WPIAL asks playoff basketball teams: ‘What have you done for me lately?’

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, February 15, 2022 | 12:04 AM

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The WPIAL basketball committee had a question for playoff teams: “What have you done for me lately?”

The Montour boys, the Aliquippa boys and a number of other qualifiers with strong regular-season finishes had the right answer. They received a bump to higher seeds Monday night when the WPIAL revealed its playoff brackets on TribLive HSSN.

The lesson: Winning in February carries more weight than a win in December.

Consider, Montour had four losses and Aliquippa had seven, yet each received a No. 2 seed Monday because of what they did — and what others didn’t do — in the past two weeks. In contrast, a perceived late-season stumble caused the North Catholic boys, among others, to slide a couple of spots despite strong overall resumes.

“There were a lot of scenarios like that, where teams at the end of the year may have lost that critical game, or others really started playing well,” said WPIAL basketball committee chairman Bill Cardone, athletic director at Hampton. “I think we put a lot of stock in, ‘What have you done for me lately?’”

Montour won its final six games and 10 of its last 11. The committee wasn’t only interested in the quantity of wins but also the quality. The Spartans defeated WPIAL contenders Belle Vernon, 65-48, and Lincoln Park, 69-67, in a three-day span this month.

“We’re peaking at the right time,” Montour coach Bill Minear said. “I kind of tried to pace the season where we gave the team days off to keep them fresh. We’re fresh. We have legs. Guys are hungry.”

Montour (18-4, 11-3) finished second in Section 2 behind undefeated Quaker Valley (20-0, 12-0), which was a lock for the No. 1 seed in Class 4A.

North Catholic (17-2) and Belle Vernon (18-2) won the other 4A sections, but the WPIAL rewarded second-place Montour with the No. 2 seed instead.

“I was a little surprised because we weren’t a section leader,” Minear said. “Have we played a pretty difficult schedule? Yes, and we’ve done pretty well. I was pleased the committee took into account our (late-season) schedule.”

North Catholic was in position for a top-three seed before losing Friday to Deer Lakes in the section finale. The 74-72 loss snapped a seven-game winning streak.

“North Catholic was there,” Cardone said. “They could have come out as a possible three seed. It’s something we really considered.”

The Aliquippa boys were 8-6 in mid-January before winning seven of their last eight games, including double-digit wins over Lincoln Park, 65-50, and Seton LaSalle, 59-46.

The Quips were rewarded with the No. 2 seed in Class 3A.

“Aliquippa is a perfect example,” Cardone said. “Look at the body of work they had at the end of the year.”

That short-term memory also applied to breaking ties between co-champions. The committee almost always rewarded the team that won the second of the two head-to-head matchups.

Among boys teams, that proved true for Mt. Lebanon over Upper St. Clair, Aliquippa over Seton LaSalle, Shady Side Academy over South Allegheny and Fort Cherry over Carlynton. In the girls brackets, a win in the rematch saw McKeesport seeded over Latrobe, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart over Neshannock and Rochester over Union.

The only co-champions that didn’t follow that pattern were in Class 3A girls, where No. 4 South Park was seeded ahead of No. 5 Waynesburg despite losing to Waynesburg in the section rematch.

Otherwise, the WPIAL was consistent. In 6A boys, for example, Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon finished tied for the Section 2 title with 7-3 records. USC won 48-46 on Jan. 18. When they met again Friday, Mt. Lebanon won, 41-30.

“We took stock in those situations that happened at the end,” Cardone said.

Mt. Lebanon was seeded fourth and USC was fifth. That small change could make a big difference since the WPIAL is awarding home games to higher-seeded teams in the first round and quarterfinals.

The South Hills rivals could meet in the quarterfinals Feb. 25.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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