PIAA basketball quarterfinals on tab in Friday’s 3 things to watch

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, March 15, 2018 | 11:48 PM

The two teams that played for the first WPIAL Class 6A girls basketball championship a year ago will battle Friday night for a spot in the PIAA semifinals.

North Allegheny beat Bethel Park in the 2017 WPIAL finals 50-39. Rachel Martindale opened the game with a 3-pointer and finished the contest with six straight free throws as she scored a game high 23 points.

Martindale will be a spectator Friday though after tearing her ACL in the Tigers' WPIAL championship-game victory over Peters Township two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Bethel Park finished second in Section 3 behind Peters Township, the same Indians team the Black Hawks lost to in the district semifinals. But Jonna Burke's team is on a roll with back-to-back state playoff wins over Peters Township and District 6 champion State College.

The game tips off at 6 p.m. at Baldwin and can be heard here on the TribLive High School Sports Network .

PIAA quarterfinals

Four other WPIAL girls basketball teams hit the hardwood Friday evening, including a head-to-head matchup in Class 3A between district champion Bishop Canevin and Mohawk. The Crusaders beat the Warriors in the WPIAL quarterfinals 47-30. Also in Class 3A, East Allegheny takes on York Catholic while in 2A Chartiers-Houston faces Bellwood-Antis.

Boys battle for semifinal berths

On the boys side of the state basketball playoffs, district teams collide in the Class 5A quarterfinals as WPIAL champion Mars faces Highlands at Gateway at 7:30 p.m.

WPIAL Class 4A finalists are one win away from facing each other for a fourth time, but first they must beat district champions Friday. New Castle takes on District 10 champion Sharon, while Quaker Valley battles District 6 winner Huntingdon. Both games can be heard on the TribLive High School Sports Network .

PIAA Class AA swimming and diving

The top Class AA high school swimmers and divers take over the pool at Bucknell in Day 3 events in the PIAA championships.

The Class AA championships feature the boys diving finals, along with boys and girls swimming finals for 200-yard medley relay, 200 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle relay.

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

Tags: Bethel Park, Bishop Canevin, Chartiers-Houston, East Allegheny, Highlands, Mars, Mohawk, New Castle, North Allegheny, Quaker Valley