A-K Valley girls basketball teams get back to WPIAL section action

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, January 4, 2018 | 3:27 PM

With a majority of the nonsection games behind them, WPIAL girls basketball teams in the A-K Valley turn their attention to the stretch run in section play.

Section games resume all throughout the region Thursday and Friday with some interesting matchups on tap.

Leechburg’s quest for a Section 2-2A title continues at Vincentian on Thursday, and the Blue Devils and Royals both come into the game 3-0 in section play. Brentwood, also 3-0 in section, hosts Northgate (1-2).

Leechburg, 7-1 overall, will face Brentwood for the first time Jan. 16.

Riverview visits Sto-Rox on Thursday, and, like Northgate, both teams are 1-2 in Section 2.

Springdale (0-3, 1-7) snapped a 24-game losing skid with a win against Yough last week, and it will attempt to get into the win column in Section 2 Thursday at Ellis School (0-3, 1-8).

In Section 1-4A, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic is 7-0 overall and 3-0 in section play as the rest of the section, including Freeport, Burrell, Highlands, Valley and Deer Lakes, hope to challenge the Trojans and battle for playoff positioning.

Knoch is second at 2-0, followed by Freeport at 1-1, Burrell and Highlands at 1-2, Valley at 0-1 and Deer Lakes at 0-2.

Thursday’s section matchups feature Burrell traveling to Deer Lakes, Freeport at Knoch and Valley at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic.

Highlands will host Blackhawk (7-0 overall) in a nonsection game Thursday and visit New Castle (3-5) on Saturday before getting back into section play Monday against North Catholic.

Kiski Area, which snapped a long section losing streak with a 32-29 victory over Plum on Dec. 18, takes its 1-2 Section 4-5A record and 5-5 overall mark into a league game Thursday at Armstrong (1-1, 6-2 overall).

Hampton (3-0) and Mars (2-0) lead the section, with Armstrong and Franklin Regional (1-1) both right ahead of the Cavaliers.

Plum, meanwhile, remains away from section play with the bye and takes on Woodland Hills (4-3 overall) at 6 p.m. Friday as part of a boys-girls doubleheader between the Mustangs and Wolverines.

Fox Chapel hopes to shake off an uncharacteristic 0-2 start in section as it resumes Section 2-6A action at 6 p.m. Friday at home against Norwin (3-6, 1-2).

Apollo-Ridge is challenging for the top spot in Section 3-3A, and the Vikings (5-3, 2-1) hope to turn away the challenge of Avonworth (6-4, 1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Avonworth.

Bishop Canevin (3-0) and Shady Side Academy (2-1) also are in the mix at the top of the Section 3 standings.

All of the teams in Section 3-A, including St. Joseph, have played only one section game so far, but all six are in league action Thursday.

The Spartans, 0-1 after a 62-47 loss to Winchester Thurston on Dec. 21, visit Aquinas Academy (1-0, 6-2) at 7 p.m.

St. Joseph is 5-5 overall and kicked off the new year in winning fashion Wednesday with a 72-54 triumph over Jeannette.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Aquinas Academy, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Kiski School, Leechburg, Plum, Riverview, Springdale, Valley