Feb 27, 2016 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – Depth for a basketball team is more than having a large number of players to help starters rest.

The true measurement of depth is having players who don’t look overwhelmed in big moments and aren’t afraid to take a shot.

For South Fayette, depth at guard has been more important than ever during the postseason.

It was the Lions’ stable of guards who helped them earn the program’s first WPIAL title and fend off second-seeded Trinity, 59-52, Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center.

Though South Fayette had two guards limited against the Hillers, they had one who was able to fill to void in its zone defense, which held Trinity scoreless for almost the final 90 seconds of regulation.

If one player embodies the Lions’ relentless, shifty defense, it’s freshman guard Skylar Aitken, or as her coaches and teammates call her, the fearless Chihuahua.

Fearless describes her ability to pressure opposing guards into mistakes and her approach on both ends of the court, and Chihuahuah because, well, she’s short, standing just 5-4.

“She’s going to be a good one when it’s all said and done,” South Fayette head coach Matt Bacco said. “She’s so darn athletic and she has the mentality where she’s fearless. We call here the fearless Chihuahua because she’s small and gutsy. We love the fact that she’s willing to stick her nose in there.”

When sophomore guard Maddie Gutierrez was limited because of a 102-degree temperature and junior Carlee Kilgus was rotated into the lineup after missing the past two months, it was Aitken who helped contain the Hillers in the closing minutes and force four fourth-quarter turnovers.

“We have to move our feet, be scrappy, feisty and don’t reach,” Aitken said of the Lions’ defense. “We can’t let them score. I don’t let my size get to me.”

She wasn’t limited to defense, either. Aitken only finished with five points, but her acrobatic driving underhand layup in the second quarter gave the Lions (22-3) a 15-point lead and when Trinity went on a third-quarter run to cut the deficit to seven, Aitken drained a three-pointer at the top of the key to shift momentum.

It was not long ago when she only played a few minutes against the Hillers in the two teams’ first regular-season match up.

“I really can’t describe it,” Aitken said of her freshman year. “It’s so amazing. I had confidence that it’d go in.”

For the past three seasons, South Fayette has needed the help of key reserves such as Aitken. Last year, it was senior Lauren Crites who came off the bench to make the game-winning shot in the WPIAL semifinals. With Kilgus limited Saturday while recovering from a foot injury, Gutierrez got the start against Trinity (21-4) and has excelled on defense, but when an illness drained her of energy, Bacco turned to Aitken, who helped South Fayette make key stops even when senior center Emily Anderson was on the bench.

“The best part about it is they are not afraid to make plays,” Bacco said. “The biggest obstacle with role players sometimes, and bench players, is they come into the game and they play tentatively. Our kids don’t do that. We tell them we want them to make mistakes going 100 mph. We don’t care about the shots that they miss, but we do care about is the shots that they don’t take.”

When Aitken saw the shot, she took it. When Bacco needed another guard to step in to stop the Hillers, Aitken attacked on defense.

Both teams will have six days to prepare for the PIAA Class AAA playoffs and they’ll be playing at the same site.

Trinity will play South Park, the WPIAL’s sixth seed, and South Fayette faces Ambridge, the WPIAL’s seventh seed, Saturday at Peters Township High School. Times are yet to be determined.

Though both teams were asked of a possible rematch in the state playoffs, it cannot happen until the PIAA semifinals.

The latest meeting between the teams certainly lived up the hype after Trinity trailed by 20 points before narrowing the deficit to one with less than three minutes to play.

“Give South Fayette credit. They’ve beaten us three times this year and they have been close games,” Trinity head coach Bob Miles said. “We’re very evenly matched. I don’t want to say we gave them a good show, but it was highly competitive game. Nobody wanted this game to be a blowout. They wanted it to be as competitive as it was.”

South Fayette’s trapping zone is designed to prevent the ball from getting to Trinity guard Sierra Kotchman and it worked, holding the junior to only five points in the first half.

But Miles’ halftime adjustment created open shots, helping the Hillers make 7 of 16 field-goal attempts in the third quarter. The Lions, meanwhile, went cold, shooting 4 of 13.

“We talked about keeping the ball off the sideline and getting it into the middle,” Miles said. “We set a few more screens this time. In the second half, we started taking the corner on it. That was a key thing when we were able to get some penetration in there and we were able to do some other things.”