South Fayette completes three-peat with another WPIAL title
By The Observer-Reporter
PITTSBURGH – The winner, and still champion, in WPIAL Class 5A girls basketball, is South Fayette.
Sophomore Juliette Leroux scored 18 points, senior Erica Hall and sophomore Haylie Lamonde each added 17 and South Fayette won its third consecutive WPIAL championship by holding off Armstrong, 70-63, Saturday at the Petersen Events Center.
It is South Fayette’s fourth WPIAL title.
Though South Fayette (18-8) was able to three-peat, the Lions did it the hard way this year, finishing in third place in rugged Section 4 and coming from the No. 6 seed to win the championship, beating three higher-seeded teams along the way, including fifth-seeded Armstrong (21-5).
The Lions won their first two championships with a pair of Division I recruits, Maddie Webber and Ava Leroux, but this time they began the season in a rebuilding mode. It turned out that they were just reloading.
“The first (championship), no one expected us to beat Char Valley. Last year, if we would have lost, it would have been a bad one but we took care of business,” South Fayette coach Bryan Bennett said. “This one is kind of similar to the Char Valley one, where no one expected us to be here. … These kids had something to prove. I knew we still had a lot of talent.”
South Fayette will take a six-game winning streak into the PIAA playoffs that begin next weekend.
The Lions won behind a sizzling first half, when they made six of 10 shots from three-point range. South Fayette led 14-10 after one quarter and 35-25 at halftime.
Hall made two three-pointers and Lamonde added one during a key 13-7 spurt in the second quarter. South Fayette was 4-for-6 from three-point range in the quarter.
Armstrong, which knocked off top-seeded Oakland Catholic in the semifinals, closed to within 47-43 entering the fourth quarter. The third quarter ended with a buzzer-beater by Hall.
Guard Emma Paul helped get the River Hawks, who were playing in the first championship game in school history, within striking distance as she scored a game-high 36 points that included six three-point field goals. Paul made 12 of 27 shots.
“What we saw tonight is what we saw on film,” Bennett said. “We knew we were going to have our hands full. She made a couple of big bombs. … I thought it was over but she got them back in it.”
Armstrong never got closer than three points (53-50) in the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Leroux and a layup by Hall put South Fayette up 60-53 with three minutes to go. The Lions made 12 of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter and 19 of 25 in the game.
“It’s unbelievable that we made it here,” Hall said. “Once we saw our seeding, we knew we had something to prove.”
South Fayette will face Red Land, the eighth-place team from District 3, in the first round of the state playoffs.