WEST VIEW - Ben McCauley proved to be a pain to Knoch offensively.

Yough's 6-foot-8 senior forward proved to be fatal to the Knights defensively.

McCauley denied Knoch point guard Jordan Shoop three times in the final 15 seconds Friday night to preserve the Cougars' 61-60 upset of the Knights in a WPIAL Class AAA boys basketball quarterfinal at North Hills High School.

Bound for North Carolina State next year, McCauley scored 41 points and recorded 16 rebounds for the Cougars (18-7). He completed a three-point play with 51 seconds left to give Yough its first lead since late in the first quarter.

"It's hard to say which was his best game because he's had so many of them over the years," Yough coach Brian Znavor said. "But this had to be one of them."

After Knoch (18-6) turned the ball over with 41 seconds left, the Knights received new life when Yough's Adam Jones missed the front end of a one-and-one and Knoch's Eric Czech grabbed the rebound.

Then it came down to Shoop vs. McCauley.

McCauley blocked a Shoop jumper out of bounds with 11.6 seconds remaining. The Knights in-bounded to Shoop and he drove the lane, only to be fouled by McCauley with 5.7 seconds to go.

The foul was ruled on the floor and marked Yough's sixth team foul, denying Shoop a trip to the free throw line.

"It bothers me when officials decide the outcome of games," Knoch coach Les Shoop said. "It was obvious Jordan was in the act of shooting there. What else was he gonna do?

"Who knows, maybe he misses both free throws. But give him the opportunity at the line. Let the kids decide it."

Knoch got the ball in Shoop's hands one more time, but it McCauley knocked it out of his hands before he could get off a shot.

Knoch took a 13-4 lead early in the game, causing Znavor to call a timeout with 4:39 left in the first quarter.

The nine-point margin would be the Knights' biggest of the night.

"Our kids just had to settle down, relax a little bit," Znavor said. "They've never been in a playoff game like this before. Knoch went to the WPIAL finals last year."

Shoop said his team's failure to build a double-digit lead hurt.

"We led practically this entire game," he said. "We got the margin up to seven points a few times, but couldn't put it away.

"We've been doing that all season. Tonight, it cost us."

Shoop has been coaching high school basketball for 35 years and couldn't remember coaching against a player better than McCauley.

McCauley led the WPIAL in scoring this season with 28.7 points per game. He is 15th on the WPIAL's all-time scoring list and is one of 20 WPIAL players ever to score 2,000 career points.

"My memory's not that good, but it's hard to imagine anyone better," he said. "We had three guys around him down low and they'd lob it in where only he could get it. And he kept finishing.

"He's a great, great player. And they use him the way they should use him."

Craig Sedunov added 13 points for Yough, which advanced to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time in school history.

"These kids believed in themselves and beat a very good basketball team tonight," Znavor said.

Ryan Hollihan and Jordan Shoop had 15 points and six rebounds each for the Knights. Czech contributed 11 points and 10 boards.

Yough had a 32-29 rebounding edge. The teams combined for only 13 turnovers, with Knoch committing seven.

The Knights will qualify for the PIAA Tournament if Yough defeats the winner of Saturday's Hopewell-West Mifflin game in the semifinals.

YOUGH 61

Craig Sedunov 5-11 0-0 13, Adam Jones 0-1 0-1 0, Andrew McCauley 1-8 0-0 3, Chaz Bazzo 1-6 0-0 2, Ben McCauley 19-30 1-1 41, Justin Shaffer 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 27-58 1-3 61

KNOCH 60

Scott Muska 2-6 0-0 5, Jordan Shoop 7-19 0-0 15, Ryan Ziacik 2-6 2-3 8, Bill Elliott 2-4 0-0 6, Eric Czech 4-7 2-2 11, Ryan Hollihan 6-9 1-1 15. Totals: 23-51 5-6 60

3-point goals:

Sedunov 3, A. McCauley, B. McCauley 2; Muska, Shoop, Ziacik 2, Elliott 2, Czech, Hollihan 2