Oh, baby: Hyland attends birth of daughter, then guides GCC boys to WPIAL title game

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 | 9:40 PM

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It was a hectic but incredibly rewarding Tuesday for Greensburg Central Catholic boys basketball coach Christian Hyland.

The fifth-year coach became a dad for the first time, and now his team will get to play for its first WPIAL championship.

Less than an hour after Hyland and his wife, Kellie, welcomed baby girl Nova into the world at Independence Hospital in Greensburg, Hyland arrived at Gateway just after tip-off and guided the No. 2-seeded Centurions to a 60-43 victory over No. 3 Northgate in a Class 2A semifinal.

The baby, originally due March 17, arrived at 5:11 p.m. — healthy at 7 pounds, 5 ounces — and Hyland ran into the Henry J. Furrie Complex in Monroeville around 6:05.

Still buzzing with the adrenanline of a NASCAR driver, he stepped in front of the bench and immediately yelled, “Two,” to set up a play.

“It was around 4 p.m., and they said they were going to induce her,” said Hyland, dripping wet after getting doused by water bottles in the locker room, an unlit cigar between his fingers. “I’m thinking, I’m not going to make it. This was something I have never experienced before. You learn as you go.

“Props to the (medical personnel). They were unbelievable. Kellie is the real hero here.”

The Centurions (23-2) will take on No. 1 Aliquippa (20-5), a 55-36 winner over Fort Cherry, for the title at 1 p.m. Saturday at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center. Northgate (18-6) will play Fort Cherry (19-6) in the third-place game.

Senior guard Tyree Turner scored a game-high 21 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, as GCC pulled away after the Flames closed the gap to 40-34 late in the third.

“Coach texted us earlier and told us he wouldn’t be there but to be ourselves,” Turner said. “I’m glad we’re getting to the Pete for him. I know I didn’t sleep a lot (Monday night) either. I had a (religion) test, and then I had this test.”

Added Hyland: “This was one of our goals. This all is hard to process. It all happened so fast.”

GCC has made the finals only three other times — 2011, ‘14 and ‘21 — but has not brought home a title.

The Centurions have won 14 games in a row. Hyland is an alum who was on two of the finalists.

Turner was a freshman starter on the ‘21 team that lost to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

“It’s not just that we want to get there,” Hyland said. “We want to win it.”

Northgate finally started to hit shots in the third quarter, when it scored 22 points. It had 21 in the other three quarters combined.

Senior Austin Mitchell scored all eight of his points in the quarter and led an 11-0 run that saw the Flames carve a 17-point deficit down to six with 1 minute, 10 seconds left in the period.

Junior Robert McKinley Jr. hit a 3 during the sudden surge, and senior Desmond Williams hit a jumper to beat the buzzer.

GCC quelled the run when junior Sean Walker made a pull-up jumper and looked mostly unfazed.

Up only seven, GCC quickly regained its footing in the fourth, scoring the first 13 points, including a three-point play by Turner, a fast-break layup by senior forward Franco Alvarez and a putback by junior Brady O’Rourke.

In a flash, it was a 20-point game, 57-37.

“We were playing our worst basketball, and we were only down seven,” said Turner, who made 7 of 8 free throws. “We played our game and calmed down. There was no panic then, or when we walked on the floor before the game.”

Alvarez finished with 16 points, and junior Liam Gallagher added 11, including three 3-pointers, before fouling out.

Northgate, the WPIAL runner-up last year, scored only six points in the fourth.

“We hit that little lull,” Alvarez said. “It was a mindset shift. We were playing not to lose, not playing to win. We wanted to blow past them.

“We’re so glad coach made it. I was looking around the gym (during warmups). It felt like everything calmed down when he came in.”

GCC took a 14-8 lead after the first quarter as Alvarez scored six, and Gallagher hit a pair of 3-pointers.

It was 24-15 at halftime as Turner started to get going in the second quarter.

Senior Josh Williams led Northgate with 10 points, two in the second half.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Northgate