South Fayette’s state title highlights memorable local basketball season
About a half hour after South Fayette finished off its second consecutive state championship with a 45-35 win over Archbishop Wood, the topic of whether or not they were the best team in the state was brought up in the media room.
Every writer in the room, and not just ones from the Pittsburgh area, but all corners of Pennsylvania agreed the Lions were indeed the best girls basketball team this year no matter the classification.
It’s hard to get a room full of sports writers to agree on something unanimously, but South Fayette left no doubt by backing up last year’s state title.
The win Saturday night at the Giant Center in Hershey highlighted a memorable and historic season in local high school basketball.
Count Archbishop Wood coach Mike McDonald as someone who thinks that South Fayette was first in class of anyone in the state. His Vikings have faced the Lions each of the last two seasons in the state finals.
“They have great length, athleticism and they can all move and put the ball on the floor,” McDonald said after the game Saturday. “(South Fayette coach Bryan Bennett) runs really good actions when they are in the halfcourt, but their transition game is special. We talked about that before the game. If we didn’t get back on defense it was going to be a long day for us.”
It’s truly impressive what Bennett and his staff have done at a public school, making five consecutive trips to the WPIAL championship game, winning four of them and making it to the state championship three times in four years.
The senior trio of Haylie Lamonde (USC Upstate), Juliette Leroux (Florida Atlantic) and Ryan Oldaker (Marist) finished their South Fayette careers with a 106-15 record and with the perfect ending as two-time state champs.
“Playing with my best friends has been an amazing experience,” Oldaker said. “I just love them so much and I’m happy we were able to win another (state title).”
Canon-Mac wins first WPIAL title
The Canon-McMillan girls basketball program celebrated its 50th season by winning its first WPIAL title.
Prior to this season the Big Macs had never been in a WPIAL championship, but led by three seniors, Madison Clair, Lauren Borella and Sam Miller, they downed Norwin 50-38 at Petersen Events Center on Feb. 28.
The Big Macs went on to advance to the state quarterfinals for the first time before their dream season ended with a 54-39 loss to Dallastown at Altoona.
Canon-McMillan set a program record for wins in a season with 23 and a new standard going forward.
As Big Macs coach John Fontana said after the loss to Dallastown, Clair, Miller and Borella have left a long-lasting legacy on the program.
PT makes another run
In January the Peters Township girls basketball team was in danger of missing the WPIAL playoffs.
Going into their first time playing without standout Natalie Wetzel, who’s now at Miami Fla., the Indians struggled early on, but they righted the ship down the stretch and ended up making another run to the state semifinals.
After pulling two upsets in the WPIAL playoffs against Plum and Baldwin, the Indians made the semifinals before losing to South Fayette.
The regrouped and defeated three District 3 teams, Susquehannock, Manheim Central and York Suburban to reach the state semifinals for the second consecutive season. Their season was ended by South Fayette again, but the Indians played a lot more basketball than many might’ve expected at the midpoint of the regular season.
Bri Morreale and Alina Sopko finished their four years with 81 wins, one win short of the program record, which was set when Makenna Marisa was there.
Boys teams make history
While no local boys team made it to a WPIAL championship game, there were some long droughts that ended.
Jefferson-Morgan won a WPIAL playoff game for the first time in 26 years with a 49-35 victory over Springdale. The Rockets, which started five seniors, also won a state playoff game for the first time in that span by going up to Redbank Valley and earning a 50-26 win.
They also won a section title for the first time in 25 years.
Avella had its first winning season in 15 years and recorded 10 wins for only the third time since 2011. The Eagles finished 16-6 and though their season came to a bitter end with a loss to Serra Catholic in the WPIAL Class A quarterfinals, their eight seniors led by 1,000-point scorer Bryce Wright made plenty of good memories.
Dylan Donovan became Peters Township’s all-time leading scorer in a game against South Fayette on Jan. 30. He clinched the record on a free throw in the fourth quarter, scoring his 1,293rd point and passed Eric Lang for first place on the list. Lang set the previous record in 2000.