Pay a visit to the Aliquippa High School gymnasium, and you will see many championship banners hanging from the ceiling, the majority of them honoring the school’s football and boys basketball teams that have combined to win 34 WPIAL and 11 PIAA titles.
There was actually a time when the Quips were a girls basketball power, but it had been more than three decades since they won four straight WPIAL titles and back-to-back PIAA titles.
The Quips have been busy trying to return to the top the past few seasons, and on Saturday they did just that, winning the program’s first WPIAL title since 1990.
Aliquippa led from start to finish and, despite some anxious moments late, held on for a 54-51 win against Neshannock in the WPIAL Class 2A championship at Petersen Events Center.
“We always hear about the boys’ success. The football team, the boys team doing this and that. But it definitely feels good to get the girls’ name out there,” said senior point guard Carla Brown, who scored 13 points.
It was the fifth WPIAL title for Aliquippa (21-4), the No. 2 seed which won the rubber match with No. 1 Neshannock (23-3). The Lancers, who were shooting for their fourth title in seven years, had thumped the Quips, 69-39, in the most recent meeting on Jan. 27.
“Thirty-five years is a long time when you think about it,” said Aliquippa fifth-year coach Dwight Lindsey. “We’ve got girls whose parents aren’t 35 years old, so when you put it into that perspective, it’s a crazy thing, a humbling thing, but I’m glad I was the guy to right the ship and get things moving in the right direction for our community.”
Two other Aliquippa seniors, Aunesty Johnson and Yaree Carter, both had double-doubles, with Johnson finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Carter 10 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Denim Odom added 14 points.
Aliquippa led by as many as 15 points and took a 25-12 advantage into the half before Neshannock stormed back in the second half. Neshannock outscored Aliquippa, 23-15, in the third quarter and pulled within two points at 46-44 courtesy of Payton Newman’s basket with 5:58 left in the fourth. Newman’s bucket a bit later trimmed the Aliquippa lead to 54-51 with 44 seconds left. Teammate Jaidon Nogay then stole a pass before missing a driving layup with 19 seconds left.
It turned out to be Neshannock’s final offensive possession, though. The Lancers had only one foul in the quarter, which meant Aliquippa was still four fouls away from being in the bonus. Neshannock quickly fouled Aliquippa twice, but when the Quips got the ball in with 16 seconds left, Neshannock didn’t commit a fourth foul until there were three seconds remaining. Following another inbounds play, Brown threw the ball high in the air and time ran out.
Neshannock coach Luann Grybowski, who has 774 career wins and was trying to win a seventh WPIAL title, said she was proud of her team’s effort and applauded Aliquippa for its play, but was also frustrated with the officiating, particularly in the final minutes of the game and in the first half when her team was tagged with nine fouls and Aliquippa just one.
“Listen, I wouldn’t take any other team but these kids,” Grybowski said. “They are warriors. They fight to the end. We could have folded and we didn’t. They continued to play hard. We got it to within two possessions and gave up a couple of layups. But again, I thought there were fouls that were not called. And when the game gets down to one or two possessions, those fouls are important.”
Newman, a talented junior forward, had a big game for Neshannock, finishing with 20 points and 14 rebounds, with 16 of those points and 9 of those rebounds coming in the second half. Nogay chipped in 12 points and Nina Medure 11.
“I’ll tell you what, that Newman girl over there, is she tough?,” Lindsey said.
Aliquippa dominated in the first half, limiting Neshannock to 5-of-26 shooting, forcing 12 turnovers, and holding a 25-14 rebounding edge.
“We played them twice, so we knew what they were going to do,” Grybowski said. “They’re very athletic, they rebound the heck out of the ball and they’re quicker than we are. So we had to do certain things and we didn’t. They took us out of everything offensively that we ran in the first half.”
Neshannock sure went on to make things interesting in the second half. But despite nearly blowing what had been a 15-point lead, Aliquippa survived, and because of that will soon add another girls championship banner to the ceiling in their gymnasium.
Said Brown, “[Lindsey] is always talking about it, like, ‘Look at the boys and then look at ours.’ We had to go get it. It was our last year.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.