One team is looking to reach the PIAA final for the first time, while the other is trying to do it for the fourth year in a row.
Throw in the fact that it’s a rematch of a thrilling WPIAL championship game, and Saturday’s showdown between South Allegheny and Aliquippa will be the biggest game in town.
A trip to Hershey will be on the line when South Allegheny (26-3) takes on Aliquippa (23-5) in a PIAA Class 3A semifinal at noon at Canon-McMillan. South Allegheny’s only previous trip to the semifinals came in 2022 when the Gladiators were tripped up by Aliquippa, 57-55. Aliquippa, last year’s PIAA Class 2A champion, can become the first WPIAL team since Midland (1973-76) to advance to the PIAA final four years in a row.
The last time we saw these teams on the same court, South Allegheny edged Aliquippa, 37-35, to earn its first WPIAL championship. Aliquippa led for most of the game before South Allegheny rallied late. The Gladiators trailed, 35-31, when Drew Cook was fouled shooting a 3-pointer. He made all three free throws to pull his team within one with 34 seconds remaining. On the very next play, Josh Jackowski hijacked an Aliquippa pass and scored on a layup to give the Gladiators a 36-35 lead just five seconds later. Aliquippa would have two more possessions — sandwiched around a South Allegheny free throw — but Josh Pratt misfired on a jump shot on the first and the Quips failed to get a shot off on the second as time expired.
“We just didn’t play our game,” Aliquippa coach Nick Lackovich said. “We were a totally different team out there. And afterwards, I think everybody kind of acknowledged that we weren’t on top of things, and we still should have won the game. Two bonehead plays in the last 30 seconds cost us the game. We just set out to fix some things that went wrong.”
Little has gone wrong for Aliquippa in the PIAA playoffs, with the Quips winning their first three games by 33, 27 and 39 points. Aliquippa’s 73-34 win against District 6 champ Forest Hills in the quarterfinals was the school’s 100th win all time in the PIAA playoffs, by far the most of any WPIAL team. In contrast, South Allegheny has won seven.
South Allegheny has been tested a bit more in the PIAA tournament. Following a blowout win in the first round, the Gladiators beat Bishop Guilfoyle, 55-47, and Camp Hill Trinity, 76-62. The latest win saw the Gladiators jump to a huge lead after connecting on seven 3-pointers and scoring 29 points during a hot-shooting first quarter. They then held on to reach the semifinals for the second time in four years.
“It’s huge,” South Allegheny coach Tony DiCenzo said. “These kids have put in so much work. They’re the reason why we’re going. We’ve been battle tested. We’ve played a really difficult schedule to prepare us for moments like this. We know who our [semifinal] opponent is. They played earlier, so we’re really excited to have a week to prepare for that game. Hopefully we can score the ball a little bit better than the last time, but win by one is the goal, and we’re looking forward to that matchup.”
Lackovich said his Quips are looking forward to playing South Allegheny again.
“Yeah, but not for the reasons that you would think,” Lackovich said. “There’s not a revenge factor. It’s a team that we’ve already seen. We’ve played them. We know what they’re all about. Familiarity. I’d much rather be playing them than some team we know nothing about.”
Once again, the backcourts will take center stage. South Allegheny features Cook and Cameron Epps, and Aliquippa counters with Pratt and Qa’lil Goode. In the first matchup, Pratt scored 11 points and Cook 10, while Pratt scored a game-high 18 and Goode added 9. Neither team shot the ball well, particularly from the perimeter where they went a combined 3 of 25.
The winner will advance to the PIAA final to take on the West Catholic-Holy Cross winner March 29 at the Giant Center in Hershey. Aliquippa defeated Holy Cross in last year’s Class 2A final.
“We know they’re hungry for us because we beat them in the championship, but we’re still hungry, too,” Cook said. “We want the big goal. We want the state title.”
Class 6A
Upper St. Clair is riding high after Tyler Robbins’ dunk with 1.2 seconds remaining in overtime gave the Panthers a thrilling 51-49 win against McDowell in the quarterfinals. Following their most dramatic game of the season, the Panthers will likely need to play their best game of the campaign in order to reach the final for the first time.
Upper St. Clair (26-2), the WPIAL champion, will square off against Roman Catholic (24-5) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Chambersburg. Roman Catholic is a power from the Philadelphia Catholic League that was the runner-up in the league this season. The Cahillites have won four PIAA titles since 2015, the latest coming in 2022.
Winners of eight in a row, Upper St. Clair is making its second trip to the semifinals. The Panthers lost to Reading in this round in their only other appearance in 2021. Senior guard Nico Gidas made five 3s and scored 22 points in the quarterfinal win, with the 6-10 Robbins tacking on 14 points. Robbins, a senior center and Miami (Ohio) recruit, has been a double-double machine who also greatly impacts games with his defense. Speaking of defense, few teams play it as well as the Panthers, who surrender only 39.1 points per game and have limited all of their postseason opponents to below 50 points.
How good is Roman Catholic? Well, the Cahillites thumped defending champion Central York, 96-46, in the second round. Upper St. Clair edged that Central York squad, 53-51, back in December. Senior guard Shareef Jackson is a Lafayette recruit who scored 17 points in a 52-42 quarterfinal win against Coatesville. Jackson and sophomore guard Tyler Sutton were named first-team all-Philadelphia Catholic League. Sutton is ranked by Rivals as one of the top 25 sophomores in the country. His offers include Villanova, St. John’s and West Virginia. Jackson’s brother, Sammy, is a 6-7 junior forward who scored 30 points against Central York. The Jacksons’ father, Marc, was a star player at Roman Catholic who later was the Atlantic 10 player of the year at Temple in 1997 before going on to play in the NBA.
Class 5A
Chartiers Valley’s path to Hershey is now crystal clear. The Colts must travel to Clearfield and defeat a school located just 3 miles away from Giant Center.
WPIAL champion Chartiers Valley (26-3) will face District 3 winner Hershey (24-3) at 6 p.m Friday at Clearfield. Chartiers Valley is in the semifinals for the third time and the first since the T.J. McConnell-led Colts fell to Neumann-Goretti in the 2010 Class 3A final.
This is uncharted territory for Hershey, which earlier this month won its first district title in 51 years. Prior to this season, the Trojans had never advanced past the second round of the PIAA tournament. But after topping Penn-Trafford, 52-43, in the first round, Hershey moved on to the quarterfinals following the double forfeit that saw Uniontown and Meadville both eliminated from the tournament due to the fight that took place at their second-round game. The Trojans are led by Cameron Sweeney, a 6-2 junior guard averaging 20 points a game. Sweeney scored 22 versus Penn-Trafford and had 25 in a 57-46 quarterfinal win against West York.
A year after finishing 11-12, Chartiers Valley has put together a tremendous bounceback season that saw the Colts win their first WPIAL title in a decade and seventh overall. The Colts have ripped off 11 wins in a row, the latest being a 58-38 win against District 6 champ Johnstown in the quarterfinals. Senior guard Jayden Davis scored 19 points and is averaging 23 points per game. While the Colts can score with the best of them, defense has been the team’s calling card in these playoffs with the Colts surrendering 29, 38 and 38 in their three PIAA games.
Class 4A
Red-hot North Catholic (22-6) will try to reach its first final since 2009 when the Trojans take on District 3 champion Berks Catholic (23-4) at 6:30 p.m. Friday at James Buchanan High School in Mercersburg.
North Catholic has won 13 of its last 14 games, the only loss coming against Belle Vernon in the WPIAL championship. The Trojans rallied from a double-digit second-half deficit to defeat District 10 champion Cathedral Prep, 78-75, in overtime in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Berks Catholic advanced to its first-ever semifinal following a 67-58 quarterfinal win against a Sharon team that had previously eliminated both Avonworth and Belle Vernon.
North Catholic has pumped in 78 points per game in the PIAA playoffs. The Trojans knocked down 16 3-pointers and scored 84 points against Beaver in the second round. They have been led by junior guards Jude Rottmann and Jason Fredericks. Rottmann scored 25 against Beaver and 28 versus Cathedral Prep, while Fredericks had 25 in a first-round win against Hickory and 24 against Beaver.
Berks Catholic, located in Reading, is led by Kingston McKoy, a 6-3 junior point guard averaging more than 20 points per game. McCoy scored a team-high 23 points and went over 1,000 points in his career while leading the Saints past Sharon. McCoy went for 30 points against Simon Gratz in the first round. Senior guard Zach Suski tallied 16 points against Scranton Prep in the second round and tacked on 13 against Sharon.
Class 2A
As the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the WPIAL playoffs, it appeared as if Greensburg Central Catholic and Sewickley Academy could be on a collision course to meet in the final. But that never materialized after Greensburg C.C. was upset in the quarterfinals and Sewickley Academy in the semifinals.
A few weeks later, though, the two will meet in the PIAA semifinals, as Greensburg C.C. (26-3) takes on Sewickley Academy (23-5) at noon Saturday at Peters Township. Greensburg Central Catholic is shooting for its first trip to the final since 2011, and Sewickley Academy its first since 2017.
Both teams have been excellent defensively in the state tournament. Sewickley Academy surrendered 36, 35 and 35 points in its first three games, while Greensburg C.C. gave up 43, 52 and 35. On the season, Greensburg C.C. has allowed 43.1 points per game and Sewickley Academy 37.6.
Greensburg C.C. defeated archrival and WPIAL champion Jeannette, 46-35, in the quarterfinals. Samir Crosby scored 13 points and A.J. Tarpley had 12 for the Centurions, who went 20 of 31 from the free-throw line. Sewickley Academy limited Our Lady of the Sacred Heart to 16 second-half points on its way to a 42-35 quarterfinal win. Nolan Donnelly led the Panthers with 14 points and Mamadou Kane added 13.
Class 1A
A pair of teams seeking a first-ever trip to the final will square off when WPIAL champion Neighborhood Academy (27-1) takes on District 9 champion Otto-Eldred (28-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at Hagerty Family Events Center in Erie.
Neighborhood Academy, which won a PIAA game for the first time just a season ago, rolled into the semifinals following three lopsided wins. Senior point guard and Yale recruit Courtney Wallace continues to be the star of the show, but the Bulldogs showed off their depth in a 64-44 quarterfinal win against La Academia Charter. Three players scored in double figures for the Bulldogs, with Wallace accounting for 22 points, and Kedron Gilmore and Syncer Nicholson 10 apiece, while Shamar Simpson and Junior Onwubiko had 9 each.
“I’ve got a lot of pieces around me. It’s not just a one-man team,” said Wallace, who averages a triple-double on the season. “They rally behind me, but I rally behind them when I’m going through a dry spell, when my shot’s not falling. When I need help on defense, they’re on the gap. Just having a lot of basketball players around me is nice.”
After winning its first District 9 title, Otto-Eldred will try to eliminate a WPIAL team for the fourth time in these playoffs following wins against Nazareth Prep (65-39), Serra Catholic (64-54) and Aquinas Academy (75-68). The Terrors are led by senior guards Landon Francis and Manning Splain. Francis scored 21 against Nazareth Prep, 23 against Serra and 26 against Aquinas Academy. In their only previous trip to Final Four, the Terrors lost to Aliquippa, 56-28, in the Class 2A semifinals two seasons ago.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.