Union contains Clairton to 3-peat as WPIAL Class A girls champions

By: Don Rebel
Friday, February 28, 2025 | 4:36 PM

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The WPIAL Class A girls basketball championship game featured the best team in the district the last two years against the WPIAL scoring champion the last three seasons.

In the end, a balanced offensive attack in which seven players scored at least five points and a tough zone defense was the difference as top-seeded Union captured a third straight WPIAL Class A title with a 51-40 victory over No. 3 Clairton on Friday afternoon at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.

“I feel like it’s a lot better for us because we’re seniors and we’re soaking it all in,” Union senior guard Kylie Fruehstrofer said. “So this one means more to us.”

Union’s victory marked the third time this century a school captured three straight Class A girls basketball crowns, joining Vincentian Academy (five straight from 2012-16) and Rochester (2019-21).

“I’m going to let them enjoy this,” Union coach Rob Nogay said. “(This team) has given me everything they have. It’s a bittersweet moment for me; I love the opportunity to get a third straight championship but know these seniors are leaving is going to be a little rough.”

The first quarter was a rough start for the Scotties, who were outscored by Clairton junior guard Jamiya “JuJu” Childs by two points as the Bears led 12-5 after one quarter.

In the opening quarter, Union was 2 of 12 from the field (16.7 %) and 0 of 8 from 3-point range.

“We struggled,” Nogay said. “We missed a lot of wide-open shots and shooters gotta shoot, and I tell them that every day in practice. I’ll never yell at them for taking a shot, as long as it’s a good shot.”

Clairton wasn’t much better, hitting on only 28% of its shots from the field and making 1 of 10 shots from behind the arc.

Union started to click on offense once it began hammering the ball inside and taking shorter shots, tallying eight of first 10 points in the second quarter.

The Scotties outscored the Bears, 14-7, in the second quarter as the teams went to the locker room tied 19-19.

Union and Clairton also hoped to find their 3-point shooting touch at the break — they were a combined 2 for 32 from behind the arc in the first half.

One of those made 3’s was a bomb by Clairton senior guard Iyanna Wade from near the script P in the half court Pitt logo.

Wade was limited to 10 points in the first half thanks to Union playing a 3-2 zone with a few new wrinkles.

“I don’t think we saw a zone all year,” Iyanna Wade said. “We saw box-and-one, but coming into the game, we knew they played 3-2 against everybody so that threw us off, and I definitely think it was a good game plan.”

Union began the second half by hitting two 3-pointers from seniors Addison Nogay and Fruehstrofer and started the quarter on a 10-0 run to go ahead 29-19.

However, the Bears and Iyanna Wade responded with a 12-2 run — she scored 10 of the points — to take a one-point lead before Joseph hit a 3-pointer in the final half-minute to put the Scotties up 34-32 after three quarters.

“Iyanna’s been doing this for the last four year,” said Clairton coach and Iyanna’s father Carlton Wade said. “Its nothing new to me, I knew she had something up her sleeve.”

The Bears took their final lead early in the fourth quarter on a lay in by sophomore Karma Fuqua to make the score 38-37.

However, the Scotties took the lead back on a 3-pointer by sophomore Maggie Joseph and never looked back, outscoring the Bears, 14-2, the rest of the game.

The final straw came with the Scotties leading by seven points with 2:02 remaining. Fuqua picked up a fourth foul fighting for a rebound and when she slammed the ball to the floor, she was called for a technical foul leading to her exit from the game.

Carlton Wade was not pleased with the officiating overall afterward.

“At a certain point in the game, I think the referees had a lot to do with how the game went,” Coach Wade said. “I’m not the type of person (to complain), but a game like this, there were a lot of calls that were really suspect.”

Union ended up making 14 of 20 free throws while Clairton was 4 for 4 from the line.

Wade came into the game averaging 41 points per game but was limited to a game-high 22 points.

“I think our game plan coming in was we knew we weren’t going to stop Wade, we just wanted to contain her,” Nogay said. “I thought they executed the game plan tremendously and we were not able to slow her down, but we were able to slow her penetration down.”

Childs ended up with 12 points for the Bears.

Union remained perfect on the season, improving to 25-0 in winning district gold.

Fruehstrofer led the Scotties with 12 points and senior Hayden Strickler had 11 points.

Coach Wade felt the balanced attack for the defending champs was a key to their success.

“The impressive thing about them was that everyone who stepped on the court contributed,” he said. “It wore us down a little bit, and they were able to beat us down the court.”

Both teams will be close to home for the first round of the state playoffs March 8.

Union will host the fourth-place team out of District 6, Williamsburg (20-5), while Clairton will play the third-place team from District 6, St. Joseph Catholic Academy (23-2).

The WolfPack defeated the Blue Pirates, 68-67, in the District 6 consolation game.

Tags: Clairton, Union