Westmoreland County boys basketball notebook: Shootout at Seton Hill expands

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, December 28, 2023 | 3:22 PM

Purchase Photo Options

The annual Shootout at Seton Hill basketball showcase has expanded. It will include more days, more games and more teams.

The charity event will be Jan. 27-28 at Seton Hill’s McKenna Center and now has 22 teams and 11 games (8 boys, 3 girls).

Previously, the showcase was one day and featured 8-10 teams. Proceeds benefit St. Jude’s Hospital.

The schedule this year is as follows:

Jan. 27:

• Trinity vs. Hempfield (girls), noon

• Derry vs. Mt. Pleasant, 1:30 p.m.

• Westinghouse vs. Jeannette, 3 p.m.

• Monessen vs. Yough, 4:30 p.m.

• McKeesport vs. Greensburg Central Catholic (girls), 6 p.m.

• Gateway vs. Greensburg Central Catholic, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 28:

• Franklin Regional vs. Belle Vernon (girls), 1:30 p.m.

• Franklin Regional vs. Union, 3 p.m.

• Plum vs. Burrell, 4:30 p.m.

• Armstrong vs. McKeesport, 6 p.m.

• RTS Academy Prep vs. Kiski School, 7:30 p.m.

Fresh faces

Derry has a promising freshman coming through the program.

Stanley Rajkovich is a long, 6-foot-5 forward who has shown he can handle the ball, shoot from the perimeter and defend.

Rajkovich, who transferred back to Derry from Greensburg Central Catholic, had 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks last week against 3A No. 1 Deer Lakes.

Also keep an eye on freshman guard A.J. Tarpley of Greensburg Salem and freshman guard Markus McGowan of Jeannette.

61 for Jarvis

Greensburg Central Catholic played against District 6’s Berlin Brothersvalley and its hot-shooting guard, Craig Jarvis. The Centurions won 73-64, but Berlin made 15 3-pointers, including seven from Pace Prosser (31 points) and five from Jarvis (21 points).

A few nights later, Jarvis erupted for 61 points, including 11 3s, in a 96-58 win over Juniata Valley.

“That’s crazy,” GCC senior guard Tyree Turner said. “We held him to less than half of that, so I guess that’s good.”

Turner had 31 points in the win over Berlin.

Holiday Bash

Two local teams will be in action Friday night at the two-day Holiday Bash showcase at Geneva College.

Franklin Regional will take on Laurel Highlands at 6 p.m., followed by Lincoln Park vs. Belle Vernon at 7:30.

Section slate

Section play finally will tip for a handful of local teams beginning Tuesday night.

In Section 1-6A, Norwin hosts Canon-McMillan and Hempfield welcomes Upper St. Clair, while in Section 3-5A, it will be Kiski Area at Latrobe, and Penn-Trafford at Franklin Regional.

Southmoreland plays at Belle Vernon in Section 1-4A on Wednesday, with Monessen playing at Geibel the same night in Section 2-A.

Greensburg Salem does not play its first section game (1-4A) until Jan. 5 at Knoch.

Layups

Yough, Greensburg Central Catholic, Burrell and Monessen are ranked by Trib HSSN. Yough is No. 3 in 3A, GCC is No. 2 in 2A, Burrell is No. 2 in 3A, and Monessen is No. 3 in A. … Penn-Trafford has scored 512 points and allowed 521, but has a 5-4 record. Four games have been decided by two points or less. … Two county teams took undefeated records into the holiday break. Southmoreland (7-0) and Burrell (6-0) had yet to lose a game. Other teams with perfect records were Mt. Lebanon (6-0), Shaler (8-0), West Allegheny (7-0), Uniontown (7-0), South Allegheny (7-0) and Burgettstown (8-0). … Southmoreland hosts Uniontown on Jan. 9.

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

Tags: Belle Vernon, Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Jeannette, Monessen, Mt. Pleasant, Norwin, Penn-Trafford