A-K Valley boys basketball notebook: Andrew Sullivan’s becomes all-time leading scorer in St. Joseph boys basketball history

By: Greg Macafee
Thursday, February 25, 2021 | 9:39 PM

Senior guard Andrew Sullivan has a been big-time player for the St. Joseph boys basketball team.

On Thursday, he solidified his legacy. With 5 minutes, 30 seconds left in the second quarter of St. Joseph’s matchup with Bethel Park, Sullivan made a trip to the line and hit two free throws in typical fashion during a 66-41 loss.

The pair of freebies gave him nine points on the night, but it also gave him 1,678 career points as he became the all-time leading scorer in St. Joseph boys basketball history.

Josh Robinson set the previous record in 2005 with 1,677 points.

“It feels great, and it’s like all my hard work paying off,” Sullivan said. “Sometimes you don’t see results over a long period of time, but I can really see everything I’ve been working towards since I was young unfolding in front of me.”

Sullivan hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter and then hit a pair of free throws and a nifty spinning layup in the lane to reach seven points. So when the buzzer went off to recognize him for his accomplishment, he was a little caught off guard.

“My mom had mentioned a couple of days ago that I was close, so when it first happened I was a little confused,” Sullivan said. “When I heard the buzzer go off, I turned around and was like, ‘Why is everyone standing around?’ and it kinda hit me.”

After scoring 11 in the first half, Sullivan finished with 18 points against Bethel Park and has 1,687 career points.

Through 17 games he’s averaging 23.3 points and has topped 30 five times the season. He scored a career-high 39 points Jan. 26 against Aquinas Academy.

The No. 8 Spartans will host No. 9 Avella in the first round of the WPIAL Class A tournament at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Return of the Lancers

Deer Lakes, which received the No. 10 seed in the WPIAL Class 4A tournament earlier this week, returned to the court after having to postpone or cancel its previous five games. It played Freeport on Thursday and was hoping to get another scrimmage or two to prepare for their first-round matchup with No. 7 Elizabeth Forward at 6 p.m. next Thursday.

Through their first 11 games, the Lancers were 8-3 and coach Terence Parham was nearing the 200th coaching win of his career. He has a 197-127 record between Shady Side Academy and Deer Lakes.

15 straight

Fox Chapel is no stranger to winning streaks. The Foxes, seeded No. 2 in Class 6A, won their first 20 games last year. This season, the Foxes are at it again.

After losing two straight games to Chartiers Valley and Penn-Trafford at the end of January, the Foxes have won 15 in a row. Their success through their recent set of games has been a result of playing team basketball.

“We’ve just been continuing to defend, and we’ve had balanced scoring,” Fox Chapel coach Zach Skrinjar said.

Through 19 games, junior guard Eli Yofan has led the team with 21.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. Junior JP Dockey has scored 11.5 points with 5.3 rebounds while leading the team with 5.7 assists per game. All five starters are currently scoring eight or more points a game.

The Foxes have allowed 52.4 points per game while scoring 66.1.

Full strength

For most of this season, Springdale, which is 12-7 overall, has been playing without one of its best players in forward Logan Dexter, who suffered an ankle injury earlier in the year.

The 6-foot-2 junior provides the Dynamos with another scoring option alongside senior guard Demitri Fritch, who’s averaging 22.9 points. The Dynamos got Dexter back earlier this week when they took on Apollo-Ridge in a nonsection matchup.

Dexter scored 13 points in a 50-42 victory and was a welcomed sight for the Dynamos after they received the No. 4 seed in the WPIAL Class 2A bracket earlier this week. They will host the winner of No. 13 Winchester Thurston and No. 20 Jefferson Morgan at 6 p.m. next Wednesday.

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Springdale