While the weather outside is frightful, the action on local basketball courts this past week was undeniably delightful. A number of great games with standout individual performances highlighted the week, as section play got underway.
This season, KDKA Radio will again nominate players each week to join the KDKA Radio Super 7 Awards watch list. Every Monday, a new crop of players will be unveiled based on their efforts that previous week. At the end of the year, KDKA Radio will announce the winners of the award for each WPIAL boys and girls classification, as well as the Pittsburgh City League.
Here are the top performances from Week 2:
Drew Cook, South Allegheny
South Allegheny is looking to defend its breakthrough run to a WPIAL title from a year ago. And Cook is at the focal point of their defense.
The Gladiators are off to a 4-2 start and picked up a pair of solid wins last week.
Cook went for 32 points in a 65-61 win over Trinity Tuesday and for 19 points in an 80-59 triumph over Washington Friday.
Also a 1st team all-state wide receiver, Cook has a handful of Division I football offers.
Ava Maroney, Seton LaSalle
Year after year, Seton LaSalle seems to churn out one dynamic scorer after another. And it seems as if they have found the next great player to lace ‘em up for the Rebels.
Last week, Maroney came up big in a pair of overtime victories.
The freshman racked up 21 points in a 78-71 overtime win over West Mifflin Monday and 28 points in a 65-60 double overtime victory over rival Keystone Oaks Thursday, beginning section play 1-0.
The Rebels are now 3-1 to begin the season.
Markus McGowan, Jeannette
Like South Allegheny, Jeannette is on a mission to repeat as WPIAL champions and has begun its season 4-1, without a loss to a WPIAL team to this point.
McGowan has done the bulk of the scoring, going for 23 points in a 79-61 win over Summit Academy Tuesday and 30 points in a 80-34 beatdown of California Friday.
McGowan added 10 rebounds and four assists in the win Friday, as well.
Aierra Jenkins, Uniontown
Following a season opening loss to Chartiers-Houston, Uniontown has bounced back nicely, rattling off four straight wins.
Three of those victories came last week, as Jenkins scored 29, 23 and 21 points in victories over Beth-Center, Brownsville and Albert Gallatin.
A senior, Jenkins went over 1,000 career points in the win over Albert Gallatin.
KDKA Radio’s coverage of high school basketball continues Friday, as Moon visits Chartiers Valley. Pregame coverage begins at 6 p.m with tipoff at 7:30 p.m. on 100.1 FM, AM-1020 KDKA and the Audacy app.