WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball championship breakdown: Chartiers Valley vs. New Castle

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, March 13, 2021 | 5:00 AM

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WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball championship

No. 1 Chartiers Valley vs. No. 2 New Castle

8 p.m. Saturday at North Allegheny

On the air: TribHSSN.TribLive.com (video stream)

Winner plays: District 8, 9 or 10 champion in PIAA quarterfinals, March 19

How they got here: Chartiers Valley defeated No. 17 McKeesport, 71-56, in the first round; No. 8 Gateway, 53-47, in the quarterfinals; and No. 5 Mars, 63-55, in the semifinals; New Castle defeated No. 15 Plum, 68-38, in the first round; No. 10 Latrobe, 65-51, in the quarterfinals; and No. 3 Laurel Highlands, 69-60, in the semifinals.

Starting lineups

Chartiers Valley (22-3)

Coach: Brandon Sensor

No., Player, Pos., Ht., Yr.

4, Brayden Reynolds, G, 6-3, Sr.

10, Socrates Boulis, F, 6-2, Sr.

12, Garrett Alauzen, G, 6-1, Sr.

13, Carter Mastovich, G, 6-1, Jr.

15, Anthony Mackey, G, 5-11, Jr.

New Castle (20-2)

Coach: Ralph Blundo

No., Player, Pos., Ht., Yr.

1, Michael Graham, G, 5-11, Jr.

2, Donny Cade, F, 6-1, Sr.

3, Michael Wells, F, 6-3, Jr.

5, Isaiah Boice, G, 5-11, So.

11, Sheldon Cox, G, 6-3, Sr.

Title-game history: New Castle has won 13 WPIAL titles overall, including six under Blundo (2012, ’13, ’14, ’17, ’18 and ’19). Chartiers Valley has six WPIAL titles with its most recent in 2010.

Notable: Chartiers Valley and New Castle share a section and split their two regular-season contests. Each team won big on the other’s home court. New Castle won 73-45 on Jan. 19, and Chartiers Valley won the rematch 77-59 on Feb. 12. … New Castle (72.8 ppg) has the highest-scoring offense in WPIAL Class 5A and Chartiers Valley (68.4) ranks second. … Reynolds averages 25 points per game. He scored 42 in Chartiers Valley’s win at New Castle. … Wells is an 18-point scorer for the Red Hurricanes, Sheldon Cox averages 16 and Boice averages 14. … New Castle moved up to Class 5A this season … This is Sensor’s third season as Chartiers Valley’s coach. The East Allegheny graduate previously coached high school basketball in Florida … New Castle is 13-3 all-time in WPIAL championships.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Chartiers Valley, New Castle