Feb 13, 2016 4 min read

BALDWIN – Sophomore guard Hannah Gosliak nailed a three-pointer from the left wing as time expired as Ringgold knocked off Laurel Highlands, 50-47, in a WPIAL Class AAA high school girls basketball preliminary round playoff game Saturday.

Gosliak came off the bench to score eight points for the Rams (13-10), who advance to play top-seeded South Fayette Wednesday at Peters Township High School.

Senior guard Bailey Cooper scored 11 points for Ringgold, including her 1,000th career point on a layup early in the first quarter when the Rams jumped out to a 17-7 lead. Cooper is the ninth Ringgold girls basketball player to reach 1,000 points and now has 1,008 in her career.

Ashley Briscoe led the Rams with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Ashley Galderisi scored 16 points and Sitiri Tale had 13 for Laurel Highlands, which finishes its season at 10-13.

Belle Vernon 56, Central Valley 37: Belle Vernon survived a slow start in the first quarter, but outplayed Central Valley throughout the final three quarters to win its WPIAL Class AAA preliminary round matchup, 56-37, at Trinity High School.

The Leopards (10-13) advance to take on second-seeded Trinity in the first round Wednesday at Canon-McMillan.

Kelsey Greene led Belle Vernon with 15 points , hile Rylie Campbell added a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Belle Vernon scored just five points in the first quarter, but took control in the second and third quarters , outscoring Central Valley (13-10), 32-14.

“There were a little bit of nerves offensively to start the game,” Belle Vernon head coach Lisa Fairman said. “But once we broke the ice we started to settle down. We switched up defenses on them a lot to and kept them off balance all game. Once we relaxed and settled in we played a pretty good game.”

Central Valley was led in scoring by Kaelyn Underwood with 12 points.

Boys results

Pittsburgh Central Catholic 73, Peters Township 67: Peters Township fell behind 19-7 after one quarter but chipped away at Central Catholic’s lead to the point where the Indians had an opportunity to take the lead on a shot with just under one minute to play.

But the shot didn’t fall and the Indians were forced to foul down the stretch in a 73-67 Class AAAA first-round playoff loss to the Vikings at Baldwin High School.

Bobby Kiernan had 18 points, Steve Votodian 16 and Luke Nedrow 15 for Central Catholic, which advances to play Pine-Richland in the quarterfinals next Saturday.

Mike Cortese scored a game-high 24 points for the Indians (14-9), who also got 15 points from Nick Valentic and 13 from Kelson Marisa.

Wilkinsburg 66, Beth-Center 24: Wilkinsburg took advantage of Beth-Center’s turnovers and pulled away for a 66-24 win in a WPIAL Class AA preliminary-round boys basketball game.

The Tigers (16-7) advanced to the first round, where they will play third-seeded Quaker Valley Wednesday at Northgate. The Bulldogs, who reached the playoffs for the first time in three years, finished with a 7-12 overall record.

Wilkinsburg got 17 points from junior center Dremar Everette and junior forward Dominique Aim came off the bench to score 16.

Beth-Center struggled with 17 turnovers and shot just 4 of 18 from the field in the first half, leading to a 32-9 deficit at the break.

“The difference in the first half was we were down by 20 and maybe we should have been down seven or eight if we hit our layups or our foul shots,” Beth-Center first-year head coach Greg Goliembewski said.

Wilkinsburg finished the first half on a 26-6 run.

Facing a 3-2 zone with size and speed, Beth-Center created chances on the baseline with a third guard and when Everette was out of the game, the Bulldogs passed inside to junior 6-4 center Brennan Stanley, but they could not take advantage of open shots.

“We didn’t hit our shots, we were missing our layups, we were missing our foul shots and we weren’t getting second or third shots because our boys weren’t hitting the boards,” Goliembewski said. “I don’t know if they were intimidated a little bit – maybe somewhat – but that team is quick, they’re well-coached, they played well.”