WPIAL basketball tourney set

February 12, 2020 Last Updated: February 12, 2020 07:44 AM High School

Butler boys, NC girls among No.1 seeds

Butler County high school basketball earned plenty of respect this season — which was reflected by the WPIAL tournament pairings announced Tuesday night.

Butler in Class 6A boys and North Catholic in Class 4A girls received No. 1 seeds in their respective brackets. Knoch in Class 4A boys and North Catholic in Class 3A boys received No. 2 seeds.

Mars boys received a No. 3 seed in the Class 5A tourney.

“It doesn't mean anything once the tournament begins, but it is a nice accomplishment, something else we've done this year,” Butler coach Matt Clement said of attaining the No. 1 seed. “We're hoping to do a lot more.”

Clement pointed out that teams seeded No.'s 5 through 8 have all beaten a team seeded among the top four during the regular season. Fox Chapel is seeded No. 2, Mt. Lebanon No. 3 and Upper St. Clair No. 4.

Upper St. Clair will have to face No. 5 seed Pine-Richland in the quarterfinals, should the Rams get past Connellsville in the opening round.

“None of the (6A) teams coming off a bye is going to have an easy first game,” Clement cautioned.

The Golden Tornado will not play until a week from Saturday. Butler is looking to set up a scrimmage for either Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Monday.

“Ideally, we'd scrimmage someone Monday because that''s halfway between now and our game,” Clement said. “If we get a team to scrimmage us Thursday, we'll probably try to set up a second scrimmage.

“I've reached out to a few teams ... nothing definite yet.”

Butler (17-4) enters the playoffs riding a 12-game winning streak.

Co-section champions Highlands and Knoch are seeded 1-2 in Class 4A.

“We were pleasantly surprised,” Knoch boys coach Ron McNabb said of his team's seeding. “We figured on a third seed at best. The committee really gave our section a lot of respect.”

Highlands, which split with the Knights during the regular season in sharing their section title, received the No. 1 seed in Class 4A boys.

“The top two seeds on a bracket coming from the same section is pretty rare,” McNabb said.

The only highly-seeded team in the county to not receive a first-round bye is North Catholic's boys in 3A. The Trojans (20-2) take on Shady Side Academy (10-10) at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Fox Chapel.

North Catholic is also the only county team to have a playoff game scheduled this week.

Mars (17-5) being seeded third in 5A boys is not shocking to Planets coach Rob Carmody.

“We're not surprised at all,” Carmody said. “I figured we could be seeded anywhere from 1 to 3 — with other section champions Penn Hills and Chartiers Valley — depending on how they sorted it out.”

Penn Hills received the top seed while Chartiers Valley is seeded No. 2.

The Planets are two-time defending WPIAL champions.

“The eight teams that get to the quarterfinal round, any of those teams could win the whole thing,” Carmody said. “At this time of year, you just hope you stay healthy and nobody gets sick.

“In our situation, we have a lot of kids who will be experiencing this for the first time. You're never sure how they're going to handle it.”

McNabb said the 4A boys bracket is wide open as well.

“I see nine teams that can win the thing and we're happy to be part of that mix,” he said.

On the girls side, Seneca Valley (15-7) is one of only eight teams in the Class 6A field. The Raiders face Mt. Lebanon in the quarterfinals.

Mars (15-7) drew Moon in the first round in 5A, the winner getting Woodland Hills.

While North Catholic (21-1) is the top seed in 4A — losing only to unbeaten Chartiers Valley — Freeport and Knoch will play in the first round. The Yellowjackets (16-6) drew Belle Vernon while the Knights (16-6) will get New Castle.

“I figured it'd come down to Freeport and us for the 6 and 7 seeds,” Knoch coach Chris Andreassi said. “One of us would get New Castle, the other Belle Vernon.

“We don't know much about New Castle right now, bit the seeding doesn't really matter. They're all good teams now. Everyone's 0-0. Everyone is starting over.

“We battled some injuries and illness earlier in the year, but over the past few weeks, we've gotten it together,” Andreassi added.

WPIAL TOURNAMENT

(Butler County teams)

Boys

Class 6A

Butler (17-4) vs. Hempfield (13-9)-Peters Township (12-10) winner, Feb. 22, time and site TBA

Class 5A

Mars (17-5) vs. South Fayette (15-7)-Franklin Regional (11-11) winner, Feb. 21, time and site TBA

Class 4A

Knoch (19-3) vs. New Castle (15-7)-Mount Pleasant (12-10) winner, Feb. 22, site and time TBA

Class 3A

North Catholic (20-2) vs. Shady Side Academy (10-10), Friday, 6:30 p.m., at Fox Chapel