Bishop Carroll’s Winston Hall-Campbell (right) goes up for the jump ball with Tyler Sapida of Serra Catholic Friday night. Mirror photo by Michael Boytim

McKEESPORT — When a team has a player as good as Bishop Carroll Catholic senior Jace Casses, it always has a shot to win.

Unfortunately when that player is as good as the Huskies’ star senior, it also means he has a target on his back.

WPIAL runner-up Serra Catholic had a man in Casses’ face no matter where he was on the court, with the ball or without it, and picked up a double-team effort on him if he got the ball anywhere past halfcourt.

The Eagles used that strategy to jump out to a 14-point lead in the first quarter, but Casses fought through all of it to score 11 of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter and pull Bishop Carroll within two points.

But a Serra Catholic basket just before the fourth quarter sparked an 11-2 run that put the game away in a 68-49 Eagles win in the first round of the PIAA Class 1A boys basketball playoffs at William J. Cleary Court on Friday.

“It felt pretty good, and I thought we had a chance,” Casses said. “They are a tough team, and they knew what to run. With the double-team effort and faceguarding, it was tough to attack. We did our best. We tried. It was a good run.”

Casses began the second half with a steal and a layup to cut into Serra Catholic’s 32-20 lead at the break. Baskets by Winston Hall-Campbell, who had a team-high 13 rebounds, and Drew Lucko helped the Huskies come within five, and Casses drilled three 3-pointers to pull Bishop Carroll within 40-38 with seconds to play in the third quarter.

The Huskies got the ball back, and Casses missed a 3-pointer that could have put them ahead, forced a turnover but then turned it over themselves before Mark Johnson made a basket to put Serra Catholic up by four going into the fourth quarter.

“We were down, and we cut it to two and had the ball,” Bishop Carroll coach Cosie Aliquo said. “We just turned it over. That’s one thing I’ll always say about us. We never give up. We didn’t. We weren’t the most talented team, but we did have the best player in our area — and I’ll put it out there — in the state. But we just didn’t have enough.”

Casses led a group of five Bishop Carroll seniors along with Lucko, Joe Phillips, Ben Kirsch and Hayden Stohon, who played in their final high school game.

“(Jace) is one of the best I have ever coached,” Aliquo said. “The other seniors have been super. They were there every day and practiced hard. They got us back to the state playoffs.”

Casses, who was third-team all-state as a sophomore and second-team as a junior, is hoping to continue his basketball career at the next level.

“Scoring 1,000 points as a junior was awesome,” Casses said. “I just try to stay as humble as I can. I know I’m blessed, and I have a great coaching staff and a great group of guys. They encourage me to keep shooting. I am hoping I can get blessed by getting a scholarship to a school that gives me a shot. I am excited to see where my future takes me. I can’t control everything, but I can control trying to make myself better every single day.”

Serra Catholic will play District 9 champion Elk County Catholic in the second round of the PIAA tournament on Tuesday.

The Eagles got a team-high 18 points and 21 rebounds from Tyler Sapida and 17 points from Brayden Graham.

“(Sapida) is building off his great championship game last week,” Serra Catholic coach A.J. Corso said. “He’s had a great playoff run for us and has found his groove. He’s leading us in rebounds, and he’s usually our leading scorer.”

Corso confirmed Casses was the center of his scouting report.

“From watching film, we knew he attempted a lot of their shots,” Corso said. “We didn’t want him to get into a groove. I saw one game where he made six in a row. The plan was to keep him contained and force the other guys to shoot.”

Johnson’s basket prior to the fourth quarter shifted momentum, according to Corso.

“We have been trying to get that in their brains all season long,” Corso said. “We want to end the quarter and put the shot up with three seconds so we have a chance at a putback, and all year it was going up early. We would miss, and the other team would score. We got it up at the right time, made it and it sparked us for the fourth quarter.”

While Serra Catholic was holding Casses to just five shot attempts in the first half, freshman Ryen Myers helped keep the Huskies in the game with two of his three 3-pointers in the second quarter. Myers finished with 10 points.

“He has been absolutely super,” Aliquo said. “From when he first came out to now, he’s really grown. If he makes some of those in the beginning of the game, there’s a different story tonight. But that’s a freshman. We had to put a lot of pressure on a freshman.”

The Huskies were back in the PIAA playoffs a year after missing them. In 2024 when Casses was a sophomore, they made it all the way to the PIAA semifinals. Carroll finished 12-14 playing mostly larger schools all season in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference.

“The (postgame) message was for the younger guys,” Aliquo said. “They need to know how hard you have to work to get here. We have to just keep plugging away for them.”

BISHOP CARROLL CATHOLIC (49): Casses 7 3-6 21, Kirsch 0 1-2 1, Hall-Campbell 2 1-3 5, Myers 3 1-3 10, Lucko 1 0-0 2, J. Phillips 4 0-0 8, Tremel 0 0-0 0, P. Phillips 1 0-0 2, Conner 0 0-0 0, Stohon 0 0-0 0. Totals — 18 6-14 49.

SERRA CATHOLIC (68): Johnson 3 1-2 7, Petty 1 0-0 3, Jellison 4 0-0 8, B. Graham 7 2-4 17, Sapida 9 0-0 18, T. Graham 1 0-2 2, Sharp 1 0-0 3, Walker 2 1-2 7, Lape 1 0-0 3, Miller 0 0-0 0, Dukovich 0 0-0 0, Martin 0 0-0 0, McNeal 0 0-0 0, Austin 0 0-0 0, Mwambu 0 0-0 0. Totals — 29 4-10 68.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Carroll 10 10 18 11 — 49

Serra Catholic 19 13 10 26 — 68

3-point goals: Bishop Carroll 7 (Casses 4, Myers 3); Serra Catholic 6 (Walker 2, Petty, B. Graham, Sharp, Lape).

Records: Bishop Carroll (12-14); Serra Catholic (15-10).

Officials: Paul Puleo, Joe Januck, Bill Buehner.