North Allegheny girls regroup during long layoff before WPIAL Class 6A playoffs commence

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, February 18, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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WPIAL schedule-makers gave the North Allegheny girls almost two weeks off before the basketball playoffs, but the Tigers didn’t take a vacation.

There were 11 days between the team’s regular-season finale and its playoff opener Feb. 23. Whether that downtime was good or bad for a team depends on what you make of it.

The Tigers stayed busy.

“On one hand, it’s kind of refreshing,” senior guard Jasmine Timmerson said. “For the last couple of weeks (of the regular season), it was just practice, game, practice, game. It was hard to get anything done like that. So, it’s refreshing, but there’s also anticipation for our playoff game, and we’re itching to get back on the court.”

That’s been an almost yearly dilemma for the WPIAL’s biggest schools, which usually have the smallest brackets. The Class 6A girls bracket had only nine teams this season and the 6A boys had eight, so almost everyone earned a first-round bye. The 6A girls quarterfinals were scheduled Feb. 23 with the boys quarterfinals Feb. 24.

Some teams had a full two weeks off.

“You hope your kids are competitive enough to sharpen each other during practice,” North Allegheny coach Spencer Stefko said. “I feel that mine are, so I’m hopeful that that’s a good thing for us. You scrimmage when you can, but if you spend too much time scrimmaging, you might forget to take care of your own house.”

No. 2 seed North Allegheny (17-5) hosts No. 7 Pine-Richland (11-11) at 7 p.m. Feb. 23.

In the downtime, Stefko scheduled a few scrimmages, including matchups with North Catholic, Armstrong and Oakland Catholic. Coaches are mindful not to overtax a team’s legs, but many of the 11 days were earmarked for practice.

North Allegheny had a nine-game wait before starting the playoffs last winter, and only five days in 2021. But the Tigers had 11-day waits in 2020, ’19 and ’18, so it’s not new to them.

“If we haven’t learned how to practice by now, that’s on us,” Stefko said. “We have to own our results. Pine-Richland is going to be off for 11 days, too. We’ve got to make sure we don’t take the easy way out with excuses.”

Stefko also saw it as a nice break from the daily grind of the regular season. His team played six games in a 12-day span to start this month.

“There was a stretch where practice, game, practice, game, practice, game turned into, ‘We haven’t really worked on anything in a couple of weeks,’” Stefko said. “This is a chance for us to regroup and work on some things.”

North Allegheny is coming off a 62-33 out-of-district win over State College on Feb. 13. Timmerson scored a game-high 22 points. The Tigers finished the regular season with some momentum after winning nine of their last 10 games. Their only loss was by three points to South Fayette, the No. 1 seed in Class 5A.

“I think throughout the year, we developed a sense of intensity,” said Timmerson, a Pitt recruit. “At the end of the season, especially with our last couple of big games, we found some energy. I just want to say we found ourselves.”

The Tigers are trying to win their fifth WPIAL title in the past seven seasons. They won titles in 2017, ’18,’20 and ’21 and were runners-up in 2019. Last winter, they reached the semifinals.

“We’re looking to do big things and keep our season going,” Timmerson said. “We’re excited.”

Stefko said North Allegheny started its 11-days off focused on improving itself. His staff could teach and troubleshoot more at practice rather than be consumed with the usual game prep.

There was time for that later.

“We’ve got to clean our house before we worry about anything else,” Stefko said. “We’ve certainly got things showing up on our own film that we’re troubled by and want to sharpen up. I love that about these guys. If I were to start talking about Pine-Richland (11 days before the game), they would look at me funny.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Allegheny