South Fayette jumps on Chartiers Valley early to stand alone atop section

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Monday, February 3, 2025 | 10:37 PM


For the final three quarters of Monday night’s showdown for the Section 3-5A girls basketball crown, Chartiers Valley was able to compete at home.

Unfortunately for the Colts, their nightmarish first quarter could not be deleted, which was good news for South Fayette.

The Lions clinched the outright section title thanks to a big first eight minutes that was the difference in a second win over the Colts this season, 69-43.

The victory gave the three-time defending WPIAL 5A champions something rare: an outright section championship.

“It hasn’t been done too often in our school, surprisingly,” South Fayette coach Bryan Bennett said. “I think this is the fourth one ever, shockingly.”

The Lions took out any suspense in this battle for first place by outscoring the Colts 24-5 in the opening quarter.

“I’m proud of the kids, the way they played,” Bennett said. “Char Valley is a really, really good basketball team with some very talented kids. I thought our kids came in focused and jumped on them early, which is always good to do. Char Valley made a run, but our kids were mentally tough to withstand it.”

As South Fayette started to pile up the points in the first quarter, Chartiers Valley stacked up the empty possessions with a handful of turnovers in the first couple of minutes. When the Colts did get a shot, they struggled to hit and they were one and done.

“Our defensive pressure,” Bennett said when asked what the key was to the hot start. “We were able to speed them up and force them into some turnovers. That was the key in the first game when we turned them over 29 times.”

The Lions cruised past their neighbors when the two top teams met last month, 72-41.

Everybody contributed to the hot start for the Lions as juniors Juliette Leroux, Haylie Lamonde and Ryan Oldaker along with sophomore point guard Lailah Wright all had multiple field goals in the opening frame.

Chartiers Valley outscored South Fayette 15-12 in the second quarter as things began to balance out.

In fact, over the last three quarters combined, the Lions bested the Colts, 45-38.

However, the damage had been done.

Oldaker led South Fayette (12-0, 20-1) with 16 points, Lamonde scored 14 and Wright had 12 points.

Wright also had several spectacular assists as she showed off her point guard skills in handling the ball, scoring and distributing.

“She has a motor that doesn’t quit and she never gets tired,” Bennett said. “She lives in the gym. She has gotten so much better from last year to this year. She works so hard and is so unselfish and she’s getting better every day.”

Chartiers Valley (9-2, 14-7) was led by 16 points from senior Emma Reynolds.

One bright spot for the Colts was senior Rachel Boehm finishing with 10 points, including her 1,000th point of her career, which was scored with under a minute remaining.

South Fayette has now won 12 games in a row and will play Section 1-6A leader Seneca Valley in a nonsection season finale Saturday before trying to win a fourth straight Class 5A championship once the playoffs begin at the end of next week.

“We’re an extremely focused group of kids,” Bennett said. “There is a lot of talent in 5A. There are multiple teams that can win it.”

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