New Castle Storms to 3rd Straight WPIAL Unbeaten Title

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, March 1, 2014 | 10:04 PM

There is a major storm brewing for Western Pennsylvania late this weekend, but it pales in comparison to the storm that has been crushing the WPIAL for three basketball seasons now. The New Castle Red Hurricane continued their dominance of District 7 boys hoops with a 55-49 victory over the rival Hampton Talbots Saturday evening at a jam-packed A.J. Palumbo Center at Duquesne University.

The ‘Canes historic run continues with a third straight WPIAL championship, with all three capping off undefeated seasons. It Marked the third consecutive season that New Castle beat Hampton in a WPIAL title game, beating the Talbots in the Class AAA finals in 2012 and now back-to-back times in the Class AAAA title game. Ironically, both the Red Hurricane and Talbots will be going back down to Class AAA next season.

The champs came out and took a Hampton haymaker early on as a tenacious defense transitioned inot fast break points and the Talbots jumped out to a 13-2 lead before ‘Canes coach Ralph Blundo called time out to settle the troups. The tactical move paid off as New Castle scored the next eight points and outscored Hampton 14-4 the rest of the quarter.

New Castle took their first lead 1:20 into the second quarter on a 3-point shot by Drew Allen that made it New Castle 22-20. Hampton would never lead again as they went into the locker room down 31-26.

New Castle came out in the third quarter on an 8-3 run that gave them their biggest lead at 39-29, but the scrappy Talbots leaned on the ropes for leverage, but never went down for the count, scoring 11 of the final 17 points in the third quarter to pull to within five points at 45-40.

That was the theme of the fourth quarter. New Castle could never run away and hide, but Hampton could never put a run together to tie or take the lead. The Talbots trailed 45-42 early in the fourth, but came up empty on two straight possessions before the ‘Canes scored four straight, including a steal and a crowd screaming dunk by senior Malik Hooker. Hooker moments later picked up his fourth foul, but Coach Blundo stayed with Hooker and it paid off as his fifth foul never came.

Drew Allen scored the final six points for the Red Hurricanes, as he ended up with 14 points and 5 rebounds. Twin-brother Stew Allen led New Castle with 18 points and also contributed 5 rebounds. Hooker, an Ohio State football recruit, had 10 rebounds as the ‘Canes outrebounded the Talbots 30-19.

It was the final shot at district gold for the Luther brother at Hampton and it showed. University of Pittsburgh recruit Ryan Luther led all scorers with 21 points and eight boards while brother Collin added five rebounds. While the Talbots didn’t help their case on the glass, they really shot themselves in the foot at the charity stripe. Hampton ended up making only 5 of 16 free throws.

Hampton falls to 22-4 with three losses to New Castle. Hampton tries one final time for a title in the Luther brothers era in the 2014 PIAA state basketball playoffs where they will face the Pittsburgh City League champion Allderdice Dragons on Saturday, March 8^th.

New Castle becomes the first WPIAL boys basketball team to win three straight crowns since the Moon Tigers captured three Class AAA crowns in a row in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The three straight championships in the boys highest classification (2 in AAAA, 1 in AAA) is the first time that has happened since…the Red Hurricanes won Quad-A gold in 1997, 1998 and 1999. No boys WPIAL team has won two straight titles with a perfect record, now New Castle has done it three years in a row. The 26-0 ‘Canes will battle Bethel Park on Saturday at Chartiers Valley HS in Round One of the PIAA AAAA state basketball playoffs.

HAMPTON TALBOTS : 17 – 9 – 14 – 9 = 49
NEW CASTLE RED HURRICANES : 16 – 15 – 14 – 10 = 55

Tags: Hampton