Feb 21, 2022 3 min read

BURGETTSTOWN – The last time Burgettstown’s girls’ basketball team won a playoff game, Bill Clinton was beginning his first term as president, Kurt Cobain was still leading Nirvana and Barry Bonds was months away from playing his first game in a San Francisco Giants uniform.

Monday night, the Blue Devils broke a 29-year drought and did so emphatically, with a 65-22 demolition of California.

Burgettstown (18-3) outscored the Trojans (13-9) 18-3 in the first quarter and 18-4 in the second quarter, deciding the outcome of Monday night’s first-round WPIAL girls 2A contest before halftime.

It was an excellent night to be a Devil.

“It feels really good,” coach Megan Zitner said.” We were 0-for-4 the last four playoff chances we had, so it feels really good.”

“It’s pretty cool,” sophomore Kaitlyn Nease, who finished with 14 points, said. “I’m glad I get to experience this with all my friends and my team.”

Madeline Newark led the way for the Blue Devils with 15 points, and Jill Frazier joined Nease with 14. Addie Cairns chipped in 11.

Last year, Burgettstown laid an egg against Greensburg Central Catholic on its home court in a 52-39 first-round loss.

Two years ago, the Blue Devils fell 32-28 to Northgate in the first round.

The year before that, they bowed out to OLSH in Round 1.

In the days leading up to this year’s playoffs, Zitner noticed confidence surrounding her team that wasn’t there before.

“The way that they’ve been the last few days (was) more relaxed and more confident than in years past,” she said. “In the past, I thought we were nervous; a little intimidated going into the playoffs. Now, I think that they know that they belong here.”

California ended its season 13-10.

The Trojans fell to the Blue Devils 56-30 when the teams met in the regular season, and things only got worse in the playoffs.

“We played (Burgettstown) earlier in the year, and we just really struggled with their length,” California coach Melanie Greco, who just wrapped up her first season, said, “But we’re a relatively young team, so hopefully we’ll pick things up and keep moving forward.”

California will have to wait more than nine months to play its next real game.

Burgettstown doesn’t even have to wait 72 hours.

The Blue Devils will take on third-seeded Serra Catholic Thursday night in the quarterfinal.

For Zitner, the keys to continuing to make a run are straightforward.

“We’re just going to have to continue to play hard defense,” she said. “We have to have good shooting nights and eliminate turnovers.”