03/07/26 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Bishop Guilfoyle's Taurean Consiglio is dogged by Ligonier Valley's Jake Petalino.

The Bishop Guilfoyle Academy Marauders are a contender to reach the PIAA Class 3A boys basketball tournament state championship game at Hershey’s Giant Center in 12 days.

A quick start out of the gates for BG in Saturday afternoon’s 62-43 PIAA first-round victory over Ligonier Valley at the Pleasant Valley gymnasium provided the Marauders with a very positive first step.

The District 6 champion Marauders (now 24-4), who placed four players in double figures for the game, bolted out to a 20-5 lead after one quarter and did an excellent job of holding serve the rest of the way as they punched their ticket into Wednesday night’s second-round matchup against South Park.

That game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at IUP’s Kovalchick Center.

South Park (22-4), the third-place finisher out of the WPIAL, earned Wednesday’s matchup with BG by defeating Perry Traditional Academy, 90-60, in another PIAA first-round game on Saturday.

“We came out today with a good start,” BG coach Ryan Lestochi said. “We haven’t had too many of them lately. I was really happy with the focus that we had at the beginning of the game. It’s always nice to get the lead and to be able to relax rather than chasing (an opponent).”

Indeed, the Marauders — who were led by senior Taurean Consiglio’s 15 points, along with 14 from junior Grant Okonak and 11 and 10, respectively, from seniors Jake Kissell and Tyson Lestochi — couldn’t have asked for a better start for themselves.

BG scored the game’s first 10 points, with Consiglio converting an inside feed for a field goal to get the ball rolling. Okonak picked up a steal at mid-court and turned it into a fast-break layup, sophomore Alex Krimmel hit one of two free throws, junior Troy Ruggery hit a floater for another field goal, and Kissell drained a 3-pointer from the top of the circle to complete the 10-point start for BG.

Kissell scored five points and Consiglio and Ruggery tallied four points apiece in the first quarter for BG.

The Ligonier Valley boys program was making its first appearance in a PIAA state tournament game in seven years on Saturday. That, plus the fact that the Rams were playing an outstanding BG team at a very tough place for an opposing team to prevail, may have contributed to a sense of uneasiness at the beginning of the game for Ligonier Valley coach Dante Porter’s team.

“I think that we were a little tight at the beginning of the game,” said Porter, whose whose team wrapped up a 14-13 season. “We were kind of feeling our way early in the game, and Bishop Guilfoyle is a very disciplined, physical basketball team that will make you pay for your mistakes, and they did that to us tonight.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our upperclassmen for the way that they stepped up this year,” Porter added. “We just lost to a better basketball team today.”

Ligonier Valley put together its best rally in the first half of the second quarter, as the Rams went on a 12-5 run to cut their deficit to 25-17. Two inside buckets by senior forward Cam Kunkle started the Ligonier Valley rally, which later included 3-point field goals by senior forward Michael Vargulish-Graver and senior guard Michael Wisnewski, who led Ligonier Valley with a game-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers.

Junior Noah Krupp’s bucket pulled Ligonier Valley to within 25-17, but BG responded with a Consiglio layup and a 3-point shot by Tyson Lestochi to build its lead back up to 13 points, 30-17.

“We had a little bit of a dry spell in the second quarter, but outside of that, we were pretty good,” Coach Lestochi said. “We had a lot of guys scoring for us, and we stuck to our game plan, which was to attack the basket, make the right passes at the right time, and finish our shots.”

Led by Okonak’s powerful inside game, the Marauders held serve in the third quarter, and led, 46-32 entering the fourth period, in which they expanded their advantage to as large as 21 points.

Okonak accounted for 12 of BG’s 16 third-quarter points, draining a 3-point shot and making three field goals from the paint.

“I just give credit to my teammates for getting me the open looks,” Okonak said of his third-quarter outburst. “We just tried to stay patient and get the best shots that we could.”

BG converted 25 of its 67 floor shots for a 37.3 percent clip, while Ligonier Valley had just 26 chances from the floor but made 14 of them for 53.8 percent.

Kissell, who grabbed a game-high six rebounds, joined fellow seniors Consiglio and Tyson Lestochi in playing their last high school basketball game for BG on the Pleasant Valley gym floor Saturday.

“It was the last home game for these seniors, and they’ve been an outstanding group that has lost only one home game in their entire high school careers,” Coach Lestochi said. “They’re one of the winningest groups ever to go through this program, and I’m happy that they all played well tonight.”

The Marauders’ next task is to prevail against a South Park team that is led by 6-foot-8 senior center Luke Scarff, who became that school’s all-time leading scorer earlier this season.

“They’re a strong team, and they have a big kid who is very good,” Okonak said of South Park. “We’re excited to get after it with them.”

LIGONIER VALLEY (43): Vargulish-Graver 2 2-2 8, Daugherty 0 2-2 2, Wisniewski 5 2-2 17, Kunkle 2 0-0 4, Knupp 2 0-0 4, J. Petalino 1 0-0 2, Pope 1 2-2 4, Mohney 1 0-0 2, Queer 0 0-0 0. Totals – 14 8-8 43.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (62): Consiglio 7 1-1 15, Krimmel 2 1-2 6, Kissell 4 2-2 11, Ruggery 2 0-0 4, Lestochi 4 1-3 10, G. Okonak 5 3-3 14, C. Okonak 1 0-0 2, Lightner 0 0-0 0, Baker 0 0-0 0, Misiura 0 0-0 0, Shellenberger 0 0-0 0. Totals -25 8-11 62.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Ligonier Valley 5 14 13 11–43

Bishop Guilfoyle 20 10 16 16–62

3-point goals: Ligonier Valley 7 (Wisniewski 5, Vargulish-Graver 2, ); Bishop Guilfoyle 4 (Krimmel, Kissell, We Lestochi, G. Okonak).

Records: Ligonier Valley (14-13); Bishop Guilfoyle (24-4).

Officials: Sean Albright, Dan Gales, Joe Hanna.