First-round PIAA basketball games among Friday’s 3 things to watch

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, March 9, 2018 | 3:00 AM

The PIAA basketball playoffs start Friday night with first-round contests in Class 5A, 4A and A boys and Class 6A, 3A and 2A girls.

In all, there are 31 games involving WPIAL or Pittsburgh City League basketball teams.

Some will require only short bus rides including the doubleheader at Fox Chapel that matches Franklin Regional vs. Highlands, and Hampton vs. Mars. But some other destinations will take hours to reach. The longest likely belong to the South Fayette boys and California girls, who face three-hour trips for their first-round games.

Each team is headed to a doubleheader in St. Marys.

Wrestling quarterfinals

The PIAA individual wrestling tournament resumes Friday at Giant Center in Hershey with quarterfinal matches in both Class AA and AAA.

Thirty-four of 56 WPIAL qualifiers advanced to the quarters including Jefferson-Morgan senior Gavin Teasdale, who's trying to become the 13th wrestler in PIAA history to win four state titles. Teasdale (41-2) wrestles at 126 pounds in Class AA.

The Class AA quarterfinals start at 9 a.m. with Class AAA at 2:15 p.m. The Class AA semifinals are at 7:30 p.m., with the remaining rounds on Saturday.

Listen to the PIAA tournament on the TribLive High School Sports Network .

Bowling regionals

The Western Pennsylvania regional bowling championships start Friday with the singles tournament at Princess Lanes in Whitehall. The competition starts at 9 a.m. with qualifiers advancing to the state tournament March 16.

The team qualifier is Saturday.

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