Feb 17, 2003 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

CALIFORNIA – California coach Steve Luko thought his team had established itself a bit over the past two seasons. The WPIAL disagreed, to Luko’s dismay.

The Section 2 champion Trojans (17-5, 11-1) were seeded eighth in the Class A boys basketball pairings and will face ninth-seeded Cornell in a first-round game at South Fayette on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

“I was disappointed,” said Luko. “I kept hearing so many stories about politics and how they favor the schools from the Pittsburgh area, and then we get an eighth seed as a section champion. I figured the worst we could be was sixth.”

There are four sections in Class A and two of them had co-champions. All five of the other first-place teams, as well as Clairton (second-place in Section 3) and Serra (third place in Section 4), were seeded above California.

What was surprising to Luko was the WPIAL supposedly likes for teams to prove themselves, and his squad upset Union in the first round last year, 65-56, and then took eventual champion Monessen to the final seconds before falling, 59-55. With virtually the same cast of characters back again, the Trojans followed that up with a section title this season.

“What bothers me is we didn’t get any reward for winning the section,” Luko said. “We really didn’t get any respect at all.”

Luko has nothing to prove to Cornell coach Bill Sacco, however.

“I agree that they probably deserved a higher seed,” Sacco said. “I don’t like the bracket we’re in, either. They put four first-place teams in this bracket and just two in the other. Plus the winner of our game has to play (top-seeded) Monessen. We’ve already played them twice.”

California also had played Monessen, falling by a 68-56 count in a competitive game. The Raiders split with the Greyhounds.

The Trojans’ non-section schedule also included one game against a Quad-A team (a loss to Ringgold), one game against a City League team (a loss to Langley), two games against a Class AAA team (a split with Elizabeth-Forward), two games against a Class AA team (a sweep of Charleroi), and three games against other Class A teams (two wins over Frazier, one over playoff-bound Bentworth).

Cornell (13-9, 6-4) finished third behind Monessen and second-seeded Clairton in Section 3, which is considered one of the toughest Class A leagues.

“When I look at the top five teams (in the seedings), we played four of them,” Sacco said. “A lot of teams didn’t play any of them. I think we played competitively against those teams. But this is our first trip to the playoffs in a few years, so none of our kids have playoff experience. How well we do will depend partly on how they react to that.”

The Trojans do have the advantage of having playoff seasoning.

“There was a little bit of carryover from last year, and our kids played well in some big games,” said Luko, whose team is riding a seven-game winning streak. “We were down against Geibel in the game that decided the section title, and we kept our composure and showed some maturity in coming back from down 10 to win in overtime.

“Plus, I think our kids have something to prove with the lack of respect they got in the seedings.”

That respect will have to be earned with a win over a tough Cornell team.

“Our tapes showed them playing zone and man, so we’ll prepare for both,” Luko said. “It seems like they play very good defense, although they don’t seem to have an outstanding shooter. I think they’ll try to keep the score in the low fifties.”

California’s starting lineup is led by 6-foot-3 senior forward Ricky Cope, who’s among the WPIAL leaders with a 17.7 scoring average. Joining him will be 6-0 senior guard Ryan Robinson, 5-11 senior guard Shane Tonkavitch, 6-3 senior forward Thom Russell, and 6-4 junior center Dan DeMoss. Key players off the bench are 5-10 junior guard Robbie Galis and 6-1 senior forward Nigel Wright.

“I think they have good size and good shooters, and we’re not that big, so that could present a problem,” said Sacco, whose team has won seven of its last nine games. “I think we’re playing pretty well right now. We beat OLSH and (fifth-seeded) St. Joseph’s in our last two games.”

Monessen has a first-round bye.