A-K Valley WPIAL basketball playoff preview capsules for Tuesday’s games

By: Doug Gulasy
Monday, February 19, 2018 | 9:27 PM

Boys basketball

Class 2A

First round

No. 8 Leechburg (14-7) vs. No. 9 Fort Cherry (9-13)

8 p.m. Tuesday at North Hills

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Winner plays: No. 1 Sewickley Academy (18-4)

Layup lines: Leechburg makes its third consecutive playoff appearance and is seeking its first postseason win since 2011. The Blue Devils fell to Chartiers-Houston in the 2017 first round. Christian Hack, who reached 1,000 career points earlier this season, is the team's top scorer. Leechburg finished third in Section 1-2A and dealt Jeannette its only section loss. The team averaged 61.2 points. … Fort Cherry, which tied for second in Section 2-2A, enters the playoffs on a five-game losing streak. Nate Higham leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.7 points. Fort Cherry averaged 52.8 points and gave up 55.4. The Rangers ended a four-year playoff drought last season but fell to Summit Academy in the first round. Their last WPIAL playoff victory came in 1998.

No. 10 Springdale (12-8) vs. No. 7 California (13-8)

6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gateway

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Winner plays: No. 2 OLSH (20-2)

Layup lines: Springdale, the fourth-place team from Section 1-2A, returns to the playoffs after a one-year absence. The Dynamos clinched their spot with a win over Riverview in their Section 1-2A finale. It's the fourth playoff appearance in the past 10 seasons for Springdale, which is seeking its first postseason victory since 2008. Junior Mike Zolnierczyk is the leading scorer for Springdale, which excels in close games: The Dynamos finished 8-2 in games decided by single digits. … California tied Fort Cherry for second place in Section 2-2A. This marks the Trojans' ninth consecutive playoff appearance, but they dropped their opener in five of the past eight seasons, including a 46-45 loss to Neshannock last season. Ben Wilson averages a team-best 17.6 point for the Trojans, who had a pair of four-game winning streaks.

— Doug Gulasy

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review Staff Writer. You can contact Doug at 412-388-5830, dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter .

Tags: California, Fort Cherry, Leechburg, Springdale