11 area basketball teams in action starting with Friday PIAA slate
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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
The PIAA boys and girls basketball playoffs begin Friday and Saturday for 11 teams in the Mirror's core coverage area and several other regional teams that will hope to have state championship medals around their necks by the end of March.
No team from Mirror's core coverage area has made it to Hershey since the Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic girls won the PIAA Class 1A championship in 2021, but District 6 girls teams Homer-Center and River Valley and District 5 boys team Berlin Brothersvalley made it to the finals last year before falling.
The following is an outlook at each classification involving a team from the Mirror's core coverage area and what to expect over the next couple weeks.
Class 1A girls
We'll start with the classification where it's most likely to see a local representative from the core coverage area make it to Hershey, and it could be the team that last made an appearance.
Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic, which didn't even qualify for the state playoffs and was eliminated by Glendale in the first round of the District 6 tournament the year after it won a state title, has quickly rebuilt itself into a state championship contender.
The Lady Marauders won a game in the state playoffs last year, but even that team bears almost no resemblance to this year's squad that was led by a great freshman group and grew up as the year went on.
Bishop Guilfoyle and its opponent in this year's District 6 championship game, Williamsburg, are two of the better teams in the state in Class 1A, but unlike some years, there are plenty of teams that could derail a possible Lady Marauders-Lady Blue Pirates rematch in the PIAA semifinals on Tuesday, March 19.
Bishop Guilfoyle should win its first-round game at home against Riverview handily before playing DuBois Central Catholic in the second round. DCC nearly knocked off Williamsburg last season and has tested itself against bigger schools like Forest Hills, Punxsutawney and Indiana and also played defending state champion Union. The Cardinals didn't win any of those games, but they were somewhat competitive, and they did beat Clearfield, which was competitive with BG in the regular season.
Next up, if BG wins that, should be Union, which will need to win its first round game and then a matchup with either Ridgway or Northern Bedford. Though the Lady Panthers have some experienced scorers, Ridgway would likely be the favorite to play against Union, but a BG-Union game on March 16 in the quarterfinals seems likely.
Some of the same players that helped Union beat Williamsburg and then Berlin Brothersvalley last year, Millersville recruit Kelly Cleaver, Kylie Fruehstorfer and Mia Preuhs, return for the Lady Scotties. Their size and physicality often limits teams to one shot, and one of BG's issues this year has been at times settling for shots. If that happens against Union, the Lady Marauders will need plenty of their first attempts to fall, because the likelihood of several shot attempts per possession isn't high.
On Williamsburg's side of the bracket, the first round is no cakewalk. Aquinas Academy, which eliminated Juniata Valley in the first round last year, has the ability to play with the Lady Blue Pirates if they haven't left their loss to BG in the district final behind them.
From there, a matchup with District 9 champion Elk County Catholic awaits, and the Crusaders have blown away most of their competition this season. With that said, they likely haven't played many teams with the speed of a guard like LeeAnna Royer, the outside shooting of Ayla Hileman and the size and skill of freshman Levada Gorsuch inside. Gorsuch will have to be assertive and take the ball strong to the basket, something she improved on as the season went on and she adjusted to varsity-level basketball.
If Williamsburg makes it to the PIAA quarterfinals for the third year in a row, it will play either Saint Joseph's out of the WPIAL, which took Union to overtime in the championship game, or get a rubber-match game against Berlin Brothersvalley, which beat Williamsburg in the Inter-County Conference championship game after the Lady Pirates beat the Lady Mountaineers in the regular season.
Familiar teams like Jenkintown and Lourdes Regional, which made last year's final, are in the upper half of the bracket, but any team in the upper half of the bracket would be an underdog against BG, Williamsburg, Union, Elk County Catholic, St. Joseph's (WPIAL) and Berlin Brothersvalley in the state final.
Class 2A girls
The Mirror's core coverage teams, Portage and Bellwood-Antis, both have really tough draws.
The Lady Mustangs play an athletic and talented Aliquippa team in the first round that will have the size advantage on Portage. That hasn't stopped the Lady Mustangs before, and their full-court pressure might be something Aliquippa isn't used to.
But if Portage wins, it will play a familiar opponent in Kennedy Catholic, the team that beat it in the PIAA Class 1A semifinals in 2022. Layke Fields, Kennedy's star forward, was a member of that team and is still on Kennedy's roster and presents a matchup problem for Portage. Kennedy is the defending state champion, and this game would serve as almost a state-championship-level game for Portage in the second round. It's possible the winner of that game might get Bishop McCort in the quarterfinals.
Bellwood-Antis must travel to WPIAL champion Greensburg Central Catholic. The Lady Blue Devils went to WPIAL second seed Our Lady of Sacred Heart and won two years ago on their way to the PIAA semifinals and will need a similar type of effort to come away with a victory here. A second-round game against either Moniteau or West Middlesex would be a considerably easier matchup, and there's a chance District 5 champion Everett and star Cloe Price could be waiting in the quarterfinals if B-A makes it that far.
In the top of the bracket, there's a very good chance Marion Center will repeat Homer-Center's run to the PIAA championship game from a year ago.
Class 5A girls
District 4-6 champion Hollidaysburg has an interesting draw this season with a very winnable game at home against Manheim Central to start the PIAA playoffs.
The Lady Tigers have won in that round in each of the last two seasons and nearly made it to the quarterfinals last year before losing by a point to Oakland Catholic.
This season, Hollidaysburg's second-round opponent will likely be Armstrong, which lost to Altoona, 59-45, earlier this season. The Lady Tigers seemed to snap out of their season-ending slump that leaked into the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference playoffs and should finally be healthy now.
Considering that, this team is certainly capable of a run to at least the quarterfinals, which has served as Hollidaysburg's blockade over the last half decade.
SUBHED: Class 6A girls
Altoona coach Chris Fleegle said after his team won the District 6 championship that he felt this year's team was one that could make noise at the PIAA level.
If that turns out to be true, the Lady Lions will have to do it against some tough competition.
Chartiers Valley, up from playing in 5A and some recent PIAA matchups with Hollidaysburg, will not be a pushover at the Fieldhouse in the first round. Chartiers Valley is under a new coaching staff, but it has continued to be a force in girls basketball.
The Lady Colts and Altoona both played Armstrong this year. Chartiers Valley won by 21, and Altoona won by 14.
If Altoona makes it to the second round, WPIAL champion Norwin will likely be the opponent. Norwin has three wins against North Allegheny, which topped Altoona by two in its regular-season opener.
Class 1A boys
The Bishop Carroll Catholic boys have proven to be a threat against almost anyone they play in the PIAA playoffs during coach Cosie Aliquo's tenure, and the Huskies have made two PIAA semifinal appearances during his time on the court.
Bishop Carroll's speed and defense should make the Huskies the favorite in the first round against Johnsonburg, but the second-round game against either Pittsburgh's Neighborhood Academy or District 10's Rocky Grove should be a challenge. Bishop Carroll would need some of its outside shots to connect to come away with a win in that round, which may prove to be more of a challenge than a potential quarterfinal game against either Union or Elk County Catholic.
Williamsburg opens against Cameron County, which not only defeated Portage in this round a year ago, but ran it out of its own gym. If the Blue Pirates can get a big performance from senior Rowan Gorsuch and shooters like Jesse Brumbaugh get hot from deep, they would likely play District 10 champion Farrell in the second round.
Berlin Brothersvalley is back in the top half of the bracket, and there's no reason to believe the Mountaineers -- with senior stars Pace Prosser and Craig Jarvis -- aren't capable of a return to the PIAA finals where they would likely have a rematch against Imani Christian Academy.
Imani had two all-state players, Alier Maluk and Dame Givner, transfer out of state, but it still has cruised through the 1A part of its schedule with star R.J. Sledge.
Class 2A boys
District 4 champion Muncy is a tough draw for the Mirror core coverage area's only entrant in this bracket, Claysburg-Kimmel.
Despite a size and experience-at-this-level gap the Bulldogs will face, this game along with District 6 playoff games against United, West Branch and West Shamokin have brought excitement to the school and gives future C-K players hope that playing in the state tournament is a possibility.
As for West Branch, the Warriors have a good shot to make the quarterfinals, and Northern Cambria could win a first-round game before running into WPIAL champion Aliquippa.
Class 3A boys
A year ago, Penn Cambria made a run to the PIAA semifinals here and lost a close game to Deer Lakes.
Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic's loss to Westmont Hilltop in the District 6 semifinals makes a similar run by the Marauders this year tougher but not impossible.
BG's first two opponents, WPIAL runner-up Burrell and likely District 10 champion Girard, are both capable of beating the Marauders, but Bishop Guilfoyle would likely win those matchups plenty of times if they had a best-of-seven series.
Mohawk, which entered the WPIAL playoffs as the No. 2 seed, or Westmont Hilltop might be waiting in the quarterfinals, and Deer Lakes and Franklin are among the teams to watch for as a possible semifinal opponent.
Bishop Guilfoyle has proven it can play with anyone on any given night, but can the Marauders string together those nights four times in a row to reach their first PIAA championship game since 2019?
Only time will tell if any of the Mirror's coverage area teams make it to Hershey, but there's no doubt the next few weeks will create memories that stick with several communities for years.