Roundup: South Hills December sports highlights

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, January 3, 2019 | 1:18 PM

South Hills scholastic highlights & notes from the month of December:

• Brentwood’s boys basketball team went 2-0 in the Northgate holiday tournament, as junior guard C.J. Ziegler poured in 53 points in the two games.

The Spartans defeated Perry Academy, 59-56, and Hopewell, 55-50, to improve to 4-4 overall.

Ziegler peppered in 21 points against Perry, then clicked for a career-high 32 against Hopewell. For his efforts, he was named to his second all-tournament team this season.

“C.J. played great at Northgate,” coach Dan Thayer said. “He has developed into an on-court leader with his scoring and his play. He handled the ball a great deal during the tournament.

“We are extremely pleased with C.J.’s development. He is becoming a complete player for us, not just a shooter.”

Ziegler connected seven times from 3-point range in the two-day event, giving him 21 treys on the season.

He also was named to the Brentwood Boosters tip-off all-tournament team.

Junior forward Ian Thomas accounted for 19 rebounds and 12 points for the Spartans against Perry.

• No less than 10 players reached the scoring column for the Baldwin boys basketball team in a 56-35 nonsection win Dec. 18 against visiting Elizabeth Forward.

Senior guard Christian Barr was the only Highlander to finish in double figures with 10 points. Boardmen Troy Lanier, a junior, and Dorien Ford, a sophomore, chipped in with eight apiece.

Other point-producers for Baldwin were junior Andy Degenhardt (G); sophomores Connor Lavelle (F), Tarren Seitzinger (G) and Joey Starzynski (G); senior Shane Gilbert (G/F); and freshmen Obadiah Abdul (G) and Connor Gitzen (F).

• The Baldwin hoopsters split decisions with Southern Garrett (Md.), an 86-56 loss, and Uniontown, an 80-75 win, in the Snowball holiday tournament held Dec. 27-28 in Maryland to go to 4-5 on the season.

Barr was named to the all-tournament team.

• James Martinis was clutch, sinking two free throws with 1.4 seconds remaining to lift the Thomas Jefferson boys basketball team to a 52-50 nonsection win Dec. 19 against visiting Steel Valley.

Martinis finished with 10 points for the Jaguars, who were sparked offensively by junior guard Isaac McNeil and junior forward Shane Stump with 12 points apiece.

John Adams, a senior guard, added eight points; and sophomore guard Jake Pugh, sophomore forward Ethan Dunsey and junior guard Noah Pierce rounded out the Jaguars’ scoring.

• The TJ hoopsters defeated Uniontown, 70-57, and lost to Southern Garrett (Md.) in the Snowball holiday tournament held Dec. 27-28 in Maryland.

Stump and McNeil made the all-tournament team. Adams and Dunsey led the Jaguars against Uniontown with 17 and 16 points. Stump scored 12 against Southern Garrett.

Through nine games, TJ was 4-5 overall. Stump was scoring at 14.5 ppg clip; McNeil was averaging 13 ppg.

• More than half the athletes in the Brentwood swimming program are seniors and juniors.

At the start of the 2018-19 season, the senior class was represented by Simon Accamando, Elyssa Bennawit, Josh Gildea, Shannon Milius, Maria Nguyen, Emily O’Shea, Quintasia Streeter, Sean Way and Julianna Winkowski.

Juniors included Stella Barker, Akir Deng, Ava Dorrance, Aiden Hoffman, Sarah Livingston, Adele Sedlar and Paige Umbel.

Rounding out the boys and girls teams were sophomores Steve Bakowski, Andy Cogis, Qulik Evans, Alex Johnson, Nick Milius, Willow Sandusky, Skylar Schmidt, Brielle Woods; plus freshmen Ava Barker, Martha Deng, Cassidy Eiben, Olivia Kraeuter, Kevin McCleary and Reghan Woods.

• TJ’s Jenna Clark, a senior point guard, clicked for double figures in all nine of her team’s games in December.

The Yale recruit rattled off point totals of 25 (Woodland Hills), 13 (Peters Township), 22 (Hampton), 26 (Moon), 28 (Canon-McMillan), 14 (West Allegheny), 29 (Keystone Oaks), 24 (Oakland Catholic) and 17 (Allderdice) to average 22 ppg in the first month of the season.

The Jaguars posted a 6-3 record in December.

• Brentwood’s girls basketball team finished as the runner-up in the annual Betsy holiday tournament, defeating Elizabeth Forward, 55-49, in the first game, and losing to Gateway, 63-43, in the championship game.

Brentwood senior guards Anna Betz and Natalie Murrio were named to the all-tournament team.

Betz tossed in 20 points against EF, including four treys, and was complemented by senior forward Rebecca Dirling’s 13 tallies.

Betz and senior guard Abby Wolf scored 14 points apiece against Gateway.

The Brentwood girls opened the New Year with a 6-3 record.

• TJ’s Dom Serapiglia, a senior offensive/defensive lineman, and Dan Deabner, a junior wide receiver/defensive back, were named to the Trib 25 football all-star team.

Serapiglia was a four-year starter for the Jaguars, who reached Heinz Field for the WPIAL championships all four years. The Jaguars won three titles.

Deabner caught 59 passes for 1,365 yards and 19 touchdowns. He averaged 23.1 yards per catch, and set a new team record for receiving yards in a season.

Deabner also made four interceptions on defense from his cornerback position.

• Senior leadership in the Baldwin wrestling program this season is provided by the tandem of 182-pound Connor Sidoruk and 195-pound Noah Bartic.

Christian Mulholland (152) is the lone junior on this year’s team, and Justin Bochter (138) and Abdullah Makhoul (138) are the only sophomores.

There’s been an influx of freshmen into the program; leading freshman prospects include Shokhnur Ayubjonov, Matthew Braunstein, William Green-Byrd, Luke Kjelshus, Nariman Niyazov, Cody Randal, Isaiah Siwik and Dominic Vano.

Ray Fisher is a freelance writer.

Tags: Baldwin, Brentwood, Thomas Jefferson