Freshman Rylee Kalocay’s late-game heroics take Upper St. Clair back to WPIAL finals
By:
Saturday, February 26, 2022 | 5:35 PM
The Upper St. Clair girls basketball team celebrates after defeating North Allegheny in a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Rylee Kalocay celebrates after scoring in the final seconds against North Allegheny during a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Rylee Kalocay scores against North Allegheny during a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Rylee Kalocay battles North Allegheny’s Lydia Betz for a loose ball during their WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Mia Brown shoots a three-pointer against North Allegheny during a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Katelyn Robbins scores against North Allegheny during a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Samantha Prunzik scores past North Allegheny’s Cam Phillips during their WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Mia Brown drives to the basket against North Allegheny’s Taylor Rawls during their WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Rylee Kalocay is fouled by North Allegheny’s Taylor Rawls during their WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair’s Rylee Kalocay celebrates after scoring in the final seconds against North Allegheny during a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, at UMPC Events Center in Moon.
Upper St. Clair freshman Rylee Kalocay didn’t start Saturday’s semifinal, but she certainly finished it.
Kalocay scored her team’s final nine points including a tying 3-pointer, a go-ahead runner with 3.2 seconds left and two free throws with seven-tenths on the clock. Combined, that let No. 3 seed Upper St. Clair celebrate a 48-44 victory over No. 2 North Allegheny in the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs at Robert Morris.
The 5-foot-8 guard also made a game-clinching steal — not bad for a ninth grader who’s the first player off the bench.
“I’ve known her since she was in fifth grade,” USC coach Pete Serio said, “and the moment is never going to be too big for that child.”
USC junior Kate Robbins scored a game-high 18 points and Kalocay had 13 with nine in the fourth quarter.
The win takes Upper St. Clair (20-4) to the WPIAL finals for the second year in a row. The Panthers will face Mt. Lebanon in the 6A final at 7 p.m. Friday at Petersen Events Center.
Here was the shot of the day during today’s #WPIAL tripleheader at Robert Morris. Upper St. Clair freshman Rylee Kalocay made a go-ahead runner with 3.2 seconds left to win the 6A semifinal #HSSN pic.twitter.com/fjj4CE8Q40
— Chris Harlan (@CHarlan_Trib) February 26, 2022
“We’ve lost (four) years in a row to NA, knocking us out of the WPIALs,” said Kalocay, who watched three of those losses in person. “(Winning this) was a great feeling.”
That monkey officially is off USC’s back.
“It was a big monkey,” Serio said.
North Allegheny (21-3) and Upper St. Clair met six times in the past five seasons, including four WPIAL playoff games. NA won all six games, including 70-36 in last year’s WPIAL finals.
Taylor Rawls led North Allegheny with 15 points and Jasmine Timmerson had 12. The Tigers were two-time defending WPIAL Class 6A champions and had won four titles in five years.
NA’s season will continue in the PIAA playoffs.
“We certainly had our stretch in the game, but they were just better for longer,” NA coach Spencer Stefko said. “That’s how you get to the WPIAL championship game. They deserve all of that credit and they deserve to go.”
Upper St. Clair led 29-18 at halftime but saw its 11-point lead vanish in the second half. USC was outscored 18-7 in the third quarter, ending with a game-tying 3-pointer by Timmerson at the buzzer. The score was 36-36 after three.
North Allegheny opened the fourth with layups by Mia Tuman and Timmerson to take a four-point lead. USC answered with a 3-pointer by junior Paige Dellicarri and two free throws by Kalocay to lead 41-40 with three minutes left.
NA had one more push. Cam Phillips made a 3-pointer from the right corner, and Timmerson made one of two free throws for a 44-41 lead with 52 seconds left.
Kalocay then got to work. Trailing by three, she made a game-tying 3-pointer with 41 seconds left, the first of her two big shots.
Tied at 44, North Allegheny had a chance to take the lead before USC’s Dellicarri tied up Timmerson and forced a jump ball with 22 seconds left. The possession arrow favored USC.
That set up Kalocay for her go-ahead runner from the foul line.
“Coach Pete told me, ‘Rylee, when there’s 10 seconds left on the clock, I want you to go get the ball,’” Kalocay said. “I looked up and said, ‘Oh, (no) there’s seven seconds left.’ So, I went and got the ball … shot the ball, jumped as high as I could and tried to lay it in.”
USC led 46-44 with 3.2 seconds remaining.
Kalocay then intercepted a long inbounds pass near midcourt, was fouled and made two free throws with seven-tenths left, stealing NA’s last chance to tie or win.
Serio was happy thoughts of, “Here we go again,” didn’t creep into his player’s minds as North Allegheny rallied back in the second half to take the lead.
“For them to be able to fight back like and regain the lead,” Serio said, “that’s a monkey that I’m so happy is off my back.”
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.
Tags: North Allegheny, Upper St. Clair
More High School Basketball
• WPIAL launches investigations into Baldwin, Imani Christian over ‘possible recruiting violations’• Westmoreland high school notebook: Puck drops for area’s PIHL teams
• Penn Hills notebook: Basketball grad to play professionally in Ireland
• New coach Gabby Baldasare excited to fill big shoes with North Allegheny girls basketball
• Dana Petruska comes out of retirement to take over as girls basketball coach at Deer Lakes
