Westmoreland County boys basketball notebook: WPIAL playoff field nearly set

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, February 6, 2025 | 3:44 PM

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The local boys basketball playoff field is just about set.

The WPIAL will meet Monday and announce playoff seedings and opening matchups.

The tournaments could start as early as Feb. 13, the league said.

Qualifiers from Westmoreland County are: Norwin (10-10, 6-7) in 6A; Latrobe (17-4, 9-4), Penn-Trafford (12-9, 7-6), Franklin Regional (11-10, 6-7) and Kiski Area (13-6, 10-1) in 5A; Belle Vernon (18-4, 11-1) and Derry (11-8, 8-3) in 4A; Southmoreland (16-4, 9-0) and Ligonier Valley (12-8, 6-3) in 3A; Jeannette (17-2, 10-2) and Greensburg Central Catholic (19-2, 13-0) in 2A; and Monessen (13-6, 5-4) in A.

There is one local bubble team in Burrell (4A). The Bucs (7-14, 4-8) need Highlands to lose to Valley on Friday to qualify.

Milestones abound

Two area players found their way into their team’s history by reaching scoring milestones.

Belle Vernon’s Zion Moore became the 39^th player in WPIAL history and 11^th in Westmoreland County to score 2,000 career points.

Yough’s Terek Crosby (2,036) was the last local player to score 2,000. He achieved the milestone last season before heading to Saint Vincent.

Meanwhile, one local player hit the 1,000-point mark, while another is one 3-pointer away.

Parker Hollick became the 27^th male player to score 1,000 at Ligonier Valley.

Noah Felentzer of Southmoreland, meanwhile, can reach the milestone Friday with three points. He would become the 10^th 1,000-point scorer in Scotties’ history.

Load management

Penn-Trafford has been one of the busiest teams in the WPIAL since late January.

The Warriors have played three sets of back-to-back games this season, akin to an NBA team. After tonight’s game at Laurel Highlands, they will have played nine games in 18 days.

Jeannette also knows something about a jammed schedule. The Jayhawks play Friday and Saturday, which will give them eight games in 16 days.

Noise factor

There aren’t many louder gyms than Greensburg Central Catholic when it is sold out.

That was the case Tuesday when rival Jeannette came to Carbon. More than 600 crammed into GCC to watch the 2A No. 1 Centurions post a 58-48 win.

GCC coach Christian Hyland expects his team to get a home game in the playoff opener, but he can’t fathom the atmosphere coming close to a game against Jeannette.

“We worked on using hand signals against Jeannette,” Hyland said. “It gets so loud, you can’t hear anybody. It’s not like that all the time; only when we play them.”

Katarski adjusts

Mark Katarski, the college coach turned interim head coach of Hempfield, is getting more comfortable with each game. But will he be a long-term replacement on the bench?

“The first one, against Mt. Lebanon, yeah, I was a nervous,” he said. “But the kids have been great to work with.”

Katarski, a first-year assistant who works as the associate AD for internal relations at Seton Hill, where he coached the women’s basketball team for a decade, took over when Bill Swan resigned in season following an investigation into a complaint that was never revealed publicly.

Hempfield was still in the playoff hunt during the turbulence and has since been eliminated, but Katarski tried his best to build momentum while keeping the on-court system in place.

“The players have been so consistent,” Katarski said. “Their approach has shown great character.”

Hempfield beat playoff team Fox Chapel and played title contender Imani Christian close in both Section 2-6A games, losing by a combined four points.

While Katarski will coach the team until the end of this season, it is unclear if the job will be opened in the offseason.

“One game at a time,” he said.

Shoot to score

The top five scorers in Westmoreland County as of last week were: Zion Moore, Belle Vernon (26 ppg); Noah Felentzer, Southmoreland (22.8); Max Butler, Latrobe (21.1); Stanley Rajkovich, Derry (20.0); and Parker Hollick, Ligonier Valley (18.9).

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