Loss in final can’t taint WG girls’ accomplishments
No matter the sport, a playoff loss is always tough to take.
But if the playoff loss is in the championship game, you can almost double the hurt.
For the second straight season, the West Greene girls basketball team fell in the WPIAL Class A championship at the Peterson Events Center, 62-56, to Rochester last Friday.
The Lady Pioneers came out firing in the opening quarter and after a 15-0 run were up 17-5 over the Lady Rams. But after an electric first period, West Greene suffered a cold-shooting spell and couldn’t keep up with Rochester’s size.
Expectations were raised for this team and I think many at the start of the playoffs thought West Greene was almost a shoe-in to win the title. That last sentence just sounds crazy if you were to tell me that a couple of seasons ago.
When I first started out with the Greene County Messenger 10 years ago, I was excited to see our local basketball teams make the playoffs. If they won one game in the postseason, that was an amazing feat.
Non-boundary schools and schools around Pittsburgh had always dominated the basketball playoffs, but the Lady Pioneers changed the script for sure over the last four years.
They are 5-4 in the WPIAL playoffs with three trips to the semifinals and two appearances in the title game in the last four seasons. That’s an unprecedented record and I don’t think any basketball team in the county can come close to it.
Sure, a title last Friday would have been really nice for West Greene, but please do not take any of the Lady Pioneers’ accomplishments on the hardwood for granted. They raised the bar and have had a heck of a run.
But that run is not over just yet.
The Lady Pioneers will begin the PIAA playoffs on Saturday against District 10 champion Kennedy Catholic at Canon-McMillan High School. Tipoff is at 3 p.m.
This is the third year in a row that West Greene has entered the state playoffs and it has dropped two close games in the first round over the last two seasons, 67-63 to Farrell last year and 61-57 to Otto-Eldred the previous year (I bet most of Pioneer Nation remember that long drive to Bradford High School).
PIAA brackets can sometimes be hard to figure out, and for weeks leading up to the release of the brackets they have had the District 7 team runner-up going up against the District 9 or 10 fourth-place team.
Something must have changed. So instead of going up against a fourth-place team out of District 9, the Lady Pioneers will now have their hands full against Kennedy Catholic.
District 10 is one of those small districts in the state and their playoffs this season only consisted of two teams with Kennedy Catholic defeating Farrell, 64-40, in the finals.
The Lady Golden Eagles (17-6) have won their district nine years in a row and have had plenty of success in the state playoffs over the years by advancing to the quarterfinal round the last seven seasons.
They lost to Archbishop Carroll in the round of eight last season.
Four of the six losses by Kennedy Catholic this year have been to WPIAL teams, Mars, Neshannock, Central Valley and Laurel.
Offensively, the Lady Golden Eagles are led by junior guard Malia Magestro. The Youngstown State recruit is averaging 28.8 points per game this winter.
But don’t count West Greene out on Saturday, as the Lady Pioneers have plenty on the line.
West Greene’s senior class — Brianna Goodwin, Madison Lampe, McKenna Lampe, Savannah Pettit and Kaitlyn Rizor — is looking for its 80th career win. If the Lady Pioneers can get a victory, it will break a school record for wins in a season with 23.
The Lady Pioneers are also looking to become the first girls basketball squad in Greene County to win a state playoff game and the first basketball team overall to do so in the county since the Jefferson-Morgan boys in 2000 (65-47 over Forbes Road).
Win or lose on Saturday, the Lady Pioneers have definitely had an impact on Greene County basketball, and they should be listed as one of the top programs in the area of all-time.