Scholastic Notebook – 02/19/2016

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, February 19, 2016 | 4:16 PM

The first round of the WPIAL boys and girls basketball playoffs are over, and this opening round set a record for records.

For sure, the 2016 first round should always be remembered for so many memorable individual scoring performances. Hockey has the Frozen Four. The WPIAL first round had the Hot Four.

Four players – two boys and two girls – broke long-standing scoring records for their classifications.

The records started falling last Saturday. What was really something was that a 46-year-old scoring record in Class AA was broken twice in the same day. Billy Knight set the record in 1970 when he scored 41 points playing for Braddock High School (Class AA was Class B back then). Knight went on to be an All-American at Pitt, led the team to the Elite 8 of the 1974 NCAA tournament and had a long career in the NBA and ABA.

Within a few hours last Saturday, Knight’s record was broken twice. First Shady Side Academy junior Etai Groff scored 45 points in an 89-44 victory against Waynesburg. Then Chartiers-Houston guard A.J. Myers scored 42 points in an 80-59 victory against Charleroi.

On the same day, the Class A girls playoff scoring record was broken when Quigley’s Gabbie Smith scored 47 in a victory against Imani Christian. Smith broke the record of 44 points, set 15 years ago by Kamela Gissendanner of Clairton in a game against Mount Alvernia.

Then on Wednesday night, the Class AAAA playoff scoring record was broken when Pine-Richland junior guard Amanda Kalin scored 41 points against McKeesport. Kalin joined some elite company with the scoring outburst. Only three other players scored 40 points in a WPIAL Class AAAA playoff game and all three played Division I basketball, and one is a legend from Western Pennsylvania.

The old record was 40 points and shared by three players. New Castle’s Lorri Johnson scored 40 in 1985. Mt. Lebanon’s Kim Seaver scored 40 in 1998. McKeesport’s Swin Cash scored 40 in the championship game in 1998.

Johnson went on to play at Pitt and Seaver played at Virginia Tech. Cash went on to win national championships at Connecticut, won gold with the U.S. Olympic team and won a WNBA title.

What is interesting is what Groff and Myers did in their next playoff games. They both set records in preliminary-round games. Groff and Myers played much stiffer competition the next game. Shady Side Academy lost Thursday night to Lincoln Park, 70-39. Groff scored six points. Chartiers-Houston lost to Greensburg Central Catholic, 69-45. Myers scored 18.

More Record Talk

Are you wondering what the overall scoring record is for the playoffs? On the boys side, it is 50 points, by Serra’s T.J. Heatherington in a 2009 Class A game vs. Neshannock. Next is 48 points, by Central Catholic’s Marc Marotta in a 1980 Class AAA game (AAA was the largest class back then). Sadly, Marotta died suddenly last summer in Milwaukee.

For the girls, the record is 56 points by Brooke Stewart of East Allegheny in a 1997 Class AA game against Geibel. Next is 51 points, by West Mifflin’s Tanisha Wright in the 2000 Class AAA championship against Blackhawk. That game went to three overtimes.

No Rebels?

The Class AA girls basketball playoffs seem a little strange. Seton-LaSalle is out.

Seton-LaSalle was upset by Greensburg Central Catholic, 56-54, in a first-round game Wednesday. Seton-LaSalle had played in the championship game the past seven years. The last time the Rebels weren’t in at least the quarterfinals was 2008. That year, they made the playoffs, beat Quaker Valley in the preliminary round, but lost to Washington in the first round.

Class AA Section 4 Woes

When the WPIAL playoff pairings were released last week, some were a little surprised that two section champions were schedule to meet in a first-round boys game. Bishop Canevin was the Section 3 champ and given the No. 6 seed. Brownsville was the Section 4 champ, but seeded only 11^th.

It turns out the WPIAL was right in seeding Brownsville so low, despite winning a section. Bishop Canevin crushed Brownsville, 87-49.

WPIAL basketball steering committee chairman Dan O’Neil said after the pairings that Brownsville was seeded so low because of the strength of its section. It turns out Section 4 fared terribly in the playoffs. The four teams – Brownsville, Frazier, Wanesburg and Charleroi – were 0-4 and not one of the teams came within 20 points of its opponent. Get this: They were outscored by an average of 85-47.

Besides Brownsville’s loss, the other three Section 4 teams were blown out in preliminary round games. Frazier lost to Seton-LaSalle, 86-39. Waynesburg lost to Shady Side Academy, 89-44. Charleroi lost to Chartiers-Houston, 80-59.

Central Recruiting

The Pittsburgh Central Catholic football team was blessed this past season with a handful of Division I players, including a few who were heavily recruited by Division I colleges.

Next season, the Vikings again will have three heavily recruited players.

Linebacker David Adams and lineman C.J. Thorpe are both rated four-star prospects by Rivals.com. They are heavily recruited. But it turns out lineman Kurt Hinish also is being heavily recruited now. All three will be seniors next year.

Hinish now has scholarship offers from Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Mississippi, Vanderbilt and Baylor, among others. He has picked up more offers recently.

Thorpe and Adams have scholarship offers from schools across the country. Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Stanford, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Wisconsin are among the schools that have offered him. Thorpe has offers from many of the same schools, but also Michigan, Auburn and Tennessee.

Coaches Hired

Two WPIAL schools hired new football coaches this week.

Matt Miller is the new coach at McKeesport. Miller takes over for longtime coach George Smith, who retired after last season.

Miller was a longtime assistant under Smith and also played under Smith. Miller was Smith’s recommendation when Smith retired.

Albert Gallatin hired Shawn Liotta as its coach. Liotta was Clairton’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons and also was an offensive coordinator at McKeesport when Jim Ward was coach. Liotta also was a head coach in arena football in Erie.