Feb 26, 2016 5 min read

One team’s motivation is redemption and the other’s is embracing the role of underdog to spoil a rival’s championship aspirations.

South Fayette remembers the feeling of shock and disappointment after walking out of Petersen Events Center without a gold medal.

Trinity, meanwhile, has never played in a title game.

That’s about as far as the differences go and it’s the similarities that has created hype around today’s WPIAL Class AAA girls basketball championship game when the two meet for the third time this season at the Pete, which is set to tip off at 3 p.m, with history on the line.

The top-seeded Lions and the second-seeded Hillers have the same record (21-3), and are Section 5-AAA rivals with South Fayette winning both regular-season games. They also both have Division I recruits in the post and incredible guard play that has led to success on both ends of the court.

That will add up to one of the more anticipated rematches in recent memory. The Lions won the first meeting, 54-46, on the road and held on for a 43-40 victory at home to help secure the section title.

“I think that both teams have some size obviously on the interior and obviously with the guard play, it definitely makes for some interesting match ups, which is why the games have tended to be close,” South Fayette head coach Matt Bacco said. “If you’re expecting anything other than a close game in this one, you’re fooling yourself.”

The match up drawing the most attention is between South Fayette senior center Emily Anderson, a 6-4 University of Pennsylvania recruit, and Trinity senior center Mary Dunn, a 6-3 Youngstown State recruit. Both average a double-double and both have the ability to carry their team.

That was evident for South Fayette in its 57-49 semifinal victory over Hampton, when Anderson scored 27 points with 16 rebounds and 13 blocked shots. Less than two hours later on the same floor at West Allegheny, Dunn finished a 20-point, nine-rebound performance to send the Hillers to a rematch.

Defeating an opponent three times in one season is no simple task. South Fayette accomplished it with a win over Chartiers Valley in the quarterfinals, but Trinity has been on the other end. In 2014, the Hillers lost to then-section rival South Park twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs.

“There’s a lot of excitement around this game,” Trinity head coach Bob Miles said. “It’s a very even match up. Both teams will come in very determined and hopefully it goes down to the wire. It’s one of those types of rivalries that when the game is going on, everyone is intense and focused.”

South Fayette will need to be both to stop Trinity’s offense, which is averaging a Class AAA-best 61.9 points per game behind Dunn, junior guard Sierra Kotchman and balanced scoring from its role players.

It’s no secret what makes the Hillers tick. She stands at 5-6 with the on-court vision, quick first step and jump shot to give opponents fits.

“The way they defend Sierra will be the key,” Miles said. “They’ll try to keep the ball out of her hands as much as they can, and they’ll try to keep her from dictating what’s going on on the floor. They feel like they have an even match with Emily and Mary and they feel their guards are as capable, but Sierra is the key there.”

Though there is a growing hype behind the rematch, the Lions did not care who they were going to face for the title. They simply wanted redemption after falling to eventual PIAA champion Blackhawk, 65-54, when Anderson was playing with a knee injury in last season’s WPIAL title game.

They saw their season end a game later to rival McGuffey in the two teams’ third meeting of the season. With junior point guard Carlee Kilgus potentially returning after missing 17 games, the Lions don’t needed added motivation.

The sight their silver medals draped over the ball racks during every preseason practice was enough.

“We’ve been thinking about this all year. We’ve obviously been taking it one game at a time, but this has been the goal since the beginning of the season – to get back to the title game,” senior guard Autumn Mozick said. “It’s great to see our hard work has paid off and gotten us back to this point.”

Trinity, which got a boost with the improvement of senior guard Natalie Cappelli, junior forward Abbey O’Connor and senior center Delaney Elling, a 6-1 Penn State softball recruit, believes the third time will be the charm.

“We’ve been looking forward to this since the last time we’ve played them,” Kotchman said. “We’re really excited. We’re just looking to go out and win. I know I wanted to play them again and it will definitely be a good game.”