Basketball

Scholastic Notebook – 11/14/2014

November 14, 2014

It has been well-documented how Pine-Richland quarterback Ben DiNucci has turned out to be one of the most prolific passers in the history of the WPIAL. But DiNucci also has benefitted from a terrific one-two receiving punch. It looks like you could call seniors D’ondre Gastion and Mike Merhaut are a receiving duo for the ages. There are no records available for best receiving one-two punches, but you can bet you will be hard-pressed to find many duos from the same team who have been as productive as Gastion and Merhaut. How many teams have had two receivers with 100 or more career catches? But that’s what Pine-Richland has in Gastion and Merhaut, a pair of seniors.

This Week on the MSA Sports Network – 11/09/2014

November 9, 2014

The journey on the Highway to Heinz is half way through and continues in full force this week here on the MSA Sports Network. The WPIAL Football Playoffs hit the Semifinals and Final Four Friday. We also have a pair of District 6 Class A Semifinals football postseason games and four PIHL high school hockey contests including two video-stream games, and the debut of men's and women's college basketball, plus its another edition of This Week in the WPIAL ALL here at MSAsports.net Monday, November 10th: No Broadcasts

Scholastic Notebook – 11/07/2014

November 7, 2014

If the first round of the WPIAL playoffs proved anything, it was that the Foothills are alive. Since coming back to being a WPIAL conference in 2006, the Foothills was always thought to be the weaker sister to all of the other Class AAAA conferences. Sure, it might have had a strong team like a Gateway, Penn-Trafford or even Central Catholic. But as far as strength from top to bottom, the Foothills didn’t measure up. This year, though, the Foothills flexed some muscle like never before. Four Foothills teams won first-round games – Penn-Trafford, McKeesport, Altoona and Plum. It was the first time since 2006 that the top four teams in the Foothills won first-round games. The two that lost were fifth-place Norwin and sixth-place Connellsville.

Scholastic Notebook – 10/18/2014

October 18, 2014

Neshannock High School has never gotten much attention for football, and not just because the small Lawrence County school is on the outer edges of the WPIAL. Neshannock hasn’t gotten much attention because the football team had been one of the least successful in WPIAL history – until lately. What is going on the past few seasons at Neshannock is really one of the biggest turnaround stories in the WPIAL in a long time. And this year, the story might have a perfect ending.

Scholastic Notebook – 10/03/2014

October 3, 2014

Maybe you’ve heard the quote “Down goes Frazier, Down goes Frazier.” It is a line from legendary sports announcer Howard Cosell, describing boxer Joe Frazier after he went down from a George Foreman punch in a famous 1973 bout. In WPIAL football this year, it is “Up goes Frazier, Up goes Frazier.” Things haven’t been this good in Perryopolis (where Frazier is located) since 10 years after that Frazier-Foreman fight. The Frazier Commodores are 5-0 and have a showdown tonight with Beth-Center for first place in the Tri-County South Conference. The winner likely will win the Tri-County South title. Frazier has not started a season 5-0 since 1983, when the school made it all the way to the WPIAL Class A championship game before losing to Western Beaver.

Scholastic Notebook – 09/19/2014

September 19, 2014

At the rate he is passing, Pine-Richland quarterback Ben DiNucci has a good chance to become the 17th player in WPIAL history to throw for 5,000 career yards. While that is an impressive feat, Pine-Richland does thro the ball often. So DiNucci will naturally pile up yardage. What might be more impressive about DiNucci is his accuracy. DiNucci is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior who you probably wouldn’t want to play in darts. Sure, in Pine-Richland’s spread offense, DiNucci throws a number of short passes. But he still throws downfield and his accuracy is uncanny.

Scholastic Notebook – 09/12/2014

September 12, 2014

They haven’t exactly beaten world-class competition, but Norwin is still 2-0. After tonight, the Knights could be in a spot where they haven’t been in 15 years. Norwin plays at Seneca Valley in a non-conference game. While Seneca Valley (0-2) is trying to find itself, Norwin is trying to go 3-0 for the first time in 15 years. The last time Norwin was 3-0 was 1999, one of the greatest seasons in Norwin history. The Knights finished 8-4 and made it to the WPIAL semifinals before losing to Cecil Howard and McKeesport.

Scholastic Notebook – 09/05/2014

September 5, 2014

It is a recurring storyline at Indiana High School. The Stapletons are staples of the football team. It has been the story in recent years at Indiana, and it is again this season. Two of the four Stapleton brothers had big impacts on the Little Indians’ opening-night upset victory against Mars last Friday. Riley Stapleton, a 6-5 senior receiver, caught seven passes for 95 yards and scored a touchdown. Dylan Stapleton, a 6-4 junior, caught five passes for 111 yards and scored two touchdowns.

WPIAL Coaching Change – Pine-Richland Boys Hoops

July 15, 2014

A veteran championship winning coach who lost his job a few months ago has a new gig. On Monday evening, the Pine-Richland school board hired former Moon basketball coach Jeff Ackerman to take over as the new Rams boys basketball coach. The 41-year old Ackerman spent the last 13 years as head coach of the Moon Tigers amassing a record of 224-116 with eight playoff seasons, four trips to the WPIAL finals and three district championships. The Tigers have struggled over the last five years with a record of 8 games under .500 and Ackerman was let go in April. Ackerman takes over for Brian Gaetano, who had a record of 51-66 with one postseason trip in his six years at Pine-Richland before he was not hired back after this past season in which the Rams finished 9-12.

MSA SPORTS CUP: Sewickley Academy Back on Top After Winning Class A Cup

July 3, 2014

Eight time champion Sewickley Academy and defending champ Greensburg Central Catholic were deadlocked with 360 points each with one more sport to calculate in the chase for the 2013-2014 MSA Sports Class A Cup. That one sports was boy tennis, which was great news for Panthers fans and bad news for everybody else in Class A. A district title and state runner-up in boys tennis helped Sewickley Academy win the MSA Sports Cup for the ninth time in eleven years.

MSA SPORTS CUP: Seton-LaSalle Are Rebels With a Cause After Winning AA Cup

July 2, 2014

For only the third time in the eleven years of the MSA Sports Cup Class AA chase, the torch has been passed to a new champion. Greensburg Central Catholic won the first three years, followed by a five year run by Shady Side Academy and the last two years with Quaker Valley on top. Now thanks to a lot of hardwood gold, Seton-LaSalle High School is wearing the Cup crown. After a couple of close calls in recent years, Seton-LaSalle was lifted to the top spot in part because of double gold on the basketball court this winter followed up with some diamond success in the spring.

MSA SPORTS CUP: South Fayette Roars to First Class AAA Cup Title

July 1, 2014

The first ten years of the MSA Sports Cup has shown us that while there are a couple of dominating schools in the other three classifications, the chase for the Class AAA Cup has been up for grabs with eight different schools earning The Cup in ten years. Now in the eleventh year of this competition, we have another first time winner in Triple-A making it nine different champs in eleven years. After finishing as the runner-up in 2012-2013 and being a steady member on the Top 5 in recent years, South Fayette is finally enjoying its day in the Championship Sun with a convincing victory.

MSA SPORTS CUP: Another Year, Another Quad-A Title for North Allegheny

June 30, 2014

Another school year and another MSA Sports Cup in Class AAAA for North Allegheny High School. NA captured their 11th Cup in eleven years since the MSA Sports Network started this school year long competition to determine the top sports programs in each classification. There are 20 sports in which schools can earn points in the competition and for the second straight year and only the second time in this history of the coveted competition, the Tigers earned points in ALL of them. In the 2012-2013 school year, North Allegheny scored a mind-numbing and record 1,115 points. In 2013-2014, they had to settle for a mere 965 points. The second place school finished 530 points behind NA.

2013-2014 MSA Sports Male Athlete of the Year

June 26, 2014

Neshannock High School in Lawrence County was much more than a school for Ernie Burkes. To him, the place was like his own personal “four seasons” resort. Oh, don’t get the wrong idea. Neshannock was never a place Burkes went to relax. But it was where he always went to get his fix of sports – in all four seasons. Burkes would start football in late summer and play it into the fall. He would move to basketball in the winter. In the spring, it was on to baseball and track. Four seasons. Four sports. One incredible athlete. Now just call him Athlete of the Year. Burkes, a Neshannock senior, wins the MSA Sports Male Athlete of the Year for the 2013-14 school year. The winner is picked from the entire WPIAL and is selected by the MSA Sports staff.

Scholastic Notebook – 06/03/2014

June 3, 2014

WPIAL baseball champions took it on the chin three times in the first round of the PIAA playoffs Monday. But history shows WPIAL champs often have trouble in the PIAA playoffs. Take a look at past years and the statistics say that WPIAL champs have only a slightly better than 25 percent chance of making it to a PIAA title game. The PIAA championships started with one class in 1977, expanded to two classes in 1979, three classes in 1999 and four classes in 2005. Since the PIAA playoffs started in 1977 and through last year, there were 96 WPIAL champs. Only 26 of those 96 teams (27 percent) made it to a PIAA title game.

Scholastic Notebook – 05/23/3014

May 23, 2014

The perfect championships don’t happen often in WPIAL softball. But for the Deer Lakes Lancers, they’ve been in the perfect storm before. Deer Lakes is 18-0 and will play Beaver (15-0) for the Class AA championship Thursday at California University of Pennsylvania. It is only the third time in 17 years that a softball title game will match two undefeated teams. But it’s the second year in a row for Deer Lakes. In 2013, Deer Lakes and Riverside both took undefeated records into the title game before Riverside came away with a 5-1 victory. The only other time in the past 17 years that two undefeated teams met in a final was 1998 when Carmichaels beat Sto-Rox for the Class AA crown.

Scholastic Notebook – 05/09/2014

May 9, 2014

With every zero that he puts on the scoreboard, Blackhawk senior pitcher Brendan McKay continues to climb the national list for the longest scoreless streak? That naturally brings up two questions: Is McKay anywhere near the national record and does he have a chance to break it before he graduates? The answers are yes and yes. McKay beat Montour, 3-0, earlier this week to stretch his scoreless streak to 58 innings, dating back to last season. That is the fourth-longest streak in U.S. high school history, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the governing body of high school sports in the country.

Scholastic Notebook – 05/02/2014

May 2, 2014

There are multi-sport athletes in the WPIAL who compete in more highly-visible sports than North Hills’ Noah Bostick. But as far as the number of sports and excelling in them, Bostick has few peers. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say Bostick is most one of the best all-around athletes in the WPIAL. He is a young man for all seasons – and then some. You don’t see many three-sport athletes these days at large schools. But Bostick is more than a three-sport athlete. He actually competes in four sports, and does well in all of them.

Scholastic Notebook – 04/25/2014

April 25, 2014

Football is only four months away and basketball ended only last month. But the coaching wheels are turning in both sports. There were a number of coaching moves this week in the WPIAL, some of them noteworthy. Here are some coaching happenings this week. In football: * Deer Lakes turned to a former NFL player as its new coach. Steve Sciullo takes over a team that did not win a game last season. Sciullo graduated from Shaler in 1988 and then played at Marshall before playing offensive line in the NFL for a few seasons. He has been an assistant coach at Hampton. * Norwin hired Dave Brozeski. He has been an assistant at Norwin for the past 17 years.

Scholastic Notebook – 04/20/2014

April 20, 2014

If you look at the three sports of football, basketball and baseball, Baldwin has been more like Baldloss the past few years. But finally, the baseball team is putting the win back in Baldwin. Things have been absolutely perfect so far this spring for the Baldwin baseball team. The Highlanders have a perfect 7-0 record after a 13-3 victory over Gateway on Saturday. This winning is new for the three teams of football, basketball and baseball at Baldwin. There hasn’t been a winning season in those three major sports since the basketball team went 14-8 in the 2009-10 season and the baseball team went 12-6 in the 2010 season. The football team hasn’t had a winning season since 2003.

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