Fast start leads No. 2 South Fayette past Latrobe and into WPIAL semifinals

By: Bill Hartlep
Friday, February 25, 2022 | 9:20 PM

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South Fayette girls basketball coach Bryan Bennett said his players have “been in this moment all year.”

They proved that from the start Friday night on their home court.

The second-seeded Lions scored the game’s first 15 points and held off all of No. 7 Latrobe’s attempts to rally en route to a 55-40 victory in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals.

“They’ve been battle-tested,” Bennett said of the Lions (20-4), who finished second in the rugged Section 1 during the regular season. “They came out with a fire.”

South Fayette advanced to take on No. 6 McKeesport — a 50-49 winner over Trinity — in the semifinals Tuesday.

With relentless pressure up top and sound rebounding down low, the Lions built a 15-0 advantage, fueled by takeaways and transition baskets.

Latrobe (17-4) cut the deficit to 10 points early in the second quarter, but the Lions’ man-to-man pressure defense never relented as the lead swelled to 20 points in the second half.

“We basically played a quarter and a half of playoff basketball,” Latrobe coach Mark Burkardt said. “And they played four quarters of playoff basketball.”

South Fayette’s 6-foot-4 junior forward, Ava Leroux, made her presence felt throughout the game, tallying 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting. She also made an impact defensively, helping to limit Latrobe’s standout forwards, Anna Rafferty and Emma Blair, to 11 points combined.

“We scouted them a lot and saw their big girls inside were really active getting rebounds and on the post,” said Leroux, a Division I prospect. “I think we did a really good job handling that and being aggressive to limit the scoring they had.”

Blair’s layup finally got the Wildcats on the board with 3:47 left in the first quarter and gave Latrobe a boost. Sophomore guard Elle Snyder knocked down a jumper and 3-pointer as the Wildcats ended the first quarter on an 11-8 run to make it 23-11.

South Fayette, though, continued to capitalize on turnovers, getting three transition baskets from senior Mia Webber to hold a 35-17 lead at halftime.

“What we talked about, it didn’t seem like we came out to play,” Burkardt said. “We gave them a (15)-point lead off the top. We just had to get our heads in the game. We weren’t running our sets. We weren’t doing a lot of things. I don’t know if it was jitters or if the moment was big, and maybe they were nervous.”

Both teams struggled to start the third quarter, but Latrobe trimmed the deficit led by Blair’s six points in the paint. Junior Josie Straigis also provided a spark of the bench with five points in the third quarter.

But the Lions maintained control in the fourth quarter, moving and protecting the ball to seal the victory and a spot in the semifinals. In addition to Leroux’s 20 points, Webber scored 16 and sophomore Erica Hall had 11.

“I thought the kids executed the gameplan to perfection,” Bennett said. “They were aggressive. We thought they’d come out in a zone, and we could attack them off the dribble. We thought we could pressure their guards a little bit and take them out of their sets.

“I loved the way we rebounded the ball. We said that was gonna be one of the big keys to the game. … I was beyond proud of how we blocked out and finished the play, especially in the first half.”

Latrobe remains alive for a berth in the PIAA postseason via the WPIAL’s follow-the-leader format, which will send seven teams to the state playoffs in Class 5A. The Wildcats are guaranteed to advance if South Fayette reaches the finals.

Bill Hartlep is the TribLive sports editor. A Pittsburgh native and Point Park graduate, he joined the Trib in 2004, covering high school sports. He held various editing roles before assuming his current position in 2019. He can be reached at bhartlep@triblive.com.

Tags: Latrobe, South Fayette