By: Chris Harlan


Tuesday, February 11, 2025 | 7:30 AM

Some WPIAL basketball teams won’t need to scout their playoff opponent much.

Avoiding section rematches in the first round was an unwritten rule that the WPIAL historically tried to follow, but this year the basketball steering committee at times moved away from that idea.

The philosophical change was most obvious in a Class 6A boys bracket that starts Monday with section rematches between No. 8 Seneca Valley and No. 9 Woodland Hills; No. 7 Butler and No. 10 North Hills; and No. 6 Mt. Lebanon and No. 11 Norwin.

The WPIAL released brackets Monday.

WPIAL chief operating officer Vince Sortino said the basketball committee decided that seeding teams in order of strength was more important than avoiding rematches.

“There were some people (on the committee) who said, ‘Let’s just rank them one through 12 or one through 10 or one through 16 and see what happens,’” said Sortino, who’s responsible for overseeing the league’s tournaments. “There were some who said we should still try to avoid section matchups where we can. We tried to do a little of both. But I think the primary focus was on the best seeding possible.”

It’s notable that all three first-round rematches in 6A boys involve teams that split their regular-season section series.

Looking ahead, some teams with first-round byes could start their playoffs with a quarterfinal matchup against a section foe. In 4A boys, Belle Vernon would face Elizabeth Forward, North Catholic would draw Deer Lakes and Beaver would play Central Valley if all higher-seeded teams win.

The tournaments start Thursday with preliminary round games in some classifications. They finish with championship games Feb. 27-March 1 at Petersen Events Center.

Not all sections are equal

If it wasn’t already clear, it should be now: Winning a section title doesn’t guarantee a team a high seed in the playoffs.

In the boys brackets revealed Monday, Southmoreland was seeded sixth in Class 3A, Chartiers-Houston was seventh in Class 2A and Kiski Area was eighth in 5A. All three outright section champions fell below second- or third-place teams from sections considered stronger by the WPIAL basketball steering committee.

That strength of schedule made all the difference, said Sortino. Kiski Area, the lowest-seeded section champion, finished 11-1 in Section 2 and 15-6 overall. Yet the Cavaliers were slotted below No. 4 Chartiers Valley, No. 5 Moon, No. 6 Peters Township and No. 7 South Fayette — with none being a section champion. Penn Hills (12-9), the second-place team behind Kiski Area in Section 2, was seeded 11th and won’t get a home game.

Higher-seeded teams host first-round games.

“Kiski’s section was not as strong as the other sections, bottom line, and the body of work wasn’t as good as some of the other teams,” Sortino said. “That’s what it came down to.”

Kiski Area’s four nonsection wins were over teams that went 33-50 combined. The six nonsection opponents Chartiers-Houston defeated went 54-75. Southmoreland had six nonsection wins over teams that finished 39-90.

That competition didn’t sway the committee.

“Some teams like the South Allegheny boys played a heck of a nonsection schedule,” Sortino said of the No. 2 seed in Class 3A. “They played some really good teams.”

Sortino said he understood that fans of the lower-seeded section champions might not agree with the committee’s decisions.

“Communities believe in their teams,” he said. “They should all believe they’re better than they are (seeded). That’s what being a fan is about.”

Bigger … and better?

The most complicated bracket to put together was Class 2A boys, but the toughest decisions weren’t necessarily who to seed first, second or third.

Rather, it was who’s 19th, 20th or 21st?

Twenty-one boys teams qualified for the Class 2A playoffs, meaning the basketball committee had to choose 10 teams to compete in five preliminary round games.

“That was a nightmare,” Sortino said.

The number of 2A qualifiers grew from 18 to 21 because of fourth-place ties between Bentworth (10-10) and Springdale (13-8); and Brentwood (8-13) and Eden Christian (7-15); and a fifth-place tie between Laurel (11-11) and South Side (11-11).

If two teams tie for the final playoff spot in a section and split their head-to-head series, both teams advance to the playoffs.

Down to the wire

Committee members start mocking up their own brackets long before they gather to officially decide the seeds.

This year, there were lots of late edits.

The final week of the regular season saw some teams rise or fall from a top two or three seed. For example, when the Beaver boys defeated Avonworth in overtime on Friday, they likely took a top three seed away from the Antelopes.

“After all of these teams started upsetting other teams, there was a lot of red on my papers, I can tell you that,” said longtime committee member Bill Cardone. “We moved teams from here and moved teams from there.”

Beaver earned the No. 3 seed in Class 4A and Avonworth was fourth. North Catholic climbed to the second seed in that 4A bracket with wins over Knoch and Deer Lakes in the final week.

“It’s amazing how important that last week of the season is,” Sortino said. “A lot of changes were made, even as of Friday night and Saturday.”

A three-point section win Thursday by the Baldwin girls over Thomas Jefferson likely caused some red ink on the 5A bracket. Baldwin was seeded ninth and Thomas Jefferson was sixth.

“We have a group of people (on the committee) who’ve seen these teams play,” Cardone said. “They have a pretty good handle on who’s good and who’s not.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.