Scholastic Notebook – 03/04/2011

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, March 4, 2011 | 12:00 AM

It seems everywhere you turn at the Duquesne University Palumbo Center this weekend, there will be WPIAL championship basketball games with historical storylines.

Whether it’s teams or coaches, the games are dripping with history. Here are some of the historical storylines.

* South Fayette and Montour play in the Class AAA boys’ championship. Neither team has ever been to a WPIAL title game. There has been only one other boys’ championship game in the past 20 years with two teams that have never played for a title. That was in 2004 when Moon beat Knoch in the Class AAA final.

* The Greensburg Central Catholic boys are making their first championship appearance.

* This is the first title game for the Fort Cherry girls.

* Six of the eight boys finalists are trying to win their first titles. They are Gateway, South Fayette, Montour, Greensburg Central Catholic, Vincentian and Lincoln Park. On the girls side, Ambridge and Fort Cherry are trying to win their first championships.

* Chartiers Valley boys coach Tim McConnell is trying to become only the fifth coach in WPIAL history to win six titles. The others are Farrell’s Ed McCluskey (11), Blackhawk’s John Miller (8), Midland’s Ed Olkowski (8) and Duquesne’s Rich Moran (6).

* Mount Lebanon girls coach Dori Oldaker is trying to win her fifth championship. Only five other WPIAL girls’ coaches have five titles. They are North Catholic’s Don Barth (11), Penn Hills’ Bill Lind (8), Mount Alvernia’s De Porucznik (8), Geibel’s George Bortz (5) and Upper St. Clair’s Ernie Koontz (5).

* Mount Lebanon is trying to win its third Class AAAA girls title in a row. The last team to win three in a row was Oakland Catholic, which won four in a row from 1999-2002.

* Jeannette and Seton-LaSalle are meeting in the Class AA final for the second year in a row. The last time there was a rematch in Class AA involved Greensburg Central Catholic and Geibel. They met in the title game four years in a row from 1994-97.

Comcast to Televise Games

The MSA Sports Network will broadcast all of the championship games this weekend. The games will be available on our web site and also various radio stations including a Friday and Saturday night doubleheader on KQV-AM 1410 at 7:00pm and 9:00pm.

There will be no live television of the WPIAL finals, but Comcast will televise all eight games and show them on “On Demand” a day later. Go to the “Get Local” section of “On Demand” and then to “sports.”

Friday’s games are supposed to be available Saturday, while Saturday’s games are supposed to be available Sunday.

CV Without a Player

The Chartiers Valley boys will not have one of their top players when they play Gateway in the AAAA boys final tomorrow night Senior guard Steve Burda sustained a concussion in Wednesday night’s semifinal win against Mount Lebanon. Burda is the team’s second-leading scorer behind Matt Noszka.

Looking Ahead to PIAA

Here are the number of teams from the WPIAL (boys and girls) that qualify for the PIAA playoffs. The places will be determined by what happens this weekend.

Class AAAA (5). AAA (6). AA (7). A (5)

We have the updated teams that are state playoff bound in another article on the front page.

Sad Story

A tragic high school basketball story out of Michigan Thursday night. A star player made a game-winning shot to give his team a perfect 20-0 season