Path to finals cluttered with powerhouses
GREEN TREE – Uniontown and Albert Gallatin split their games during the regular season and wound up sharing the Section 1-AAAA boys basketball title, while Geibel Catholic and Carmichaels did the same in tying for the Section 2-A crown. Those teams find rough roads in front of them if they want to settle their scores with a third showdown.
The Colonials and Red Raiders were seeded seventh and eighth, respectively, in the Quad-A playoff bracket revealed by the WPIAL at Tuesday night’s pairings meeting held at the Green Tree Radisson Hotel.
The Gators and Mikes were given those same slots – seventh and eighth – in Class A.
As a result, several powerhouses stand in the way of all four in their quest for rematches.
Laurel Highlands, which finished third in Section 3 but was in the running for a share of first place up until its regular-season finale, drew a No. 11 seed in Class AAA.
Frazier was shockingly seeded 17th, or dead last, while California was only a few spots higher at 15th in the Class A bracket. The Trojans are the fourth different team that first-year coach Phil Pergola has led into the postseason.
Uniontown (15-7) faces ninth-seeded Mount Lebanon (18-6), which finished third in highly regarded Section 4, in the first round at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Ringgold High School. Albert Gallatin (17-6) opens against 10th-seeded New Castle (19-5), which tied for third in Section 3, also at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Ambridge High School.
Ken Misiak, who recently recorded his 700th career coaching victory, will lead Geibel (17-4) against and old rival in 10th-seeded Monessen (8-13), which was tied for second in Section 3. Those two play at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, next Wednesday at 8 p.m. in a doubleheader with the Geibel girls, who play at 6:30 p.m.
Don Williams, who is in his 30th season as Carmichaels’ coach, will lead the Mikes (17-4) against ninth-seeded Western Beaver (10-9), which finished in a three-way tie for third in Section 1.
The Red Raiders face a potential match-up with top-seeded McKeesport in the quarterfinals, although coach Rob Kezmarsky isn’t looking past his opener, for obvious reasons.
“The kids worked very hard to get to this point,” said Kezmarsky, who has guided Uniontown to three straight section championships but has yet to win a postseason game in that span, going 0-2 in the WPIAL and 0-1 in the PIAA. “We just want to come out relaxed, play with confidence and play as hard as we can.”
An opening win by AG could put it up against second-seeded Upper St. Clair in the quarterfinals, the team coach Dan Andria’s Colonials stunned as defending WPIAL champions in a first-round upset in 1997. But first Albert Gallatin, which is in the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history and fourth time overall, will have to deal with the Red Hurricanes.
“They have a great program, one of the best in the state, with a lot of tradition,” said Andria, who has guided AG to three of its four playoff berths. “They’re going to be a load. Everybody that’s here is tough, though.”
The Mustangs (14-10), making their fourth playoff appearance in five years and first under first-year coach Rick Hauger, play sixth-seeded Hopewell (16-7), which finished second in Section 2, at 7 p.m. on Monday at Upper St. Clair.
“I don’t know the first thing about them,” Hauger said of Hopewell. “An 11 seed is pretty close to what I thought. I figured somewhere around 10 to 12. We’ll get the tapes, make some calls and see what we can find out. Playing Monday gives us enough time to prepare.”
None of the area’s Class A teams were given much respect in the seedings, but at least Misiak was happy with the site of his game.
“I’m glad it’s at Penn State Fayette,” Misiak said. “We’re familiar with Monessen. It’s like any other game. The kids have to be ready to play.”
Prior to the game it was announced that Geibel was the highest scoring team in Class A (73.5), while Carmichaels had the best scoring defense (42.7), but neither of those stats seemed to figure much in the brackets.
Williams wasn’t at all pleased with the Mikes’ draw.
“I was disappointed. I thought they’d at least make us a sixth seed,” Williams said. “But you never know what they’re going to do. I was told Western Beaver is very athletic and has a strong inside game.”
The Commodores (11-13), who wound up fourth in Section 3, faces 16th-seeded Avella (7-15), the fourth-place team out of Section 2, in a preliminary-round game at 8 p.m. on Friday at South Fayette High School. The winner plays top-seeded Duquesne in the first round, and the winner there would get the Carmichaels-Western Beaver survivor next.
“I’m a little disappointed with the seed,” Frazier coach Larry Mikesell said. “I mean, that put us last. I imagine seeing our record that they seeded us low, but …
“It is nice to see the kids get into the playoffs. They worked very hard.”
Even California coach Phil Pergola was shocked at Frazier’s seeding.
“We were seeded 15th, and I thought we’d be a little better than that, but my biggest surprise was seeing Frazier seeded 17th,” said Pergola, whose Trojans will play second-seeded St. Joseph (18-5), the second-place team in powerful Section 4. “You either play them early or play them late. Either way you’ve still got to play them.”
If the Trojans pull the upset, they’ll draw the Geibel-Monessen winner in the quarterfinals.
While Frazier and California drew low seeds, Clairton, under the guidance of former Brownsville coach Pete Logan, was given the No. 5 slot in Class A despite a 10-11 record. The Bears will play 12th-seeded Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (12-11), which tied for third place in Section 1, in an 8 p.m. game on Tuesday at Cornell.
“We beat (third-seeded) Serra Catholic and Monessen in back-to-back games late in the season and I think that helped us,” said Logan, who led the Falcons to the 2001 Class AAA WPIAL title. “I think out young kids got better and better as the season went on.”
Belle Vernon (11-11) and Waynesburg Central (13-11) were seeded 14th and 18th in Class AAA.
Coach John Dudzinski’s Leopards, who finished fourth in Section 3, drew third-seeded West Mifflin (17-6), the Section 4 champion, in a first-round game at Ringgold on Monday at 8 p.m.
Coach Mark Stoner’s Raiders, who wound up for fourth in Section 4, play a preliminary-round game against 17th-seeded Valley (10-11), the fourth-place team out of Section 1. That contest will tip off at 8 p.m. on Friday at Norwin High School.
The top eight seeds in each bracket were as follows (in order):
Quad-A – McKeesport, Upper St. Clair, Shaler, North Allegheny, Chartiers Valley, Baldwin, Albert Gallatin and Uniontown.
Class AAA – Moon, Knoch, West Mifflin, Hampton, Greensburg Salem, Hopewell, Yough and Elizabeth-Forward.
Class AA – Beaver Falls, Aliquippa, Jeannette, Quaker Valley, Farrell, Washington, North Catholic and Fort Cherry.
Class A – Duquesne, St. Joseph, Serra Catholic, Cornell, Clairton, Sewickley Academy, Geibel Catholic and Carmichaels.