What to watch for in WPIAL sports on Feb. 18, 2021: South Hills powers square off

By: Don Rebel
Thursday, February 18, 2021 | 12:10 AM

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Upper St. Clair, Mt. Lebanon and Bethel Park girls have all been ranked in the Trib HSSN top 5 all season long.

The combined overall record of these three juggernauts is 34-6.

However, because of the Mt. Lebanon mask policy, not allowing the Blue Devils to play teams without masks, four showdowns between Mt. Lebanon and Bethel Park and the Blue Devils and USC Panthers are not going to happen in the regular season.

So we hang our hat for Section 2-6A showdowns on Upper St. Clair (5-0, 11-1) against Bethel Park (3-1, 11-2).

The second meeting between neighboring South Hills powers takes place Thursday at Bethel Park and can be viewed here on HSSN.

In the first meeting on Feb. 1, host Upper St. Clair edged Bethel Park, 49-47.

The Panthers led 44-31 after three quarters but struggled from the free-throw line as the Black Hawks stormed back to make it close down to the wire.

Sophomore Katie Robbins led USC with 13 points while senior Olivia Westphal led all scorers with 22 points for BP.

California dreamin’

Both the California boys and girls basketball teams can take over first place in their sections with victories on Thursday.

The Trojans boys team is at Frazier. Both teams only have one loss in the section; however, the Commodores have seven wins while Cal has only two.

Monessen is also in the hunt at 5-2 in Section 4-2A.

California won the first meeting, 53-43 on Jan. 29.

The California girls team is also on the road, facing Serra Catholic.

The Trojans are 3-0 in Section 2-2A while the top-ranked Eagles are 5-0.

This is the first and possibly only meeting between the two teams in the regular season.

You can listen to both games Thursday on HSSN.

Sub-sectionals continue

The WPIAL individual wrestling postseason continues on Thursday with one last round of Class AAA sub-sectionals.

The event will be held at these four locations:

Section 2-A at Thomas Jefferson

Section 2-B at Hempfield

Section 3-A at Seneca Valley

Section 3-A at North Allegheny

The top two qualifiers from each weight division advances to the Class AAA sectionals on Saturday morning at Canon-McMillan.

The WPIAL Class AAA championships will also be at Canon-Mac on Saturday, Feb. 27 on HSSN.

The AA Section 1, 2 and 3 sectionals are slated for Friday at Canon-McMillan.