Jayden Davis likely will always remember the two times his team played Peters Township in his senior season.
In the first, he scored his 2,000th career point.
And in the second, he led his team to their first WPIAL title in a decade.
Davis pumped in a game-high 28 points to lead No. 4-seeded Chartiers Valley to a wire-to-wire 73-66 win against No. 6 Peters Township in the Class 5A championship Saturday at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.
A 5-foot-11 guard, Davis added 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals for Chartiers Valley (23-3), which claimed its eighth title and first since former coach Tim McConnell and son Matty led the Colts to the Class 4A title in 2015. Peters Township (18-8) came up a win short of claiming its first title since 2009. The Indians also lost in the final two seasons ago.
“It’s awesome, but the credit really goes to these guys,” Chartiers Valley first-year coach Corey Dotchin said. “They bought in since Day 1. They listened to everything we’ve preached. They’ve done everything at the highest level and tried to do everything the best they could to help us be successful. It couldn’t have happened to a better group, a closer group. They’re close on the court, but they’re even closer off the court, and I really think that’s why it comes full circle for us.”
While it was defense that fueled Chartiers Valley to wins in its first three playoff games — including an upset of No. 1 Montour in the semifinals — it was the Colts’ high-powered offense Saturday that stole the show. The Colts shot a scorching 61% from the field (27 of 44) and had four players reach double figures in scoring while committing only 11 turnovers.
“We always want to score,” Dotchin added. “We’re one of the highest-scoring teams all season, and that’s because we have a lot of talented pieces. But I told them that we had to buy in on the defensive end, that I was never going to be worried about the offense because we can score with the best of them. But if we buckle down defensively and execute the game plan, we’d put ourselves in an opportunity to be successful.”
As he usually is, Davis was the ringleader of the offensive charge. After pumping in 38 points, including the 2,000th of his career, when Chartiers Valley won at Peters Township, 72-57, in a non-section game exactly one month earlier, Davis put forth a terrific all-around performance Saturday that saw him finish an ultra-efficient 11 of 17 from the field and 6 of 7 from the free-throw line. Davis has been a big-point producer throughout his career, but it wasn’t until this season that he started to create more for his teammates while thriving more within the offense.
“I just had to learn the game. And keeping my teammates involved, that would make it a lot easier,” said Davis, one of the top scorers in the WPIAL at 23 points per game. “Scoring 25, 28 [points per game in previous seasons], I obviously wasn’t winning that way. I didn’t get a medal playing that way, so I had to start trusting my teammates, and I think that’s what got me my medal.”
Julian Semplice chipped in with 13 points, while Jake Lewis and Julius Best tacked on 10 apiece.
What’s interesting is that Peters Township shot nearly as well as Chartiers Valley. The Indians went 60% from the field (26 of 43), including 65% in the second half (17 of 26). Free throws, though, were a different story, as the Indians finished just 7 of 22 from the line (31%).
“If you look at the course of our season, it’s been a bugaboo for us this year,” Peters Township coach Joe Urmann said.
Chartiers Valley jumped to a 9-0 lead and appeared to be in full control for much of the game, but with the way Peters Township shot the ball, the Indians found themselves within striking distance on several occasions. After trailing, 34-24, at the half, Peters Township pulled to within five points midway through the third quarter and, after falling behind by 15 points early in the fourth, the Indians got to within 66-59 with 2:09 left.
“There was no quit in these dudes,” Urmann said. “We battled to the end. It wasn’t like we were throwing in the towel when we saw that first initial beating we took.”
Ben Miller led Peters Township with 18 points off the bench. Miller’s shooting performance — 8 of 9 from the field, 1 of 7 from the free-throw line — was a microcosm of Peters Township’s game overall. Nick McCullough added 17 points, while Dylan Donovan, who averages a team-best 19 points a game, was limited to 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting.
For a school so rich in basketball tradition, the title was a long time coming. And with only two seniors on the roster and a slew of youth basketball players in the crowd cheering the team on, it’s not hard to imagine the Colts continuing to be among the area’s premier programs for years to come.
“I’m excited. I’m happy. But I’m more excited for these guys, for the community,” Dotchin said. “We had a ton of youth kids up in those stands that got to see what we’re trying to build here. The standard that we’re setting forth, and this is really program changing, culture changing. And that’s what really means the most to me, is what this is going to do in the long run for the program.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.