Feb 7, 2025 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

The WPIAL girls basketball playoff field is set, so now the only question remaining is how each team will be seeded.

Best of luck to the WPIAL steering committee on their upcoming endeavor.

They might need all weekend to render verdicts on where to put teams in in the Class 5A and 2A brackets.

All the brackets will be released Monday afternoon.

Class 5A section champs South Fayette, Peters Township and Penn-Trafford are all unbeaten against WPIAL opponents this season.

Co-champs in two sections make the picture murky in Class 2A.

Before breaking down the tough decisions, let’s look at the local teams that qualified by classification.

Canon-McMillan made it in Class 6A. Peters Township and South Fayette won section titles in Class 5A. Belle Vernon qualified in Class 4A and McGuffey in 3A.

In Class 2A, Fort Cherry, Chartiers-Houston, Burgettstown, Beth-Center, California, Bentworth and Carmichaels all qualified and West Greene is the lone representative in Class A.

In sections with six or seven teams, the top four teams received playoff berths, while sections with eight teams had five make it into the playoffs unless there were fourth- or fifth-place ties.

Now let’s dive into Class 5A.

South Fayette was first in Section 3, is the three-time defending champion, and its only loss was in Florida against a St. Mary’s team from New York. The Lions’ resume includes a 12-point road win against Class 6A Section 2 leader Norwin.

Peters Township’s only two losses came against teams from Ohio and the Indians might have the best player in the district in Miami (Fla.) recruit Natalie Wetzel.

Section 2 champ Penn-Trafford is unbeaten at 20-0 and defeated Section 1 champion Franklin Regional by 26 points in December.

It’s hard to visualize South Fayette and Peters Township on the same side of the bracket, but it could happen if Penn-Trafford is rewarded with the top spot for going unbeaten through the entire regular season.

This will be a difficult puzzle to solve.

Sorting out the Class 2A field will not be a picnic either.

Neshannock and Aliquippa shared the Section 1 title and Fort Cherry and South Side Beaver split Section 2.

The Rangers had a chance to win the section outright on Thursday, but lost by a point to South Side and it might affect their seeding.

There’s a case to be made for the four co-champs and Section 4 champ Winchester Thurston to claim one of those top two spots.

Neshannock is seemingly the favorite for the top spot after a 30-point win over Aliquippa on Jan. 27.

The Quips did beat the Lancers in the first meeting by two points and are the only Class 2A team to defeat them.

Fort Cherry had won 15 in a row prior to the one-point loss to the Rams, which was only the second loss of the season.

South Side is the lone Class 2A team to beat the Rangers.

Winchester Thurston boasts one of the best defenses in Class 2A and has won 15 in a row.

Chartiers-Houston might be hurt the most by the co-section champions.

The Bucs went unbeaten in Section 3, but lost to Winchester Thurston and Fort Cherry, so they could be looking at a fifth or possibly sixth seed even after a section championship.

One more intriguing thing to look out for is if Canon-McMillan gets a top-four seed in the eight-team Class 6A field.

The Big Macs, who are back in the playoffs for the first time in nine years, finished third in Section 2, but have been playing great basketball down the stretch.

They beat second-place Upper St. Clair and nearly pulled off a win over likely top-seed Norwin on Tuesday but lost by two points.

Section 1 is much weaker than it has been in recent years. Two of the playoff qualifiers, Pine-Richland and North Allegheny, have losing records and Pine-Richland finished in second place.

That leaves the door plenty ajar for the Big Macs to get a top-four spot and home game for the quarterfinals.

Staff writer Jerin Steele can be reached at jsteele@observer-reporter.com