The regular season is over, the brackets are set, and the race to the Pete is on for dozens of teams across the WPIAL. Here’s a breakdown of the top teams to keep an eye on in each class throughout the playoffs.
Class 6A
The top three seeds were dominant all season. Upper St. Clair grabbed the #1 seed, New Castle ended up at #2, and Central Catholic finished with the #3 seed. All three of these teams finished with at least 20 wins in the regular season, which was only accomplished by four other teams across the entire WPIAL.
New Castle has been the favorite all year, but they had a number of close games throughout the second half of the season and even lost a game to #10 seed Pine Richland. The Hurricanes are one of the deepest teams in the WPIAL and are led by senior, Damian Harrison, sophomore, Kai Cox, and freshman, Marino Graham. All three are also stars on the football field but they’re capable of scoring 20 points a night on the hardwood as well.
Upper St. Clair and Central Catholic only lost to each other in the section this year and with USC being the #1 seed, they can only meet in the championship. Upper St. Clair is the defending champ and is anchored by their big man, 6’7” 280 pound junior, Ryan Robbins.
Central Catholic plays a positionless style of basketball with all of their starters being around 6 feet tall. They are led by senior guard, Enzo Khalil, who is one of the more well-rounded players in the WPIAL. He can score with the best of them, but he fills up the entire stat sheet, having nearly notched a triple-double multiple times this year.
Other teams to keep an eye on as sleepers in the class include Pine Richland, North Hills, and Mt. Lebanon. Pine is led by senior sharpshooter, Grant Spacciapolli, and were the only team to beat New Castle during the regular season. North Hills is paced by the high scoring duo of Nathan Schanbacher and Jackson Long, and Mt. Lebo is led by senior guard, Liam Sheely, who is one of the craftiest scorers and best shooters in the class.
Class 5A
The 5A classification has been a two horse race between Chartiers Valley and Lincoln Park all season. There are a number of strong teams and great players in the class, but it’s those two teams that have led the pack this year. Chartiers Valley is one of the deepest teams in the WPIAL. They start four seniors, including Julian Semplice, and their star sophomore, Luca Federico. They also bring in potential sixth man of the year, Julius Best, off the bench.
Lincoln Park counters by having the top senior in the WPIAL in Columbia commit, Josh Pratt. Pratt is the agreed upon best guard in the area and for good reason. He can do it all offensively and he’ll pick up your best player the entire length of the court on defense.
There are a handful of other teams in 5A that will look to make a run in the playoffs as well. The #3 seed, Thomas Jefferson, has flown under the radar a bit this season. They had the best record in all of 5A this year, finishing at 20-2, but they’ll have a tough road to the finals with Lincoln Park and #6 seed Penn Hills on their side of the bracket. Moon is the #4 seed and has a win over Chartiers Valley on their resume already. Jackson Bauman will be looking to make a deep run in his first and only season with the Tigers.
Lastly, there’s a first round matchup in 5A that features two of the highest potential prospects in all of the WPIAL as #5 Gateway and Mykel Bruce-McCrommon are set to take on #12 Indiana and Aaron Webb. Both of them are D1 prospects and could provide the most exciting game of the playoffs in round one.
Class 4A
The top 4 seeds in 4A all have legitimate title aspirations this year. Quaker Valley grabbed the top spot after finishing the regular season with an overall record of 18-3 and a perfect 10-0 section record. They’re another deep team and they have three-point shooters everywhere on the floor.
The #2 and #3 seeds were dominant in 4A all year, with their only losses in the class coming to each other as #2 seeded North Catholic and the #3 seed, Knoch, split their regular season series. North Catholic is led by their high-scoring senior guard duo of Jason Fredericks and Jude Rottmann and Knoch is anchored by their physical scoring leader, Teegan Finucan.
Derry is the #4 seed and they’re coming off of their first section title in nearly 70 years. They’re led by arguably the top player in 4A in 6’7” junior wing, Stanley Rajkovich. Stan is a big athletic player with the ability to shoot the three and play off the dribble, presenting a matchup nightmare for just about everyone.
Class 3A
There are a handful of teams that come into the 3A playoffs with high hopes, but none are hotter than Mohawk. They lost their first game of the season to the 6A #3 seed, Central Catholic, but have won 20 straight since. 5-sport athlete and two-thousand point scorer, Bobby Fadden, has had them firing on all cylinders the entire year.
As always, Aliquippa is back in the mix this year as the #2 seed. The Quips are competitive year in and year out, but they did lose their top player this season when Josh Pratt transferred to Lincoln Park. It will be up to his former teammates to carry the load throughout this playoff run.
The #3 seed is South Park, who is definitely the biggest team in the class. They’re anchored by their 6’8” athletic big man, Luke Scarff, who has been dominant all year. Scarff is one of the most versatile bigs in the WPIAL. He loves to play above the rim, but he can step out and shoot the three as well. They present a ton of matchup problems in the class and will lean on that throughout their playoff run.
A sleeper to watch out for in this class is South Allegheny. They’re only the #8 seed, but they’re the defending champions and they have the WPIAL’s leading scorer in Drew Cook, who is averaging close to 30ppg.
Class 2A
The 2A classification is likely the most top-heavy of the bunch with Jeannette and Sewickley as the top two seeds after leading the pack all season. Both teams went undefeated against WPIAL competition this year, with their only losses coming to out of state opponents.
The Jayhawks are led by their big versatile combo guard, junior Markus McGowan, and senior guard, Kymone Brown. Sewickley rolls out one of the best and tallest starting fives in the WPIAL, which includes 6’5” senior guard, Lucas Grimsley, 6’7” junior forward, Adam Ikamba, and 6’8” sophomore, Mamadou Kane, who just might be the most physically imposing player in the WPIAL this year. They also have one of the top sophomores in the WPIAL in point guard, Drew Steals.
OLSH and Neshannock round out the top four seeds and will look to get to the semifinals with a chance to knock off the heavy favorites at the top of the bracket.
Class 1A
1A continues to run through Neighborhood Academy, as it has for the last few years. Last year’s superstar, Courtney Wallace, is now at Yale University, but the Bulldogs have still been dominant in the class, going undefeated against 1A competition. Junior guard Kedron Gilmore is one of the best scorers in the WPIAL and can do it all from the point guard spot. They will however be without freshman sensation, Julius Page, as he’s out with an injury, but they still enter the playoffs as heavy favorites.
The rest of the field is wide open, with the remaining seven playoff teams having beaten each other throughout the regular season. With there not being another dominant team, it could be that whichever team gets hot shooting the ball can make it to the championship. It’s a smaller field of only eight teams, so it takes just two wins to reach the finals.
City League
The City League will likely come down to the same two teams that competed for the title last year in Allderdice and Obama. Dice is going for a 5th straight title, but Obama is coming for the throne this year and they’ve brought reinforcements. Senior guard, Eric James Jr., joined the team midway through the season and has been getting more and more comfortable with backcourt mate, Naron Jackson, each game. These two seem to be on a collision course once again.