Class 4A, 2A girls open WPIAL quarterfinals in 3 games to watch Thursday

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 | 10:13 PM

With the first round in the books, the first of three days of quarterfinals action tips off in the WPIAL girls basketball postseason Thursday with Class 4A and Class 2A second-round contests.

This also will mark the 2018 playoff debuts for Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, Keystone Oaks, Blackhawk and Beaver in Class 4A, along with Vincentian Academy, Greensburg Central Catholic, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and defending champion Chartiers-Houston in Class 2A.

Class 4A quarterfinals: Keystone Oaks vs. Central Valley at West Allegheny, 8 p.m.

There was great debate when the WPIAL steering committee was putting the brackets together whether Section 3-4A champ Keystone Oaks or Central Valley, the third-place team in Section 2-4A, should get the No. 4 seed and a coveted first-round bye. Yes, Keystone Oaks has now won back-to-back section titles, but Central Valley finished right behind No. 2 seed Blackhawk and No. 3 seed Beaver in Section 2. The Golden Eagles won the debate and the Warriors had to win in the first round to earn a spot in this 4 vs. 5 quarterfinals contest.

Keystone Oaks came within one win of back-to-back undefeated section crowns, but lost in their regular-season finale to South Park, 58-53, which snapped the Golden Eagles’ 27-game section winning streak. It also ended a run of nine wins in a row this season.

Keystone Oaks is led by one of the top scorers in the classification in junior Gillian Piccolino, who is averaging more than 17 points. Keystone Oaks was a No. 4 seed a year ago and also received a first-round bye, but the Golden Eagles were not healthy heading into the postseason and lost their playoff opener 58-45 to Beaver in the quarterfinals.

Central Valley split its two regular-season games with co-champs Blackhawk and Beaver and only a 40-39 pre-holiday section loss to Ambridge kept them from making it tri-champions in Section 2-4A. The Warriors opened up the playoffs on Saturday with a 51-42 first-round victory over Deer Lakes. The Warriors led by six points after one quarter, had a nine-point lead by halftime and maintained that cushion the rest of the way. Kaelyn Underwood led CV with 12 points. A year ago, Central Valley also won in Round 1 by eliminating Mt. Pleasant before falling to eventual champion Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, 51-45, in the quarterfinals.

Class 2A quarterfinals: Chartiers-Houston vs. Leechburg at West Allegheny, 6:30 p.m.

Last year, Chartiers-Houston and Leechburg clashed in the quarterfinals in what proved to be the first step toward a district title for the then top-seeded Buccaneers. Now one year later, two of the top teams in Class 2A collide again in Round 2 in a game that features two of the top girls basketball players in the entire district.

Chartiers-Houston opens its title defense on a roll with a season-high six-game winning streak to close out a regular season that saw them go 17-5 overall and tie for the Section 1-2A championship with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The Bucs are led by the strong inside presence of Alexa Williamson. She was the leading scorer in the WPIAL this season, averaging more than 30 points. She also joined an elite group by going over the 2,000-point plateau for her career.

But Leechburg also has some superstar power in Mikayla Lovelace. She averages nearly 24 points and pumped in 37 points Friday in the Blue Devils’ 75-60 conquest of Frazier in a first-round game. Those 75 points are the third-highest total for any girls’ team in this year’s playoffs thus far and show why Leechburg was by far the highest-scoring team in Class 2A this season with an average of nearly 63 points. Like Williamson, Lovelace also has over 2,000 points scored for her career.

Class 2A quarterfinals: Greensburg Central Catholic vs. Serra Catholic at Fox Chapel, 6:30 p.m.

These are two storied programs in WPIAL girls basketball. In a 17-year span between 1991 and 2007, Greensburg Central Catholic won five WPIAL crowns while Serra Catholic captured four titles. In 2003, they both won gold as GCC beat Carlynton in the 2A finals while Serra defeated Monessen in the Class A championship game. But the golden closet has been locked for both the last 10 years.

This third battle between this year’s Section 3-2A co-champs nearly didn’t come to fruition. Serra Catholic received a major scare in the first round when after leading by two after one quarter, Riverview took control in the second quarter and led by six points at the half and again after three quarters. The Raiders led 52-50 with 4 seconds left when Gigi Mele-Madigan brought the ball up the floor and launched a half-court shot that banked in at the buzzer to lift the Eagles to a thrilling 53-52 victory. Mele-Madigan also led Serra Catholic with 14 points back in December when the Eagles beat GCC, 47-44.

Greensburg Central Catholic finished 12-10 overall, but five of its losses came against Class 6A and 5A teams. After starting section play 1-2, the Centurions are 10-1 since the start of 2018, including a 67-45 thumping of Serra Catholic on Jan. 27. In that game, GCC led 35-21 by halftime and never took its foot off the gas. Bella Skatell led Greensburg Central Catholic with 21 points while Melina Maietta added 17 and Anna Eisaman chipped in 15.

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

Tags: Central Valley, Chartiers-Houston, Greensburg C.C., Keystone Oaks, Leechburg