Year has come full circle for West Greene, Trinity, opponents
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Brooke Barner battles Rochester’s Jasmine Mack for a rebound in last year’s WPIAL Class A championship game. Teh teams play in the finals again this evening at Peters Township High School’s new gymnasium.
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Eden WIlliamson (20) passes the ball to teammate Alyssa Clutter (24) before Chartiers Valley’s Aislin Malcolm closes in during the regular-season meeting between the teams, won by the Hillers. Trinity and Chartiers Valley play again tonight in the WPIAL Class 5A championship game at Peters Township’s new gymnasium.
After playing an entire regular season and two weeks of postseason, all of it during a pandemic, four girls basketball teams are right back where they were one year ago – in the WPIAL finals.
Second-seeded West Greene (18-3) and top-seeded Rochester (14-3) will play this evening for the Class A championship at Peters Township High School’s sparkling new gymnasium. Tipoff is 5 p.m. It will be followed by the Class 5A title game matching top-seeded Trinity (21-1) and second-seeded Chartiers Valley (22-3) at 8 p.m.
West Greene and Rochester will be meeting in the finals for the third consecutive season. Rochester won each of the first two matchups, 59-43 last year and 62-56 in 2019. The Pioneers are in the title game for the fourth consecutive season and are seeking their first championship. West Greene lost to Winchester Thurston in the 2018 finals.
Each of those title games were played at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center, so the change in venue, caused by the pandemic, might bring some good karma for the Pioneers.
“I’m glad to be playing anywhere but the Pete,” West Greene coach Jordan Watson joked. “We’re happy it’s in a high school gym – a really nice one.”
West Greene enters the game with three losses, but the Pioneers are unbeaten against Class A opponents. Their only losses were to Chartiers Valley, Class 3A champion Mohawk and Sewickley Academy, which advanced to the Class 2A semifinals.
Rochester also is undefeated against Class A foes. The Rams have lost to a pair of Class 6A teams, Seneca Valley and Bethel Park, and Mohawk.
Watson said Rochester has three tremendous players in guards Corynne Hauser (19.9 ppg), Alexis Robison (18.2 ppg) and Makenzie Robison. Hauser, who Watson called a Division I player, had 17 points and eight rebounds in last years’ title game.
“Rochester did lose two starters from last year,” Watson said. “We match up better with them this year. They had (Jasmine) Mack who was very good inside. If do feel like our 4 through 6 players are stronger than theirs. That’s where we need to win the game.”
West Greene can counter with guard Jersey Wise (17.3 ppg), who filled up the statistics sheet against Rochester last year with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Though his team is in the final for the fourth consecutive year and playing a two-time defending champion, Watson says the pressure is on the Rams.
“A few years ago, one of our players said, ‘There’s no pressure. You just have to win.’ We don’t feel the pressure,” Watson said. “I look at this as a 50/50 game. You look at the scores of games with common opponents and we’re right with Rochester. We stack up pretty well.”
While West Greene and Rochester are familiar foes but have been keeping tabs on one another from a distance this season, Trinity and Chartiers Valley are about as close as two programs can be. The Hillers and Colts played in the same section last year and are meeting in the WPIAL title game for the second consecutive season. Chartiers Valley won last year, 58-40, and the teams likely would have met again in the state playoffs had the PIAA not canceled that tournament in the quarterfinal round.
This season, Trinity ended Chartiers Valley’s state-record 64-game winning streak on Jan. 23. Trinity won 49-42 at Hiller Hall.
Add in the fact that Trinity is coached by Kathy McConnell-Miller and Chartiers Valley’s coach is her brother, Tim McConnell, and there are very few unknowns for these teams.
“We’ve been there,” McConnell-Miller said. “We know what it looks like, what to expect. I think when you know, and you put yourself in familiar situations, that bodes well for their confidence. They’ve been battle-tested all year.”
Courtney Dahlquist led Trinity in the regular-season meeting against Chartiers Valley with 19 points. The Hillers held CV to 23 points below their season average in that game.
Because of the COVID-10 pandemic, the brackets for the state tournament are smaller and only the WPIAL champion will advance to PIAA play, making tonight’s games a now-or-never situation for all four teams.