PIAA basketball playoffs 2026: How North Catholic girls match up with Blackhawk in 4A quarterfinals
The girls basketball programs at North Catholic and Blackhawk are no strangers to each other.
Dating back to the 2018-19 season, the Trojanettes and Cougars have met six times in the postseason. Three of those clashes came in the WPIAL playoffs and the other three were state playoff games.
Blackhawk won just one of those six encounters, topping the Trojanettes in the 2023 state semifinals. The Cougars now stand in the way of North reaching that round in back-to-back years. The teams will face each other in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal at 2 p.m. Saturday at North Allegheny High School.
The Trojanettes (22-6) placed third in the WPIAL last month before knocking off District 6’s Forest Hills (50-37) and District 10’s Harbor Creek (63-51) in the first two rounds of the state playoffs.
Blackhawk was the WPIAL runner-up and dispatched Fairview (45-34) and Belle Vernon (55-41) to set up Saturday’s showdown with North.
Here’s what to know about the path ahead to try to make it to the final four:
Livestream: The PIAA is posting streaming and broadcast information for each round on its website ahead of the start of that round.
Tickets: According to the PIAA, tickets can be purchased for $9 in advance on hometownticketing.com and for $10 at the door
Brackets: See the latest PIAA tournament brackets for all classifications here
Site/time: North Allegheny HS, 2 p.m., Saturday
Up next: Winner of 6-1 Penn Cambria vs. 7-1 Oakland Catholic
Trojanettes’ key player: Sophomore guard Sam Weir, who scored 13 points, including three treys, in the second-round victory over Harbor Creek.
Cougars’ key player: Aubree Hupp. The 5-feet-10 senior forward, a Canisius commit, is averaging a double-double this season with 21.5 points and 14.6 rebounds per game. She holds Blackhawk's single-game record for boards with 24 and reached 1,000 career points during her junior season.
“Everything they do runs through her,” North coach Molly Rottmann said.
North Catholic wins if ... the Trojanettes remain hot from the outside. They drained eight treys on 15 attempts in beating Harbor Creek. Also, North does not have one player who can match Hupp's physicality, so it must get a strong collective effort against her on both ends of the court.
