Expect Shady Side Academy, Greensburg Central Catholic to put on show in WPIAL finals

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026 | 11:01 AM

Greensburg Central Catholic and Shady Side Academy meeting again for a WPIAL championship is a basketball fan’s delight.

There are several similarities between the teams, making it one of the better matchups this weekend at Petersen Events Center.

No. 3 seed GCC (19-6), the defending champion, will take No. 1 Shady Side Academy (22-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday in a Class 3A girls championship rematch.

Consider:

• Both teams have a 2,000-point scorer and Division I recruit at point guard: senior Erica Gribble for GCC and senior Karis Thomas for Shady Side Academy. Each is their school’s all-time leading scorer.

• Both have a returning senior forward who did not play in last year’s title game. For GCC, it’s Abby Dlugos. For Shady Side Academy, it is Cassie Sauer.

Both are Division III commits. Dlugos is a Westminster recruit, while Sauer is headed to Chicago.

• The Section 2-3A rivals both negotiated a less-than-demanding section schedule, sprinkling in challenging nonsection matchups to keep them interested. Shady Side won its 14 section games by an average of 47.6 points, GCC by 44.

• They meet again with at least one of them holding the label of defending champion. Last year, Shady Side Academy was the returning winner, having won the 2A title the previous season.

The point guard matchup is one of the best the 3A final has seen.

“I don’t think they’ll cancel each other out,” GCC coach Chris Skatell said. “They are such different players.”

Gribble, a Richmond commit, has 2,283 career points. The McDonald’s All-American Game nominee averages 23 a game.

Gribble erupted for 14 of her game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter last year as GCC rallied past Shady Side, 56-51.

The 5-foot-11 Gribble also had five steals and was 5 for 5 at the foul line.

Her counterpart, Thomas (5-7), has 2,035 career points and scores at a 17-point clip. She had 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting and made 8 of 9 free throws in the championship game.

“Erica Gribble and Karis Thomas are two of the top players in the WPIAL, regardless of classification,” Shady Side coach Jonna Burke said. “They have both meant so much to their respective teams and truly are once-in-a-lifetime type of kids to have the opportunity to coach. They are fun to watch and hard to guard.”

In the 2A championship game two years ago — GCC walloped Serra Catholic, 62-41 — Gribble scored 28 points (9 for 18 FG), including five 3s, and was 5 for 6 from the foul line.

Shady Side, known to play a triangle-and-two defense against GCC, limited Gribble to five points in the teams’ second meeting this season, a 54-43 win.

Every time Gribble had the ball in the paint, three and even four defenders closed in on her.

“It’s pretty frustrating. … It’s hard being face-guarded for 32 minutes,” Gribble said of facing multiple defenders. “But that just tells me I can contribute in other ways and get my teammates open.”

The 6-foot-2 Sauer (13 ppg, 8 rpg) sat out last year’s final with a hip fracture. She was healthy, however, for two section games against GCC last year, and two this year — all won by Shady Side.

“It was quite a blow to lose Cassie Sauer in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs,” Burke said. “She was averaging a double-double at the time and was one of our leaders. We had to scramble a bit to try to reinvent ourselves for the rest of the postseason.”

Dlugos tore her ACL and missed most of last season. In the 2023-24 title game, she played 30 minutes and pulled down 14 rebounds.

“I think it’s more competitive with us back,” Dlugos said of herself and Sauer. “We have to put our full effort out there and play as a team if we want to win.”

As for the lack of competition in section, Burke said patience was the key.

“I always say, we don’t create the sections and that it’s out of our control,” she said. “We approach every section game the same and realize that each carries the same amount of weight as far as the win-loss column goes. We do our best to schedule a difficult nonsection schedule to help prepare us for the postseason.”

Skatell said playing teams like Lake Highlands Prep (Fla.), North Catholic, Bishop Guilfoyle and St. Vincent-St. Mary (Ohio) helped GCC prepare for teams like Shady Side.

“We played teams we knew we’d have a hard time with,” Skatell said. “I’m not afraid to play those teams.”

You could also look at a couple of “X-factor” players who could play a key role Thursday night.

For GCC, the clear choice is senior guard Jayla Peterson, who scored 16 in last year’s final, eight in the fourth quarter. The Wheeling commit is a career 1,000-point scorer.

Juniors Avery Jones and Nolan Althof both played 30-plus minutes at the Pete last year for the Centurions.

Junior Morgan Skoloda had 15 points, on five 3-pointers, in the last section games against the Bulldogs.

“We were a little flat that game,” Skatell said. “We got down 15 or 18 but kept playing. There is no quit in this group.

“We’re going to have to play until the end.”

For the Bulldogs, keep an eye on junior 5-10 forward Leah Buford. She only had five points in the championship game and fouled out but played 25 minutes on the big college floor.

Freshman guard Morgan Kane also has had a presence in the lineup.

“We have been fortunate to have gone on long postseason runs the last few years and so have they,” Burke said. “We do have some freshmen that are making an impact for us that do not have the same level of experience as some of the others, but I always say, at this point in the season you’re no longer a freshman.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Shady Side Academy