Upper St. Clair heats up in 4th quarter, earns trip to state championship game

By: David Bohr
Friday, March 21, 2025 | 6:56 PM

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MERCERSBURG – Upper St. Clair could not quite put away Garnet Valley in Friday’s PIAA Class 6A girls basketball semifinals.

After halftime and the third quarter, the Panthers were tied with the Jags at James Buchanan High School.

But outside shooting by Meredith Huzjak and Olivia Terlecki finally gave the WPIAL champions the margin they needed in a 53-49 victory.

Huzjak’s second 3-point basket of the game put Upper St. Clair up 40-37 one possession in the last quarter, and Terlecki followed with her fifth 3-point basket of the game to extend that lead.

That did not settle the issue, but 8-for-12 free throw shooting in the last two minutes did, as the Panthers held on to clinch their first PIAA championship game appearance since winning the title in 1999.

Terlecki led Upper St. Clair (23-6) with 18 points, including 5-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc.

“I wasn’t feeling it in wamups,” Terlecki said. “But sometimes when you don’t feel it in warmups, you get hot during the game.”

Rylee Kalocay was keeping warm on both sides of the court. She had 15 points, including Upper St. Clair’s last hoop with 3:59 to go for a 45-39 lead. But just as important was her steal by the defensive baseline in the final minute to protect a 51-46 lead. She hit the last two free throws for the Panthers with 10.5 seconds to go to seal the win.

Ryan Prunzik provided four of the points in between Kalocay’s scores to keep Garnet Valley at bay.

“Playing for each other,” was how Kalocay described the Panthers’ fourth quarter. “We get more excited when our teammates score than when we score.”

Haylie Adamski paced Garnet Valley (27-3), the runner-up from District 1, with 25 points.

Awaiting the Panthers in the state championship game is Perkiomen Valley (27-3), which defeated Archbishop Carroll, 52-45, Friday night.

The championship game is set for 6 p.m. next Friday at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Kalocay, who held Hershey’s chocolate bars with her teammates during the postgame celebration, said the Panthers have to make sure they get the five-pound version that comes with the state championship trophy.

“We need to get one of those,” Kalocay said.

Terlecki added that she felt playing against a taller team like the Jags was a good tuneup for the championship contest.

“They were very tall, very good, very shifty, a good team to play against now,” Terlecki said.

The Panthers had a slow start and found themselves down 13-5 midway through the first period, but Terlecki’s putback got them within 13-10 at the end of the opening stanza.

Terlecki stayed hot through the second quarter with three 3-point makes, the last of which gave Upper St. Clair a 23-19 lead, its biggest advantage of the first half. The Jags scored the last four points of the half to knot it 23-23 at intermission.

The game was again tied at the end of the third quarter, 37-37. Claire Rosenberry, who had been held scoreless in the first half, scored six points in the third period. A free throw by Kalocay with 4.7 seconds left in the period evened the score.

Tags: Upper St. Clair