Upper St. Clair pulls away from Belle Vernon in battle of reigning WPIAL champs

By: Don Rebel
Friday, December 5, 2025 | 11:54 PM

The play on the defensive side of the ball was befitting a matchup of reigning WPIAL champions. The play on the offensive side for both Belle Vernon and Upper St. Clair screamed early December basketball.

A late surge broke open a close game throughout as defending Class 6A champion Upper St. Clair defeated last year’s Class 4A winners Belle Vernon, 59-47, on Friday evening in the opening round of the Upper St. Clair Tipoff Tournament.

“Give Belle Vernon a lot of credit, they played extremely hard on both sides of the ball,” Upper St. Clair coach Danny Holzer said. “They were extremely physical. They bothered our guards and our shooting was poor. In the first half, we couldn’t put the ball in the ocean.”

While golden last season, both the Panthers and Leopards are trying to form a new identity after both teams graduated four starters from their title teams.

“One thing people don’t realize is that outside of Jake Foster and Ryan Robbins, we have no varsity guys at all,” Holzer said. “The rest of these guys were all JV last year. December is going to be bumpy. I think we’ll be really good, but it’s going to be a bumpy road early.”

Not only did Belle Vernon have a lot of new faces in its lineup, it also has a new coach after longtime assistant Ricky Tyburski took over for the retired Joe Salvino.

Holzer has a 30-year and 521-victory advantage over Tyburski in the battle of coaches, not that any of that mattered with the grinding game that played out.

Until late in the fourth quarter, a three-point advantage either way was considered a big lead as the score was tied after the first two quarters. USC enjoyed a “comfortable” one-point lead heading in to the fourth quarter.

“The team did everything we asked them to do,” Tyburski said. “We knew that we were going to play physical in order to have a chance. We played 28 minutes of physical basketball, pressing them and forcing turnovers. Each kid had a role and they made sure to fulfill their responsibilities.”

A Jude Ausi 3-pointer with less than five minutes left in the third quarter finally gave USC its first lead of the game, 28-25.

The game got away from the Leopards with about three and a half minutes left in regulation.

With the Panthers leading the Leopards 44-40, Upper St. Clair went on a 15-2 run, and it was lights out for the visitors.

The 6-foot-7 junior Robbins had eight points and 13 rebounds for USC.

“We wanted to try to get the ball into Ryan as much as we could,” Holzer said. “He’s coming off a foot (injury), so he’s not in great shape right now, but he’s still such a good player, and he’s a game changer.”

Four Panthers reached double-digit scoring as Ausi, Luke Marchinsky, Jake Foster and Andrew Gaither all scored 10 points each.

The Leopards hurt themselves at the free-throw line, where they finished 6 of 18.

“When you shoot like we did from the line, it puts us at a disadvantage,” Tyburski said. “Especially when that has been a focus of ours this year. I don’t know if it’s a struggle or an opportunity for improvement. Once again, little things at the end of the game cost us.”

Belle Vernon was led by junior Luca Ghilani, who scored 12 points, all in the first half. Curty Wade added 10 points for the Leopards.

Upper St. Clair (2-0) advances to the title game of the tournament to play Kiski Area (1-0) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

In the consolation game, Belle Vernon (1-2) tries to bounce back against Bethel Park (0-2) at 1 p.m.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Upper St. Clair