Semifinal spots available for Class 6A, A girls in 3 games to watch Friday

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, February 23, 2018 | 8:45 AM

Two dominant girls teams begin their postseasons Friday when North Allegheny in Class 6A and Winchester Thurston in Class A finally make their playoff debuts this season.

One win would put them in the semifinals, but teams that drew first-round byes had to sit for almost two weeks.

All games can be heard on the TribLive High School Sports Network .

Class 6A: Latrobe vs. Bethel Park at Gateway, 6:30 p.m.

No. 3 seed Bethel Park (16-5) has waited 13 days since its most recent game, a wait made long by its first-round bye. Could that long layoff affect last season’s WPIAL runner-up of any of the other top seeds who were idle?

In contrast, No. 6 Latrobe (17-6) played on Tuesday, a 44-31 first-round victory over Shaler. Laura Graytok averages 23 points for Latrobe, sixth-best in the WPIAL.

Class 6A: Mt. Lebanon vs. Norwin at Peters Township, 6:30 p.m.

These two teams also met in the first game of the regular season, a 65-58 Mt. Lebanon win at the North Allegheny tipoff tournament.

But here in the WPIAL quarterfinals, this could be the last game for one or the other. No. 4 seed Norwin (12-9) is the Section 2 champion, while No. 5 Mt. Lebanon finished third in Section 3.

They also met in the same playoff round last year and Mt. Lebanon won 47-44

Class A: Winchester Thurston vs. Cornell at North Hills, 6:30 p.m.

This is a rematch of the WPIAL Class A final from last year that Winchester Thurston won 52-41.

No. 1 seed Winchester Thurston (16-5) returns its two top players from that championship lineup, seniors Gia Thorpe (21.8 ppg) and Ayanna Townsend. No. 9 Cornell (8-15) rematches without last year’s star, then-senior Daeja Quick.

The teams also faced one another Dec. 11 and Winchester Thurston won 42-31 at Cornell.

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.