Determined C-H girls prevail for WPIAL championship
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Chartiers-Houston celebrates after last year’s WPIAL Class AA Championship victory over Vincentian Academy.
Chartiers-Houston captured the WPIAL Class AA girls basketball title with a 47-35 win against Vincentian Academy.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
With Alexa Willaimson, left, who now plays at Temple University, Chartiers-Houston made the WPIAL Class 2A girls basketball championship game each of the last two seasons. The Bucs’ opponent in those two games was Vincentian Academy.
Chartiers-Houston celebrates its WPIAL Class AA girls basketball championship Thursday night. The Bucs defeated Vincentian Academy.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Keaira Walker chases down a loose ball during last year’s WPIAL Class 2A girls basketball championship.
PITTSBURGH – The Chartiers-Houston High School girls basketball team knows better than most how difficult it is to win a championship. There are plenty of pitfalls that must be avoided along the way and sometimes they can come in the form of injuries.
That’s what derailed the Bucs last year, when standout forward Alexa Williamson went down early in the campaign with a season-ending knee injury. Even without their leading scorer and a dominating force in the low post, the Bucs made a deep run into the postseason, gaining valuable experience along the way that paid off in a big way Thursday evening.
Healthy and playoff-tested Chartiers-Houston hit Vincentian Academy with a first-quarter blitz, forging a 13-point lead after eight minutes, and the Bucs led the rest of the way for an impressive 47-35 victory in the WPIAL Class AA championship game at the Petersen Events Center.
Chartiers-Houston (23-2), which has won 17 in a row, became only the third Washington County school, and the first in 25 years, to win a WPIAL girls basketball title. The most recent was Washington in 1992, when the Prexies won the Class AAA title. Immaculate Conception was the first, accomplishing the feat in 1986.
The Bucs never trailed against Vincentian Academy (20-5), a program that won the past five and six of the last seven Class A titles. Chartiers-Houston led 9-2 less than 90 seconds into the game, 17-4 after the first quarter and by then it was only a matter of time until the Bucs were hoisting the gold championship trophy and reacting to their loud and loyal fans in the arena’s second level of seating.
“This feels great,” senior guard Jala Walker proudly proclaimed.
Williamson led Chartiers-Houston is many ways in the title game. The junior scored a game-high 22 points and dominated play under the basket, grabbing 13 rebounds.
“I’ve told our kids all season that losing Alexa last year forced everyone else to get better,” C-H coach Laura Montecalvo said. “And everyone did get better. With Alexa out, Jala carried us. This year, when teams try to take Alexa out of our offense, we have other threats. Sometimes there is a silver lining that comes out of adversity.”
On this day, there would be nothing silver about Chartiers-Houston’s performance. It was golden from the start.
The Bucs’ determination and versatility was on display moments after the opening tip. On C-H’s first possession, Jules Vulcano confidently buried a three-pointer from the left wing. Walker followed with a hard drive to the basket for a score and Williamson worked inside for a layup. It was 7-0 only 84 seconds into the game and Vincentian was calling a timeout.
“We focused on having a quick start,” Montecalvo said. “We wanted to get them back on their heels. … I think some people thought we might be scared of (Vincentian). But if you were in our locker room, you knew we weren’t scared.”
Chartiers-Houston was the team that played with poise. The Bucs forced 13 Vincentian turnovers in the first half and committed only two. The Royals were dealt a blow in the first half when leading scorer Caroline Elliott busted open her chin when she fell to the court while battling for a rebound. She left the game for much of the half and finished with only three points.
“I think I’ll need stitches,” Elliott said.
The Bucs closed the first quarter on an 8-0 run, with Williamson scoring four points, to take a 17-4 lead. Though Vincentian kept battling, C-H already had drained much of the drama out of the game.
“They got off to a fast start and then it was an uphill battle for us,” Vincentian coach Ron Moncrief said. “I don’t have an answer for why we came out slow. I give Chartiers-Houston credit. They’re a very good team that came out ready to play.”
Vincentian closed to within 25-17 at halftime but the Royals gave up too many second-chance opportunities to mount a comeback. Vincentian never got closer than seven points in the second half, that at 29-22 in the third quarter. Vulcano, however, scored on a layup, Madison Simpson drove for a basket and Williamson scored off a nifty pass by Walker to make it 35-22 after three quarters.
Keaira Walker, the player who brings the toughness to C-H’s defense, was the Bucs’ second-leading scorer with 10 points as she scored in each quarter.
Vincentian did not have a player score in double figures. Junior guard Olivia O’Brien led the Royals with nine points.
“I’m proud of our kids,” Montecalvo said. “Everyone talks about Vincentian’s history and tradition but I think we’re starting one at Chartiers-Houston.”
The Bucs begin play in the state tournament next Friday against Cranberry (18-6), the third-place team from District 9.
Chartiers-Houston’s win also means Washington (13-11) enters the state tournament as the No. 6 seed in Class AA and will play the District 10 champion, either West Middlesex or Reynolds, in the first round.