All-time WPIAL boys basketball championship games No. 10: 1990 Clairton team tops Cornell in OT

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, February 18, 2018 | 5:09 PM

The TribLive High School Sports Network will be counting down the Top 10 boys and girls WPIAL basketball championship games leading up to the 2018 title games March 1-3 at the Petersen Events Center.

TRIBHSSN is the exclusive audio and video home for all 12 WPIAL championship games, which will be broadcasted and video streamed live at TribHSSN.triblive.com.

Here is the first installment of a 10-part series ranking the top WPIAL boys basketball championship games in district history.

1990 — WPIAL Class A finals: Clairton 85, Cornell 82 (OT)

Long before Tyler Boyd, eight WPIAL football championships in nine years and a 66-game gridiron winning streak, Clairton was a competitive program in football and basketball, but district championships were very rare. Going into the 1989-90 school year, the Bears had not won a football title since 1954 and a basketball crown since 1978.

But that changed in football when Clairton came from behind to defeat Laurel at Three Rivers Stadium for the school's second football championship and continued in the winter when the Bears made it to the WPIAL Class A finals to face defending champion Cornell.

Despite the “big-game” experience gathered from playing at Three Rivers Stadium in the fall by many of the same players, there were nerves early on at Pitt's Fitzgerald Fieldhouse.

“We were the favorites but were down almost the whole game,” said Wayne Wade, the current Clairton football coach and a star guard on that 1990 Bears team. “Early foul trouble and a poor-shooting first half, and we were down 13 or 14 at the half.”

The Bears actually trailed by 14 after one quarter, and they were down by 10 at halftime.

With Cornell leading by six points with 53 seconds left in regulation, Benji Ingram scored the last six points for Clairton to force overtime. The Raiders then held an 82-81 lead with 11 seconds left in overtime when Remondo Williams made a great pass to Wade, who buried a 3-pointer from the right wing off an out-of-bounds play.

“The play was designed for me to come off of a few picks and drive to the basket,” admitted Wade, “but when I caught the ball on the perimeter, I was open and went for the win. Nothing but net!”

After a Cornell miss, Chad Licht got the rebound, was fouled, made one of two free throws to make the final 85-82 Clairton after a desperation 3-pointer missed for Cornell. Ingram led all scorers with 28 points while Wade added 24 for the Bears. Roger Jones led the Raiders with 22 points.

Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Clairton, Cornell