Greensburg Central Catholic presses home-court advantage in win over rival Jeannette

By: Dave Mackall
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 | 11:01 PM

It seems like only yesterday to Greensburg Central Catholic boys basketball coach Christian Hyland that he was playing in the Centurions’ bandbox gymnasium for championship-caliber teams that generally were torturing visiting opponents.

Now, some 10 years later, Hyland is coaching at his alma mater.

And his teams are making things quite uncomfortable for their visitors, as well.

Franco Alvarez scored 20 points and No. 2 Greensburg Central Catholic jumped on Jeannette from the start Tuesday night en route to a 73-51 victory, clinching the WPIAL Section 3-2A title.

“As a visitor, I’d imagine it’s a little bit different playing here,” Hyland said. “We love it. You’re on a second-level gym. It’s tight. It’s hot. Everything about it is uncomfortable, but we like it that way.”

It certainly made things difficult for Jeannette.

Greensburg Central Catholic (18-2, 10-0) improved its home record to 11-2, losing only to a pair of Class 5A teams, No. 3 Franklin Regional and Penn Hills.

“This is a tough place to play, but it’s a great place to play a high school basketball game,” Jeannette coach Adrian Batts said. “There’s some guys on my team, some kids who’ve never played up here in this magnitude. They’re young. They’re freshmen. They’ll learn from it and they’ll grow. It’ll help us going deeper into the season.”

The Jayhawks (11-6, 6-2), who fell behind GCC 22-9 in the first quarter, were led by Kymone Brown’s 14 points. They lost their second game in a row following a heartbreaking 47-45 defeat to Class 3A Beaver Falls on Saturday at The Shootout at Seton Hill.

Tyree Turner added 13 points for Greensburg CC. Liam Gallagher finished with 12 for the Centurions, who won for the ninth straight time with two regular-season games remaining, Monday at Clairton and Feb. 9 against Springdale.

Turner was held in check for much of the first half, when GCC built a 31-17 halftime lead. The 6-foot senior forward turned in a monster performance in the Centurions’ 73-46 victory at Jeannette on Jan. 5, finishing with 25 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.

“They were pretty much keying on him all night,” Hyland said. “He hurt them pretty good down there the last time. They did a good job of limiting his points. Give them a lot of credit. That’s a hard thing to do. A couple of guys stepped forward for us tonight to kind of lead the way.”

The 6-foot-5 Alvarez was the main attraction.

“They’re senior-led,” Batts said. “They’ve got two very good players and they’ve got at least five others that play the role and they do a great job. Alvarez is a matchup problem and Tyree is, too.”

Greensburg Central Catholic led by as many as 28 points (57-29) early in the fourth quarter on two free throws by Gallagher.

GCC’s fast start set the tone.

“That’s always the goal,” Hyland said. “Get out and run early and get some easy ones. We were able to do that tonight.”

Batts, however, came away frustrated with the Jayhawks’ inability to match those “easy ones.” He felt it helped to write the script for another easy GCC success.

“They got the momentum going on their home floor and we just couldn’t catch up,” Batts said. “In a game of this magnitude, you can’t miss easy layups. We had to miss six or seven of them in the first half. You make those, and it’s a different game, a closer game.”

Isaiah Mallich added 10 points for Jeannette, which entertains Clairton on Friday. The Jayhawks close out the year with a pair of games next week, visiting Springdale on Tuesday and hosting Riverview on Feb. 9.

Meanwhile, as the GCC gym opened up a bit with fans exiting the facility, Hyland was looking around at his old haunt and smiling at the thought of his playing days with the Centurions.

He said there are many great memories he’ll never forget.

As a freshman, his team fell short in WPIAL and PIAA championship games. In his senior year, the Centurions again lost in a WPIAL title game before falling short in a PIAA semifinal.

“We got to the championship, but unfortunately, we lost them all,” he said.

Now at the helm, his current team is rolling towards the playoffs again, and just maybe this will be the year he and the Centurions get over the top.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Jeannette