The Ellwood City girls basketball team has earned a playoff berth in the 2019 WPIAL Class 3-A Playoffs that begin next week.
The Wolverines, winners of four consecutive games, will square off against the 4-seed Carlynton Cougars next Wednesday at 6:30pm at North Hills High School.
For the Wolverines (6-8 Section 1 3A, 13-9 Overall), last week’s victory over Mohawk earned the team a playoff berth under first-year head coach Marc Heil.
Seniors Natalia Greco and Isabella Roth lead a hungry group of players looking to have its hard work pay off.
“Our team worked really hard this year and we also made sure we had a good time no matter what happened,” said Roth, the team’s leading scorer.
Senior Isabella Roth
Roth also included thanks to their coach, adding “[coach Heil] inspired all of us to work really hard to prove to everyone that we could compete.”
A victory over Carlynton on Wednesday will earn Ellwood City a rematch with Avonworth on Saturday.
“We’re really excited for playoffs. Isabella and I, being the seniors, never thought that after four different coaches we’d be fighting for a playoff spot and now going to playoffs. It’s super exciting.” said Greco, a double-digit scorer for the Wolverines.
Carlynton, 12-2 Section 3 (3A), 18-4 overall, is led by junior guard Jada Lee (18.4 ppg). The Cougars finished their regular season play on a 10-game winning streak before falling in consecutive non-section tournament games at a Pittsburgh Classic tournament in Ambridge earlier this month.
Section 1 champ Neshannock, earned the top seed and first-round bye in the Class 3A Playoffs. Additionally, Class 3A section winners South Park and
Shady Side Academy earned first-round byes in the playoff picture. The Lancers won their section title for the sixth straight season.
Of the final four teams from last year’s girl’s basketball playoffs, only two familiar teams earned repeat berths in the 2019 playoffs – Mohawk and Neshannock. Defending champion Bishop Canevin dropped to Class 2A this year and runner-up, East Allegheny, failed to make the playoffs.
Seniors Greco and Roth
Wolverines broke a 17-year playoff drought in 2015 led by 1,000-point scorer, Karrington Ketterer. [VIEW VIDEO] However, Ellwood fell to Ford City in the opening round of the 2015 playoffs. The team found similar success the following campaign, finishing with six conference victories in 2015-16, but the team was left out of the playoff picture.
After the 2016 season, the Wolverines found themselves with coaching turnover and were forced to use three coaches over the next two campaigns, only collecting a combined three section victories, prior to this year.
“I truly give it all to our coach Marc Heil for stepping in and changing our program,” added Greco.
“I [had been] preaching to these girls from day one that this year is going to be different,” Heil said in a December interview.
Now the Wolverines have a chance to do something the team hasn’t done in decades – win a playoff game.
Ticket Prices Through Semi-Finals: Pre-Sale Tickets: $5 Student / $7 Adults ~ ALL Tickets – $7 at gate / Tickets can be purchased through: www.gofan.co
The Elwood City school district is not permitted to presale tickets for the game, however, fans may purchase tickets in advance by downloading an app on their phones via the website listed above.
View final regular season standing for all 2018-19 WPIAL Varsity Girls Basketball
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