Double you pleasure

By SAM TALLARICO Eagle Staff Writer

February 09, 2005 Last Updated: February 09, 2005 01:40 PM High School

GREEN TREE - One of the things WPIAL executive director Larry Hanley was most pleased about at Tuesday's basketball pairings meeting was that 40 schools will be represented by both their boys and girls teams.

Count Knoch and Mars among that group as the squads found out where their playoff roads will begin.

The Knoch boys team, co-Section 1-AAA champions with Hampton, earned a No. 2 seed and will face the winner of the Keystone Oaks-Ambridge game, which will be played Friday.

The Knights (17-5), however, must wait to find out when and where they will play.

"We were hoping to get a seed like that, but you never know," said Knoch boys coach Les Shoop. "Hopefully, it shows respect. We beat Moon and that probably helped us."

It was the Tigers who defeated Knoch in last year's WPIAL championship game. Knoch defeated Moon in early December of this season.

Knoch hopes last season's playoff run will pay dividends this year.

"That has helped this year and it's helped our confidence," said Shoop. "It makes you want to go back there. This is what you play for, going to Palumbo."

Mars (17-7) will face Elizabeth-Forward at Fox Chapel at 7 p.m. Monday.

It will be the Planets' first playoff game since the 1999-2000 season.

"In Class AAA, you could have pulled the teams out of a hat. It's pretty wide open, pretty competitive," said Mars boys coach Rob Carmody. "It wasn't a big deal to us because we knew we weren't in the top four."

Our seniors as freshmen won only four games and through nothing more than hard work and being better players, they've put themselves in this position.

"You have to go back to 1982 with a Mars team with more wins and those teams were Class AA/A and we're in Class AAA now," Carmody added.

The Mars girls team (16-8) also reached the WPIAL championship game last season. They'll open the Class AAA first round with a date against West Mifflin at 1 p.m. Saturday at Gateway.

"I pretty much knew we were at (the WPIAL's) mercy if you don't win the section," said Planets' coach Dana Petruska. "I didn't know what was going on and my husband said (Tuesday) 'I think you'll play West Mifflin.'"

Petruska was figuring a team in the southern part of the WPIAL, like Yough, but it is the Titans once again.

"It should be an interesting game," said Petruska. "They're a young athletic team."

The Knoch girls team, will face Thomas Jefferson at Fox Chapel at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Jaguars were the winners of Section 4-AAA.

"We figured we'd be a 10-11-12 seed and that's where we fell," said Knoch coach Curt Vasas. "I guess once the playoffs start, you have to beat everybody."

Knoch (13-9) grabbed the fourth and final seed in Section 1-AAA, but outside the conference, Vasas wanted to upgrade.

"We worked out a schedule that was more difficult than last year," said Vasas. "That'll help come playoff time. We'll see if we're ready for the challenge."

And Vasas sees the Class AAA girls division as anybody's for the taking.

"I think if you look at the top 12 teams, anyone has a chance," said Vasas. "(Defending champion) North Catholic has to be the favorite, but everyone has the chance, though, to catch fire."

Notes:

There are 138 teams (out of 268) participating in the WPIAL playoffs (69 boys, 69 girls teams. … There are 12 teams with sub .500 records in the playoffs. … There is only one undefeated team (Avonworth girls, 22-0). … There are 46 teams in this year's playoffs that did not make it last year, including the Mars boys.