Oakland Catholic, Penn Hills girls to meet for Section 3-5A championship

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, February 4, 2019 | 8:14 PM

It’s the final Tuesday of the high school basketball regular season, and there are plenty of key WPIAL boys basketball games on the schedule.

One of the better games on the slate though is a girls basketball showdown with a section championship up for grabs.

Oakland Catholic sits atop Section 3-5A with an 11-1 record, one game ahead of 9-2 Penn Hills.

Points were hard to come by in the first meeting Jan. 10 when the Indians handed the Eagles their only section loss 32-31 at Oakland Catholic.

Adia Brisker led all scorers with 15 points including the winning bucket for Penn Hills.

The game tips off at 6 p.m. and can be heard on the TribLive High School Sports Network.

Second-place showdowns

There are several boys basketball games Tuesday where second place and seeding ramifications are at stake between playoff-bound teams.

Section 2-5A: While Moon has been on top since section play began, the team that handed the Tigers their first loss last week tries to hold on to sole possession of second place when Chartiers Valley (10-2) visits Montour (9-3).

Section 3-5A: Defending WPIAL Class 5A champion Mars (11-0) has clinched a share of the section title, but right behind the Planets are Shaler and Franklin Regional. Both the Titans and Panthers are 9-3 with the winner of Tuesday’s game at Franklin Regional taking over second place.

Section 3-4A: Uniontown has won the section championship outright with a perfect 8-0 mark. Second place is up for grabs Tuesday when South Park (5-3) visits Ringgold (5-4).

Section 4-3A: Things are still tight atop this section where Washington sits in first place with an 8-1 record. Currently in second and third place and still alive for a piece of the section title puzzle are Charleroi (7-3) and McGuffey (8-2). The Cougars visit the Highlanders on Tuesday.

Section 2-2A: Serra Catholic is 10-0 and has clinched the section championship outright. Jeannette is second at 6-3 and California is third at 6-4. The Trojans host the Jayhawks with the winner clinching a playoff berth.

Section 2-1A: The top four teams are separated by two games each. Monessen is 10-0, Bishop Canevin is 8-2, Geibel Catholic is 6-4 and Avella is 4-6. On Tuesday, the Crusaders host the Gators, who need two wins to clinch their first winning season since 2006.

Down to the wire

The race in Section 1-2A has been razor close all season long.

So it’s no surprise that entering the final week of section play, only one game separates the top four boys basketball teams.

On Tuesday, Winchester Thurston (8-3) visits Apollo-Ridge (7-4) in a game on TribHSSN.TribLive.com.

Two other key games are Springdale (5-6) at Summit Academy (8-3) and Sto-Rox (7-4) at Riverview (4-7).

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Bishop Canevin, California, Charleroi, Chartiers Valley, Franklin Regional, Geibel, Jeannette, McGuffey, Montour, Oakland Catholic, Penn Hills, Ringgold, Shaler, South Park, Winchester Thurston