South Fayette shuts down upset hopes early in 5A quarterfinal win over Baldwin

By: Don Rebel
Wednesday, February 19, 2025 | 11:15 PM

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A lot of young kids like to spend their vast amounts of energy at the park, running around, going down the slides and enjoying the monkey bars and jungle gyms.

When South Fayette junior Ryan Oldaker was young, her playground was the gym at Mt. Lebanon High School.

On Wednesday, Oldaker returned to Mt. Lebanon and played a big part in top-seeded South Fayette cruising past Baldwin in a WPIAL Class 5A girls basketball quarterfinals game, 67-31.

Ryan is the daughter of former Blue Devils coach Dori Oldaker, who is a member of the 2025 WPIAL Hall of Fame class.

“She did an outstanding job,” South Fayette coach Bryan Bennett said. “When we played Mt. Lebanon earlier in the year, I think it was the first time back for her and you could tell she was a little bit nervous. She played so well (Wednesday) on both ends of the floor. I thought her defense was outstanding, and she rebounded the ball very well, and she’s a talented scorer. She put all the phases of her game together.”

On the left side of the Class 5A bracket, where three of the four first-round winners were higher seeds, South Fayette made sure early on that upset hopes for Baldwin would be quickly dashed.

The Lions jumped out to an early lead and continued to build on it, ending the first quarter with a convincing advantage, 24-10.

“We like to run and push it because we’re a pretty deep team,” Bennett said. “We have a lot of kids who are athletic and skilled, so obviously we like to push the basketball. Watching the film on Baldwin, they want to do the same thing. They have some athletes, and we saw on film that if you don’t get back, they’ll make you pay, so I thought our kids did a great job getting back in transition.”

Both teams were aggressive in their half-court defense, forcing turnovers and tie-ups.

However, when the Lions had a chance to finish in close, they did while the Highlanders would get to the bucket but had trouble finishing throughout the game.

One player who did not struggle to finish was South Fayette junior Haylie Lamonde.

Whether it was driving the lane or knocking down 3-pointers, she had a hot night from the field and led all scorers with 22 points.

Baldwin never made a serious run after falling behind early thanks to a South Fayette defense that is ranked second in Class 5A and is one of the top units in the district, allowing only 35 points per game.

“I thought we doubled their drives very well and our help-to-help rotation was excellent,” Bennett said. “Everything we talked about during practice, the kids went out and executed to perfection.”

The Highlanders only scored double-digit points in one quarter, 10 in the first, as they were limited to eight, six and seven in the final three quarters.

Senior Mary Vargo led Baldwin with eight points.

Baldwin falls to 15-9 for the season and having already clinched a PIAA playoff berth, the Highlanders will battle for seeding against Bethel Park in a 5A consolation match.

The Highlanders swept the Black Hawks in Section 4-5A contests earlier this season.

Besides Lamonde, junior Juliette Leroux scored 16 points for the Lions and Oldaker tallied 15 points.

South Fayette has won 15 consecutive games, improves to 23-1 this season and will now battle a familiar face in Section 3-5A foe Mars in the WPIAL 5A semifinals Saturday.

In two meetings, the Lions swept the Fightin’ Planets by scores of 70-25 on the road and 77-41 at home.

Tags: Baldwin, South Fayette