the arc after missing its first 12 shots from deep.
“Our shots just didn’t fall,” Corso said. “It would have been much closer of a game. We missed a few open 3s. Missed some free throws throughout the game. Down 14 at half, and it starts to set in that, ‘Oh, man, here we go again. The shots aren’t falling just like they weren’t last time.’ And it’s hard to climb out of that since they’re such a good team.”
Owen Dumbroski, Serra’s all-time leading scorer, finished with 14 points, as did sophomore teammate Mark Johnson. Another sophomore, Brayden Graham, tacked on 11 points.
Along with a new shiny gold medal, Wallace was also awarded bragging rights. His father, Courtney, led Perry to the City League final in 1997 before going on to star at Duquesne University, but the older Wallace never won a title in high school.
Said young Courtney, “When I averaged a triple-double in the regular season, he said he already did that. So I was like, ‘You never won a WPIAL championship or a City League championship,’ and now I’ve got the one.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.