Union girls fend off challenge from St. Joseph to defend WPIAL title in OT

By: Nathan Breisinger
Saturday, March 2, 2024 | 12:57 PM

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Winning a WPIAL basketball championship is hard enough. Two in a row seems improbable. Add in a double-digit deficit early in the game, and the difficulty level increases even more.

But the top-seeded Union girls pulled it off Saturday, coming up clutch in overtime and securing back-to-back titles with a 50-43 victory over St. Joseph in the Class A championship game at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.

“It feels good,” senior Kelly Cleaver said. “We came in here, and we knew we had a lot of pressure on our backs. We didn’t come out the way we wanted to, but we battled back and I’m so proud of my teammates and the way they knocked down shots.”

Even though St. Joseph came up short, the school’s first championship appearance will be remembered for quite some time.

“It was an incredible experience,” said senior Julie Spinelli, who scored a team-high 19 points. “We were all excited to be here and experience this day. We wanted the win, but to be out there on the court with the crowd and everyone was an incredible experience.”

Added Emma Swierczewski: “We worked really hard to get here, so we deserved this, even though we didn’t have the outcome we wanted.”

It was a step in the right direction for a Spartans program that suffered semifinal losses the past two years, including a defeat against the Scotties last season.

For first-year coach Geoff Dutelle, watching the Spartans progress has a deeper meaning, even if it did not mean hoisting a trophy.

“It means so much more than the result,” he said. “To me, I told them before the game that I love this group of girls. They were going to succeed no matter who the coach was. It was a great opportunity for me to be able to work with them, but to watch them be so close and grow even closer as the season went on is significantly more important than anything I can accomplish as a coach.”

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Comeback effort as the Scotties go BACK TO BACK!@UnionScotties | #HSSN pic.twitter.com/cT26pOgFNF

— TribLive HSSN (@TribLiveHSSN) March 2, 2024

St. Joseph returned every player from a season ago and boasts seven seniors. Across the past four years, the Spartans were building for this moment.

“I remember freshman year someone saying to us, ‘I think whenever they are seniors they might make it to the WPIAL championship,’ ” Spinelli said. “I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way.’ Through the years, we worked really hard, and we got to where we are today and we’re really proud of what we accomplished.”

St. Joseph (21-4) led for the majority of the game, but the Scotties (19-5) pushed to tie the score and seal the victory in overtime from the free-throw line.

“Overtime, we’ll take. I don’t know about the rest of the game, though,” Union coach Rob Nogay said with a laugh. “We struggled early on. We don’t get the opportunities to play in gyms like this a lot. When they counted, we knocked them down for sure.”

Union’s Kelly Cleaver scored a game-high 24 points and added six rebounds and three blocks.

“Union was smart. They decided that they were going to go through Kelly. They started the second half isolating her and driving her straight to the basket. She’s tough to defend,” Dutelle said.

The defending champs hit shots in the early going with Cleaver and Bella Cameron — who converts on a team-high 40.5% from 3-point range — draining a triple apiece.

St. Joseph quickly dusted off any early jitters. Spinelli scored inside and out, and Swierczewski hit from outside to spark an 11-0 run.

It was a much different start for St. Joseph compared to the semifinal a year ago, when Union jumped out to a 19-0 lead.

“We caught them off guard last year with our pressure,” Union junior Addison Nogay said. “I didn’t think we were going to get a lot of turnovers on them because they’re another year seasoned. We knew we were in for a fight.”

The Spartans continued to ride the momentum to start the second quarter as they pushed their lead to 11 points at the 6-minute, 54-second mark.

Union, a team that thrives on its zone defense, started to see its structure picked apart with crisp ball movement from St. Joseph that opened up lanes for Maggie Bernat and Spinelli.

In response, Cleaver ended a long scoreless lull as she fired in two jumpers to cut the deficit to five.

With the lead dwindling, Spinelli, a Frostburg State commit, recorded an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Spartans a 25-18 halftime lead.

Cleaver led the Scotties back in the third quarter, including a baseline jumper to bring the game within one.

After a missed 3-pointer with the third-quarter clock nearing zeroes, Maggie Bernat stepped in, grabbed a quick rebound and scored a putback as the buzzer sounded to give St. Joseph a 32-29 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Cleaver was nearly automatic in the second half and boosted the Scotties to their first lead since 2:38 of the first quarter.

“Once we weren’t able to score consistently, they fed off of our missed shots,” Dutelle said.

Needing every little play, both teams brought down critical offensive rebounds. Anna Kreinbrook grabbed a loose ball in the air — one of 13 rebounds for the senior — and finished the putback.

With 1:08 left, Cleaver missed a 3-pointer, but Mia Preuhs grabbed the offensive rebound and fed it back to Cleaver, who tied the score 42-42.

After getting the ball via a five-second violation with 4.9 seconds left, St. Joseph could not convert, and overtime ensued.

“We knew we couldn’t let them inbound that ball,” Spinelli said.

In overtime, the Scotties went 8 for 10 from the free-throw line.

With her team up by one, Cleaver came up with a crucial block in the paint on Anna Kreinbrook that eventually led to Union getting to the free-throw line.

“Our biggest focus is defense, so just not going to let that shot go up, especially not at that time,” Cleaver said. “My biggest thing is, I love blocking shots. I think I get more excited about that than scoring, so I saw her coming and I was ready for it.”

Kylie Fruehstorfer sank a pair of free throws to make it 45-42 and seal the victory.

Fruehstorfer scored 11 points in the win, and Preuhs contributed a game-high 14 rebounds.

St. Joseph’s season will continue in the PIAA playoffs next Saturday. They’ll meet St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy from Boalsburg, the third-place finisher from District 6.

Tags: St. Joseph, Union