All-time WPIAL girls basketball championship games No. 7: 2011 Shaler stuns Mt. Lebanon

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 | 6:21 PM

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The TribLive High School Sports Network will be counting down the Top 10 boys and girls WPIAL basketball championship games leading up to the 2018 title games March 1-3 at the Petersen Events Center.

TRIBHSSN is the exclusive audio and video home for all 12 WPIAL championship games, which will be broadcasted and video streamed live at TribHSSN.triblive.com.

Here is the fourth installment of a 10-part series ranking the top WPIAL girls basketball championship games in district history.

No. 7: 2011 — WPIAL Class 4A finals: Shaler 41, Mt. Lebanon 35

The 2011 WPIAL girls basketball title game was not a Mona Lisa by any means, but seven years later, it is still a championship game that is hard to describe and left many stunned.

Mt. Lebanon was the two-time defending WPIAL champion, the top seed and a favorite to three-peat after winning another Section 4-4A title. Shaler also claimed a section plaque after winning Section 3 and earned the No. 2 seed. The Titans cruised to first-round and quarterfinal wins by a combined 41 points before squeaking past Bethel Park, 47-45, in the semifinals.

The Blue Devils crushed Pine-Richland, Gateway and Oakland Catholic by a combined score of 193-117 with nobody coming within 21 points of dethroning the champs in the district playoffs.

Shaler's hopes of an upset did not look good through the first two quarters. The Titans scored only four points in the opening quarter and trailed the Blue Devils, 18-9, at halftime. But after trying to play up-tempo with no success in the first two quarters, Shaler slowed things down and hammered the ball inside with great success, scoring 21 points in the third quarter to take a 30-25 lead into the fourth.

Notre Dame recruit Madison Cable connected on a conventional three-point play three minutes into the fourth quarter that capped a 7-2 run and tied the game at 32-32. That was the last field goal the Blue Devils made. Despite losing three starters, including leading scorer Hilary Sauer who had 11 points, in the final five minutes, the Titans sealed the stunning win by outscoring the Blue Devils, 9-3, the rest of the way.

The two teams met again in the PIAA quarterfinals two weeks later and the outcome was much different, thus adding to the intrigue of the title game outcome. Mt. Lebanon crushed Shaler, 65-39, before going on to pick up two more wins and earning a state title.

The district championship was the first for Shaler girls hoops in 31 years and was the Titans' only Quad-A title. The loss was a hiccup for Mt. Lebanon, which bounced back to win a third district crown in four years in 2012.

Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Mt. lebanon, Shaler