George Guido: Apollo-Ridge, Riverview girls basketball buck odds to reach WPIAL playoffs

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, February 14, 2018 | 11:39 PM

The 106th WPIAL basketball playoff tournament is set to begin Friday with the playoff brackets distributed Tuesday night at Green Tree Crowne Plaza.

Two local schools that weren't expected to be part of those brackets extended their Alle-Kiski Valley lead for playoff appearances.

Apollo-Ridge and Riverview are in the Class 3A and 2A fields, respectively. Each school is atop the local leaderboard with 27 trips to the WPIAL playoffs.

Apollo-Ridge has only one senior — Megan Ost — but blossoming underclassmen paved the way for coach Jim Callipare's Vikings.

A season sweep over perennial contender Seton LaSalle gave Apollo-Ridge a huge boost.

Riverview had to overcome the loss of a top-caliber senior, Ariel Rafferty, who didn't come out for the team.

But Riverview came together, and a 47-45 nailbiter against Northgate and a sweep of Sto-Rox elevated the Raiders, who just had one senior after Rafferty's departure.

“After the way things started, I told my coaches it would be a significant accomplishment if we got to the playoffs,” coach Keith Stitt said. “Credit to the players, they did it and we'll go from here.”

Riverview will play Serra Catholic at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Northgate in Bellevue.

Apollo-Ridge has to wait until Wednesday to get its postseason rolling. The Vikings will play Charleroi at 6:30 p.m. at Peters Township.

One local record that looks safe for a long time is Ford City's streak of 20 straight girls playoff appearances, broken only by the school's closing after the 2014-15 season.

Deer Lakes is the current leader with four consecutive playoff trips.

On the boys side, the Ford City and St. Joseph streaks of 13 consecutive playoff appearances also will be uncontested for a while.

Highlands has the best current local streak with four playoff trips in a row.

Mikayla watch

Leechburg's Mikayla Lovelace is approaching 2,000 points. The Blue Devils senior has 1,969 following Monday's 16-point performance against Winchester Thurston.

Only two other local girls basketball players have broken the 2,000-career point barrier.

Ford City's Kelly Morda, who was the first in 1998, scored 2,022 points.

The all-time leader is Lizzie Suwala, a 2005 Ford City grad, who has 2,266 points.

Leechburg, in the playoffs three consecutive years for the first time in school history, will play Frazier at 6:30 p.m. Friday at West Allegheny.

Comings and goings

Several schools with great basketball histories are not part of the 2018 WPIAL postseason.

The Chartiers Valley boys' streak of 24 consecutive playoff appearances came to an end. Likewise, Greensburg Central Catholic's boys had their 17-year streak halted.

Monessen's record streak of 37 playoff appearances in a row remains intact. That streak was in jeopardy momentarily when the WPIAL briefly considered tossing the Greyhounds and Clairton from the playoffs after last week's fracas.

On the girls side, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic's incredible streak of playoff trips has hit 43. The Trojanettes have made the playoffs each season since joining the WPIAL in 1976.

Avonworth has a tremendous streak of 26 years still going strong.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Leechburg, Riverview, Springdale, Valley