Westmoreland basketball notebook: PIAA sites revealed for local teams

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, March 2, 2025 | 6:31 PM

The PIAA announced first-round times and sites for the state tournaments, which begin Friday and Saturday across the commonwealth.

The area’s three WPIAL champions will host opening games.

The Belle Vernon boys (21-4) will welcome Farrell (12-11), the fifth-place team from District 10, at 7 p.m. Friday in the Class 4A first round.

The Jeannette boys (23-2), 2A champs, will host Mercyhurst Prep (19-7), the third-place team from District 10, at 1 p.m. Saturday.

And the Greensburg Central Catholic girls (21-5), who won back-to-back titles, will play District 6 third-place team Cambria Heights (19-8) at 7 p.m. Friday at Southmoreland in 3A.

Other local teams are going to get whistled for traveling.

In 5A boys, Penn-Trafford (14-12) will play at Hershey (21-3), the District 3 champion, at 6 p.m. Friday, and Latrobe (20-6) goes to Exeter Township (14-11), the District 3 runner-up, in Reading for a 7 p.m. tip Friday.

Latrobe’s round-trip mileage is about 440, and Penn-Trafford will scale nearly 400 miles.

The Greensburg Central Catholic boys (23-2) also will travel as they visit McConnellsburg (23-1), the District 5 2A champion, at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Norwin girls (15-8) will go to Altoona (22-2) to play the District 6 6A champs, at 7 p.m. Friday.

Lastly, the one-loss Penn-Trafford girls (25-1) will play travel to play District 3 runner-up Middletown (22-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Penn-Trafford to Middletown is about 380 round trip.

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GCC at neutral site

Because of PIAA regulations for seating numbers, the Greensburg Central Catholic girls will not get to host a first-round game in the state tournament.

Gyms must meet a capacity requirement, and numbers are higher for Class 3A than 2A. GCC moved up to 3A this season.

The 3A number for seating is 800. GCC seats 650.

The 2A cutoff is 600, said GCC athletic director Dan Mahoney.

The newly crowned WPIAL 3A champions (21-5) still will play in Westmoreland County: at Southmoreland.

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Broadway Joe

Is there any argument that Joe Salvino isn’t the greatest boys basketball coach in Westmoreland County history?

The retiring leader at Belle Vernon guided the Leopards to their first title since 1978, adding more hardware to his resume, which includes 744 wins, the second most in WPIAL history.

The proof is in the trophies. Since 1995, Westmoreland County boys basketball teams have won nine WPIAL championships. Salvino has seven of them: Belle Vernon (2025), Monessen (2017, ’15, ’11, ’02, ’01 and 1995).

The other two titles were won by Jeannette. Monessen beat Jeannette in 2015.

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Public opinion

Union coach Mark Stanley had a strong opinion on the public-vs.-private debate in high school basketball in 2023 when his team lost to Imani Christian in the Class A championship.

Stanley, and Jeannette coach Adrian Batts, were pleased to see an all-public Class 2A final on Friday at Petersen Events Center.

Stanley was asked about it in a postgame news conference.

“Some of my best friends coach at the parochial schools,” Stanley said. “We get in debates, but, like I said, I don’t like them any less. They are good guys, and they work hard, too. It’s a talking point.”

Stanley said his public comments spurred controversy two years ago.

He said his wife told him to keep quiet this year.

“Believe me, I got a lot of feedback both ways,” he said. “I’ll leave it with that. I’ve got to go home to my wife. I don’t want to get yelled at.”

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He said it

“Job’s not finished.” — Jeannette guard Markus McGowan after the Jayhawks won the WPIAL 2A championship. McGowan channeled his inner Kobe Bryant when looking ahead to the PIAA tournament.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Greensburg C.C., Jeannette, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford