Feb 24, 2020 3 min read

During this time of year, high school basketball coaches are usually scrambling to acquire game tapes from willing sources, surfing the Internet for information and making scouting trips to learn as much as possible about a playoff opponent.

The latest scouting report for the undefeated West Greene girls team is considerably easier than for most playoff teams.

All Pioneers head coach Jordan Watson had to do was pop in a video of West Greene’s game Jan. 30 to get a good look at his team’s semifinal opponent, Sewickley Academy.

West Greene (23-0) and Sewickley Academy (14-10) will meet tonight at Canon-McMillan High School in the WPIAL Class A semifinals. Tipoff is 6:15 p.m.

The game is a rematch from four weeks ago, when West Greene cruised to a 72-54 win in a non-section game played on the Pioneers’ home court.

“The first game, I don’t see this one unfolding the same way,” Watson admitted. “We scored 72 points and they are one of the best defensive teams around.”

Sewickley Academy allows only 39 points per game and upset third-seeded Vincentian Academy 43-31 in the quarterfinals. A slow-paced game is preferred by the Panthers. West Greene, which lives off its full-court press, prefers a game played at a rapid pace.

“In that first game against Sewickley Academy, we had the tempo where we wanted to to be,” Watson said. “They have played most of their games in the thirties and forties. We made 23 of 26 free throws in that game.”

West Greene also made nine three-pointers.

“And they had zero three-pointers,” Watson recalled, “so right there we were plus-27 and then throw in all the foul shots.”

Jersey Wise scored a game-high 25 points for the Pioneers. Anna Durbin and Elizabeth Brudnock scored 16 and 14 points, respectively. The Pioneers did a good job in the first meeting against Sewickley Academy’s talented Bre Warner but Desirae Nance scored a career-high 23 points.

“Their recipe for winning is going to be get us in foul trouble and crash the boards like crazy,” Watson said. “It’s all going to come down to rebounding.”

West Greene was beaten on the boards by Avella in the quarterfinals but their full-court press wore down the Eagles in the fourth quarter for a 55-45 victory. Watson knows his team has to rebound better against a taller Sewickley Academy team but says he’s seen good things from his two low-post players, junior Kaytlynn Walls and sophomore Brooke Barner.

“Those two will have to rebound like crazy,” Watson said. “They’ve been very good all year. They’re always flirting with double-doubles. Walls has been very good on defense. She was again against Avella. She altered a lot of their shots.”

This is hardly uncharted territory for West Greene. The Pioneers are in the semifinals for the fourth consecutive year and have been in the finals each of the last two. With a win over Sewickley Academy already in hand, you’d think the Pioneers wouldn’t get too excited about another matchup with the Panthers in the semifinals. Watson said that’s isn’t the case.

“We’ve talked about that. … We won’t be overlooking them,” he said.

Sewickley Academy, which lost to Vincentian Academy twice during section play before pulling off the playoff upset, is coached by Mark Gaither. If that name sounds familiar to Washington County basketball fans it’s because it should. Gaither is a former head coach of the boys teams at Washington, Ringgold and Bethel Park.