Mt. Pleasant girls basketball sets sights on playoff success

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, November 30, 2017 | 5:42 PM

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For the Mt. Pleasant girls basketball team, it's not enough anymore just getting to the WPIAL playoffs. The Vikings, like every other playoff qualifier, would prefer staying alive a bit longer when they get there.

Only once during a current streak of 10 WPIAL appearances has Mt. Pleasant won more than one game — in 2011 beating Belle Vernon and Chartiers Valley.

Since then, the Vikings have prevailed in just one other WPIAL playoff game, besting Canon-McMillan in a first-round matchup in 2014.

But with four experienced seniors, they are hoping this can be a breakout year.

Mt. Pleasant last season qualified for the WPIAL playoffs with an 8-6 record in Section 3-4A but failed to make it out of the first round for a second time in a row, lowering the Vikings' WPIAL playoff record to 5-10 under coach Scott Giacobbi's watch.

“We have the same expectations as a program regardless of the personnel,” said Giacobbi, who is entering his 13th year at Mt. Pleasant, which returns two starters from a 13-10 team that dropped a WPIAL Class 4A first-round decision to Peters Township.

“It's not just getting there. That part of it has become an expectation,” Giacobbi said. “We're looking to improve, and we've got the speed and athleticism to do it this year.”

Among pressing matters for the Vikings, however, is overcoming the losses of leading scorers Kerry Bungard and Hannah Hempfield.

Both have moved on to the college level, Bungard, a 6-foot-1 forward, to NCAA Division III Waynesburg and Hempfield, a 5-7 guard, to Westmoreland County Community College.

“We've got a great core group back,” Giacobbi said. “We have another group with some good experience. We've got six seniors and four of them have a great deal of experience.”

Returning starter Colleen Trainer, a 5-8 guard/forward; 5-7 guard Josie Benteler; and a pair of forwards, 5-9 Christiana Czegan and 5-8 Addy Kubasky, will unite junior point guard Juliann Kalp, the team's other returning starter.

Giacobbi said 5-6 junior guard/forward Chloe Jaworski and 5-6 junior guard Tara Tuccarello are challenging for playing time.

“Colleen will be on the ball on defense,” Giacobbi said. “We have to succeed on defense to win.”

An infusion of players from the school's defending PIAA Class 4A softball championship team also should add depth to the Mt. Pleasant roster.

Besides Kubasky and Czegan, others from the softball team are first-year players Meadow Uncapher, a 6-0 senior forward and a Seton Hill softball recruit; 5-7 junior forward Mya Klejka; and 5-2 sophomore guard Sydney Kanuch.

Giacobbi also worries about his team's response to the growing number of quality opponents in Section 3-4A.

Keystone Oaks joined the section last season and went 14-0, part of a 20-4 overall run that ended with a PIAA first-round loss to Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic.

“We're in the toughest section since I can remember,” Giacobbi said. “It's a super-competitive section. We want to be tough on our floor.”

South Park, which won a PIAA Class 3A championship in 2013, joined Keystone Oaks from Section 3 in the PIAA playoffs a year ago, also losing in the first round to Villa Maria Academy.

Giacobbi predicted the top three teams in the section will be Belle Vernon, Keystone Oaks and Southmoreland, which added high-scoring transfer Cali Konek, the former Imani Christian star who is ranked by ESPN as the nation's No. 8 point guard in the Class of 2019.

Dave Mackall is a freelance writer.

Tags: Mt. Pleasant