What to watch for in WPIAL sports on Feb. 12, 2021: Boys basketball champs to meet

By: Don Rebel
Friday, February 12, 2021 | 11:51 PM

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Last year at this time, both Highlands and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart were planning to begin their postseason journey that led them to a pot of district basketball gold.

Before they begin to defend those championships in another couple of weeks, they will clash in a standout nonsection boys basketball game Saturday evening at Highlands.

The Chargers have won two straight WPIAL Class 2A championships and are heavy favorites to three-peat. OLSH (13-0) is one of two WPIAL teams with perfect records heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. Neshannock in Class 3A is the other.

For the Golden Rams, they won’t be trying to win a second straight Class 4A basketball title after they moved up to 5A this season. Despite the move, Highlands is enjoying quite a season with a 9-1 record that has them tied with Mars for first place in Section 4-5A.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is led by the dynamic duo of junior Jake DiMichele (30.5 ppg) and senior Dante Spadafora (20.8 ppg) while Highlands also has a pair of scoring threats in sophomore Jimmy Kunst (19.1 ppg) and senior Antoine McDaniel (14.0 ppg).

Another boys basketball nonsection dandy on Saturday features WPIAL 6A top-ranked Upper St. Clair against City League power Allderdice.

Section clashes in 5A

Four of the top teams in Section 2-5A girls basketball go head-to-head Saturday afternoon.

Hampton visits Mars at noon while Armstrong hosts Plum at 1 p.m.

A look at the section shows how big these two matinees are.

Armstrong leads the tight race with a 5-1 section record, followed by Hampton at 5-2 and Plum at 5-3.

Fox Chapel also has five wins, but has four losses. Right behind the Foxes is Mars at 4-4, followed by an Indiana team at 4-5 that stunned the first-place River Hawks, 66-60, for the first loss of the season by Armstrong.

Armstrong edged Plum, 31-28 in their first meeting while Hampton squeezed past Mars, 56-55.

Fighting for gold

The 2021 WPIAL Team Wrestling championships are set for Saturday at Canon-McMillan and you can watch the AA title match at noon and the AAA finals at 2:30 p.m.

Burrell will be wrestling for its 15th consecutive district AA crown when it meets No. 2 seed Burgettstown. The title streak is now the second longest in WPIAL history behind the 20-year championship run by the Bethel Park boys swim team through the 80s and 90s.

The Buccaneers have won a total of 16 WPIAL championships.

Burgettstown is wrestling for only its second WPIAL title. The Blue Devils’ first championship was earned 47 years ago. Burgettstown won the very first WPIAL team championship playoff in 1974.

In the AAA finals, defending champion Waynesburg faces No. 2 seed Seneca Valley.

The Waynesburg Raiders won four WPIAL Class AA championships in the 1970s and 80s before winning the school’s first AAA title last year.

The Seneca Valley Raiders are trying to win their first team mat gold.

Tags: Highlands, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart