For the first time in 25 years, both the Ellwood City boys and girls basketball teams have qualified for their respective WPIAL Playoffs in the same season.
The Ellwood City boys (15-7 Overall, 9-3 Section 3A-1), winners of five consecutive games and 10 of their last 11 games, earned a 9-seed in the WPIAL Class 3A Playoffs and will face Washington on Monday, February 19th. The defacto road game for the Wolverines will be played at Washington High School at 7:00 p.m. The Little Prexies finished 14-7 on the regular season and shared a Section 3A-2 title with Yough with an 11-1 section record.
Washington will enter Monday’s game on its own four game winning streak, and last defeated Monessen 59-56 last Saturday behind a 20-point effort by De’ondre Daugherty.
Ellwood City will counter with fellow big man Joseph Roth who will enter the game 33 points shy of 2,000 career points and fresh off a triple-double performance against Riverside on Friday.
Class 3A had two outright section champions and two split.
Mohawk (15-7, 11-1, #2 seed) and Deer Lakes (17-4, 11-1, #1 seed) won Section 1 and Section 3 respectively and earned the top two seeds in Class 3A. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (17-4, 11-1, #5 seed) and Seton LaSalle (16-5, 11-1, #6 seed) split a share of the Section 2 title.
The Wolverine boys and girls basketball teams combined to finish 30-14 (16-6 section) during the regular season.
Deer Lakes is the returning champion in WPIAL Class-3A.
With a victory Monday evening on the road, Ellwood City could next face the defending champions on Thursday 2/22 at a site and time to be determined.
Neshannock and Beaver Falls, each from Section 1, earned a 4-seed and 14-seed respectively and will both take to the court on Monday as well with Neshannock hosting #13 Mt. Pleasant and Beaver Falls traveling to play #3 Shady Side Academy. [VIEW FULL BRACKET]
For the Lady Wolverines (15-7 Overall, 7-3 Section 3A-1), the girls collected a 10-seed in its WPIAL Playoff bracket and will face Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on Saturday, February 17th at noon at Avonworth High School. OLSH will enter the contest with an identical 15-7 record and a 6-4 mark in Section 3A-2.
The Chargers, with five returning starters from last years team, were defeated by defending WPIAL Class-3A champion Avonworth late in January but have recovered to win three consecutive games entering the playoffs.
Like the boys classification, there were two outright section champions and two splits in girls WPIAL Class 3A, with Avonworth (19-1, 10-0, #1 seed) and Shady Side Academy (19-2, 10-0, #2 seed) winning Section 2 and Section 3, respectively, on their way to the top two seeds in the playoff bracket. Neshannock (15-7, 8-2, #4 seed) and Beaver Falls (14-6, 8-2, #3 seed) shared the Section 1 title and Waynesburg Central (19-2, 9-1, #6 seed) and South Park (15-6, 9-1, #5 seed) split Section 4.
Ellwood City split regular season contests with both Beaver Falls and Neshannock, defeating both in a ten day period late in the regular season, responding to early season defeats. One other non-section loss was to powerhouse Union in January. The Scotties are the top seed in Class-A.
With a win on Saturday, the Lady Wolverines would advance to play the winner of Shady Side Academy/Mohawk on Wednesday 2/21 at a site and time to be determined. The Warriors are the fourth team to represent Section 1 in the Class-3A Playoffs.
Prior to Avonworth’s championship last season, Neshannock won back-to-back titles in 2021-22. [VIEW FULL BRACKET]
The WPIAL Championship Games will be held February 29-March 2 at the Petersen Events Center on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
Opening round tickets – Student ($5) and Adult ($7) – for the Ellwood City girls and boys basketball games can be secured online at https://gofan.co/WPIAL?school=PA6449.
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