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Five things to watch for the week of Feb. 11-16. *The Road to The Pete begins this weekend for local basketball teams when the WPIAL playoffs get underway. Brackets will be announced Tuesday. The finals will be played at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center March 1-2. Winning boys titles last season were Penn Hills, Mars, New Castle, Lincoln Park, Sewickley Academy and Vincentian. Last season’s girls champions were North Allegheny, Gateway, North Catholic, Bishop Canevin, Vincentian and Winchester Thurston. *Basketball section play concluded Saturday, but there are still some notable non-section games left to be played Monday. Among the night’s best boys games are Seton LaSalle at Serra Catholic, Sewickley Academy at Pine-Richland, and Chartiers Valley at Mt. Lebanon. All of those teams are ranked in their respective classes. On the girls side, some of the top games are North Catholic at Bethel Park, Norwin at Penn Hills, and Blackhawk at Neshhanock. *Class 2A wrestlers will take center stage Friday and Saturday at Canon-McMillan. The WPIAL section tournaments are Friday and the opening round of the WPIAL championships will take place that night. The championships continue Saturday morning with the championship and third-place matches beginning late afternoon. The top seven finishers in each weight class will advance to the Southwest Regional tournament, which will be held the following weekend at IUP. *On a day Cupid is known for shooting arrows with his gold bow, the WPIAL’s finest shooters will use a rifle to take aim at gold medals. Thursday is Valentine’s Day, and it’s also the WPIAL individual rifle championships. The team championships are Tuesday. Both will be held at Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club in Canonsburg. Hempfield is the reigning team champion and Waynesburg senior Selena Phillips is the defending individual champion. *Moon won three consecutive WPIAL team gymnastics titles from 2012-14. Friday, the Tigers will try to three-peat for a second time. Moon will host the team championships Friday and the individual championships Saturday. Moon has won six titles overall, second only to North Allegheny’s 18. North Allegheny’s last title came in 2011. A new individual all-around champion will be crowned Saturday as last year’s champion, Burrell’s Taylor Johnson, graduated last year. |