Kevin Reynolds and Dave Scarborough had no delusions as to the challenges facing their programs.
With Point Park ascending from its previous National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics designation to become an NCAA Division II athletics department, the coaches of the men’s and women’s basketball teams knew their programs would have their work cut out for them this season.
Point Park entered play for the first time in the highly competitive Mountain East Conference, which routinely produces some of the top players and national title-contending programs in Division II basketball.
“Everyone thinks you can hit a Paul Skenes fastball until you see it, right,” said Reynolds, now in his third season as coach of the Point Park men’s basketball team, alluding to the Pirates reigning National League Rookie of the Year pitcher. “Then you might have some second doubts and you know you might have to improve yourself. That’s what a transition year is about.”
Both the Point Park men’s and women’s teams wrapped up their transitional regular seasons Saturday further down in the standings than either of their coaches would have preferred.
The Pioneers will get to step to the plate once again when the MEC tournament tips off Wednesday.
“Playing NAIA — again a great level, it’s a very undervalued level, great coaches, great players — there were some games where we could have probably taken two years off from practice and we would still beat that team by 40,” said Scarborough, in his third season coaching the women’s team. “It was kind of hard to get our guys to get locked in for practice.
“Here, it makes my job easier being in this conference because every game, it doesn’t matter, you can be 1-30 or 30-1 and you can easily lose by 40 or 50,” the Fox Chapel native added. “That’s just how good it is. It’s just a testament to all the coaches and players in this conference.”
The No. 10 seed Point Park women’s team (9-18, 6-14) will open the MEC tournament with a first-round game at noon Wednesday against No. 7 West Virginia State (16-12, 10-10) at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va., while the 10th-seeded Pioneers men’s team (10-18, 4-16) will face No. 7 Frostburg State (12-16, 8-12) at 6 p.m.
Both Point Park teams are currently ineligible to compete in the NCAA Division II national tournament for three seasons because of probationary rules in accordance with their advancement from the NAIA level.
“You can watch these teams all summer like our staff did, just preparing for this, but seeing every team in person and just the physicality, size; sometimes film lies,” Scarborough said. “This conference is super good, very competitive.”
There was one Point Park women’s player who had firsthand knowledge about the MEC.
Senior guard Emma Pavelek led Beaver to its first WPIAL championship in 2021 before playing for a season at Alderson Broaddus — then a member of the MEC. She has since played three seasons at Point Park.
“I think the expectation for anyone is always to win,” Pavelek said. “You want to win at the end of the day, and that’s what we set out to do for every game. Being that I came from the MEC, I knew what this level of competition looks like. I’ve played against a lot of these girls before. I wasn’t worried for us at all. I knew that we could hang with them, especially with the team that we had. I knew that we had the potential to beat a lot of them, which we did a good amount of times this year. We beat a lot of teams that didn’t think we could beat them for sure.”
Junior guard Alexi Giles led Point Park offensively averaging 12.9 points per game while making a team-high 36% of her shots from 3-point range. Senior guard Ari Bleda also averaged 11.4 points per game, while junior forward Camille Fultz added 11.1 points and Pavelek chipped in 10.4 points per outing.
“We came in this year and nobody really knew what it was going to look like for us,” Pavelek said. “I think we turned a lot of heads and we shocked a lot of people in a lot of ways.”
Point Park will have an opportunity to again turn some heads in the MEC tournament. The Pioneers split their season series with West Virginia State, winning the first meeting between the teams, 76-65, before dropping the second meeting, 90-59, on the road Feb. 11.
“Our whole team is extremely excited,” Pavelek said. “This is what we’ve been shooting for. This is what you aim for throughout the season is to get to this point. We are going to come into practice and to film and to everything that we need to do in order to prepare for these games with intensity.
“We’re going to hold a little chip on our shoulder because we know that whatever team that we play is a team that we can beat.”
The same is true of the mindset surrounding the men’s team.
“I think there’s definitely still hope that we can still win it all,” senior Nazareth Fisher said. “I think a lot of players on our team still believe we can win it all. I think a lot of players on our team still believe that.
“I think we can still go out and just play as hard as we can,” he added, “and get a win.”
Fisher, a 6-foot-10, 215-pound center, averaged 11.5 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, while sophomore guard Kaden Warner averaged a team-high 14.9 points per game with 95 assists and 23 steals.
Warner also shot 36% from 3-point range.
While their stats may not have jumped off the page, Fisher said teammates Brenden Williams, Aiden Miller, Aidan Anderson and Nathanial Van also pitched in and showed promise for Point Park this season.
“We need the ball to bounce our way,” Reynolds said. “We just have had very few breaks this year. We moved up a few weight classes, plus we’ve had literally every break go the wrong way for us. That’s why I’ve been proud of the guys. We could have easily, easily been frustrated when things don’t go your way. We’ve had frustrations, don’t get me wrong, we’re human, but the guys worked really hard.”
Reynolds said the opening stretch of the season when Point Park ran out to an 8-4 record and 3-3 mark in the MEC proves the potential the Pioneers have to advance in their conference tournament.
“We’ve played a lot of close games,” he said. “We just haven’t won them.”
Point Park was one of the top NAIA teams in the nation last season and won its River States Conference regular season and conference tournaments. The Pioneers also advanced to the NAIA national tournament for the first time in 17 seasons.
Fisher said his team intends to use that experience, in addition to its first regular season at the Division II level, to advance in the MEC tournament this week.
“Regardless of what our record is, we worked harder than any other team in the league,” he said. “We lifted every day. We ran every day. We made sure that we understood the scouting reports. Regardless of anything, we showed that we belong here.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.