By: Don Rebel


Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | 10:44 PM

Let the games begin!

The 2025 Path to the Pete begins Thursday with eight “pigtail” games.

The term pigtail was often used by the first WPIAL executive director Charles “Ace” Heberling.

Now, they are known as preliminary round games and there will be six boys and two girls contests to open up the district postseason.

2024 was the year of silver for the Franklin Regional boys basketball team.

The Panthers won the Section 3-5A title outright and defeated Mars, Gateway and Shaler to reach the WPIAL 5A title game, where they lost to Moon, 53-48.

In the PIAA postseason, Franklin Regional ousted Warwick, Selinsgrove and Shaler before getting their revenge by eliminating Moon in the state semifinals.

However, the Panthers finished as PIAA runner-up following a loss to District 12 power Imhotep Charter in the PIAA 5A championship game, 59-48.

A silver lining has been tough to find for the Panthers this winter.

FR was 7-10 overall heading down the stretch before finishing strong, winning four of its last five games to end up 11-11 and earn a playoff berth by finishing in fifth place in Section 1-5A.

Now Franklin Regional has to earn its spot in the field of 16-teams in the 5A playoff field.

The Panthers will host Indiana (10-12) at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Little Indians finished in a tie for fourth place in Section 2-5A with Shaler (9-13) at 5-7.

Indiana also finished strong, winning its last four games after dropping six straight.

The winner visits 5A top seed Montour on Tuesday.

Tournament within a tournament

Far and away, the most bloated bracket in this year’s district postseason is the boys Class 2A tournament.

There are as many preliminary round games in 2A boys as there are first-round games in 6A, 4A and A.

There are 21 teams that qualified for the 2A playoffs: five teams each from Sections 1, 2 and 3 and six schools from Section 4.

Of the 10 teams in action Thursday, four have winning records, three have losing records and three ended up finishing at .500 overall.

Winchester Thurston and Jefferson-Morgan have the best overall records, tied at 15-7, while Eden Christian Academy qualified with the worst overall mark at 7-15.

On Thursday, Jefferson-Morgan will host Springdale (13-8) at 7 p.m. for the No. 12 seed and a spot in the first round opposite of No. 5 Northgate.

Winchester Thurston takes on Beth-Center (9-13) in a game being played on the neutral floor of Peters Township at 6 p.m. with the winner earning the No. 13 seed and moving on to play at No. 4 Neshannock in the opening round.

Eden Christian Academy heads north to Lawrence County to visit Laurel (11-11) at 7 p.m. with the victor becoming the No. 16 seed and visiting top seed Greensburg Central Catholic in Round 1.

The other two boys 2A prelim games are:

• For the No. 15 seed and a trip to play No. 2 Sewickley Academy in the first round, South Side (11-11) battles Bentworth (10-10) at Peters Township at 7:30 p.m.

• For the No. 14 seed and a berth in the opening round to visit No. 3 Jeannette, West Greene 13-7) hosts Brentwood (9-12) at 7 p.m.

The boys 2A first round is scheduled for Monday.

Girls pigtails

While Thursday is a busy one for the boys, only two girls preliminary round games are set for opening night.

For the No. 16 seed in CLass 4A, Highlands will visit Yough at 7 p.m.

The two finished with identical section and overall records.

The Golden Rams finished in a fifth-place tie with Freeport in Section 1-4A with 5-9 records.

Highlands lost four of its last six games and finished with a 6-15 overall record.

The host Cougars also tied for fifth place with Mt. Pleasant at 5-9 in Section 3-4A.

Yough has lost three straight games and four of its last five contests.

The winner advances to the first round Monday to play top-seeded Blackhawk (20-2).

For the No. 16 seed in Class 2A, Apollo-Ridge is home to Bentworth at 7 p.m.

The Vikings tied Ellis School for third place in Section 4-2A and finished the regular season with a 9-11 overall record after going 2-3 in their final five games.

The visiting Bearcats ended up tied with Carmichaels for fourth place in Section 3-2A. The team finished with a record of 7-14 and lost nine of its last 10 games.