If history is any indication, at least one local girls basketball team will be heading home from Hershey at the end of the month with a PIAA championship trophy in tow and memories to last a lifetime.
The only question is, who will it be?
Every year since the PIAA shifted from four to six classifications in 2016, at least one WPIAL girls team has claimed a state title, with Blackhawk capturing last year’s PIAA Class 4A crown after a runner-up finish in the state finals the previous year. The Cougars are among a handful of high-powered teams from the WPIAL that have what it takes to win it all — and this time around, there’s a City League team crashing the party, too.
For the first time since 2013 and only the second time in school history, Allderdice qualified for the state playoffs after defeating District 10 champion Erie on Saturday in the District 8-10 Regional Championship, 64-48. The win marked the 16th consecutive victory for the back-to-back City League champion Dragons, who now enter uncharted waters under coach Ellen Guillard.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Guillard, who has steered Allderdice to five City League titles in her 10-year stint as head coach. “It’s very interesting, because we’ve never been here before. … I try to stay in the present moment and see what’s to come. It’s just one step at a time. It’s super exciting.”
Making their PIAA tournament debut even more memorable, the scorching-hot Dragons (20-5) will start things off with a home game at 7 p.m. Friday, when they host Canon-McMillan in a PIAA Class 6A first-round clash. The Big Macs (15-9) finished in third place in the WPIAL Class 6A tournament after a 36-34 win against Mt. Lebanon on Thursday.
“I’m not entirely sure how packed it’s going to be,” Guillard said. “I know all the girls are trying to make a push on social media getting people there. I know Canon-Mac travels very well. They will have a lot of supporters there. It’s hard to tell.
“Right now, if we’re playing in front of two people, I’ll be excited.”
Leading the way for Allderdice is junior guard Bailey White, a 5-4 sharpshooter who ranks among the leading scorers in the area with an average of 22.5 points per game. Sophomore forward Peyton Lynch averages nearly a double-double at 14.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, and sophomore guard Rhyan Sledge (12.8 points, 4 assists per game) has emerged as another reliable scoring threat on the perimeter for the Dragons.
Only time will tell if it will be enough to make a deep run in the state playoffs, but one way or another, history will be made at Allderdice on Friday night.
“We kind of feel like even though we’re at home, we’re still the underdog in a lot of ways,” Guillard said. “Win or lose, this has been a great season for us. Hopefully we earned a little bit more respect on our names from other WPIAL teams.”
Can Blackhawk go back-to-back?
Fresh off a controversial 52-50 loss against Oakland Catholic in Saturday’s WPIAL Class 4A title game, there is nothing Blackhawk coach Greg Huston and his players want more than to get back on the court and begin the defense of their state title.
The Cougars (23-3) will get the chance to do just that when they host District 10 third-place finisher Franklin at 1 p.m. Saturday. And if anybody knows how to turn things around and right the ship after a stinging championship defeat, it’s Blackhawk.
“Nobody in this group is going to quit. Nobody is going to hang their head,” Huston said. “Last year, we took a day off, then came back on Monday and watched some film and said, ‘Hey, let’s go win the state.’
“We did that last year, and that will certainly be the goal again this year.”
Two years ago, the Cougars fell to North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 4A title game, then rebounded with four consecutive wins to reach the state title game before falling to Lansdale Catholic, 53-45. Last year, of course, Blackhawk again lost to the Trojanettes in the WPIAL championship game — this time in overtime — before bouncing back with five consecutive wins in the state tournament, capped off by a 56-44 triumph against Scranton Prep in the PIAA Class 4A final for its fifth state title.
“These girls have the experience. They’ve done it before,” Huston said. “Even the year before I got here, it was a similar situation — they lost in the WPIAL final, then they came back and made it to the state [final]. They didn’t win that one, but they know how it goes. They know what it takes.
“This team is as good as anybody out there, and if anybody is counting us out, that’s probably a mistake.”
Union continues pursuit of perfection
While Blackhawk was the lone PIAA girls champion from the WPIAL last season, Union was the team that held that distinction the previous year, when the Scotties won the 2023 WPIAL and PIAA Class 1A titles to begin their current dynasty under coach Rob Nogay.
After capturing its second consecutive WPIAL title last season, Union fell to eventual state champion Bishop Guilfoyle in the PIAA quarterfinals. This year, with a WPIAL championship three-peat already secured, the undefeated Scotties (25-0) are on a mission to get back to Hershey and punctuate a potential perfect season with their second state title.
“It’s one game at a time,” Nogay said after a 51-40 WPIAL championship win against Clairton on Friday. “It’s a bittersweet moment for me. I loved the opportunity to get a third [WPIAL] championship, but knowing these [seniors] are leaving, it’s going to be a little bit rough.
“We’ve got one more home game, though, so that’s a plus.”
For multisport athletes like Olivia Benedict, Addie Nogay and Mia Preuhs, the start of softball season is just around the corner. And just like the basketball court, Union is a perennial championship contender on the diamond as well, with the Scotties going for their third WPIAL title in a four-year span this spring.
Some might wonder how they can possibly get ready in time to transition from one sport to the next, but this is far from their first rodeo — and Union’s decorated two-sport standouts know how it’s done better than anyone.
“It does cut into our softball a little bit. But just the first nonmandatory practices, really,” said Preuhs, the Scotties’ star pitcher. “We don’t really have any games until we come back. So I feel like having a long basketball season doesn’t really mess with our softball season that much.”
Kennedy Catholic standing in way in Class 2A
If you look up the term “straight shooter,” there’s a good chance you might find a picture of Neshannock coach Luann Grybowski along with it.
Never one to mince words, Grybowski gave an honest, unbiased assessment of her team’s chances of making a run at another state title in Class 2A following a 54-51 loss against Aliquippa in the WPIAL title game. To put it simply, there is a clear and obvious favorite coming out of the Western Region in District 10 champion Kennedy Catholic (18-5) — and Grybowski knows it.
“Listen — I don’t know if anybody in District 7 or anywhere else is good enough to beat Kennedy [Catholic],” Grybowski said. “I’ll say that flat out. They have the complete package. They have a post player [Layke Fields] who is fantastic. They have guards who can shoot it, who can attack the basket and can defend. So I would be sincerely surprised if they weren’t at the state final.”
Winner of back-to-back PIAA Class 2A titles, Kennedy Catholic features one of the top players in the state in Fields, a Robert Morris recruit and two-time Pennsylvania Class 2A Player of the Year. In addition to Fields, who is 26 points away from joining the exclusive 2,000-point/1,000-rebound club, Kennedy Catholic also has a handful of talented supporting players under coach Justin Magestro, who has won more than 300 games in eight years at the helm.
“I’ll come up with a gameplan if it comes time to play them,” said Grybowski, winner of 774 games in her illustrious career. “I’m not saying I won’t. I’m not saying I’ll say, ‘Nah, let’s not play it, you win.’ I won’t do that. If we get the chance, we’ll give it our best shot. We’ll prepare.
“But I haven’t seen anybody — and I’ve watched a lot of games and scouted a lot of teams — that is as good as Kennedy is this year.”
In case you were wondering, if Neshannock (23-3) defeats District 5 runner-up Everett and Kennedy Catholic gets past WPIAL sixth-place finisher Fort Cherry in the first round, the teams will meet in the second round of the PIAA Class 2A tournament on Tuesday.
Defending champions
This year’s defending champions are Cardinal O’Hara (Class 6A), Archbishop Wood (Class 5A), Blackhawk (Class 4A), Lancaster Catholic (Class 3A), Kennedy Catholic (Class 2A) and Bishop Guilfoyle (Class 1A). Kennedy Catholic has won back-to-back PIAA Class 2A titles, while Archbishop Wood has won four consecutive state titles in Class 5A and nine overall since 2010.
There is a bit of a twist, though, as Lancaster Catholic has bumped up from Class 3A to Class 4A — meaning the Cougars are one of two reigning champions in the Class 4A bracket. This year’s District 3 runner-up, Lancaster Catholic will open up the PIAA tournament with a first-round game against District 12 third-place finisher Lansdale Catholic, the team that defeated Blackhawk in the 2023 PIAA Class 4A title game.
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
