Members of the Seton-La Salle boys basketball team were fine with this being a new season and a different team from the one that won the WPIAL Class AA championship and lost in the state final last year.
Despite having just two starters returning from last year's squad, however, the Rebels earned the chance to defend their title with an 80-63 win over No. 7 Quaker Valley in the semifinals Wednesday at North Allegheny.
The Rebels will face undefeated top seed Aliquippa (24-0) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Petersen Events Center.
Junior Cletus Helton led the Rebels with 21 points, sophomore Paris Ford had 19, William O'Malley finished with 13 and Andrew Rodgers had 11 for No. 3 Seton- La Salle (23-2).
Senior Chris Conlan led Quaker Valley (19-6) with 23 points. Tre'won Marshall and Amos Luptak had 10 points each.
With three minutes left in the third quarter, Seton-La Salle led 46-45. Coach Mark Walsh called a timeout, and 90 seconds later, the Rebels led by double figures. They closed the quarter on a 12-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Andrew Rodgers.
“I didn't want (Quaker Valley) to get the lead,” Walsh said of the timeout. “I thought if they got the lead they could hold the ball on us, and we couldn't come out and ‘D' them up. All I said was guys, we've got to keep playing and I said if we end up getting a lead on them, we're going to just keep putting it on them. I really didn't give them any magic words. I just said, ‘Guys, take a breather. You're in a tight game right now. You just have to stay together.' ”
Ford made 1 of 2 free throws, O'Malley scored and hit a free throw to make it 50-45 and senior John Marzina made a 3-pointer to make it 53-45.
Ford scored on a fastbreak layup to make it 55-45 with a minute and a half to go in the quarter.
The 58-45 deficit was too much for Quaker Valley to overcome in the fourth quarter.
“This is a whole different team from last year,” Walsh said. “I think when I looked at the picture from the WPIAL final last year nine out of the 18 guys that played on that team last year weren't part of the team this year. We've got a bunch of new kids and some staples that have been there. It took us time to come together as a team, but now they expect to win.”
As the regular season wound down, most expected to see Aliquippa and Lincoln Park battling one another for the WPIAL title. The Quakers earned their second trip to the semifinals in the last three years by taking down Lincoln Park in an upset victory Monday. The Quakers were the lowest remaining seed in action heading into Wednesday night.
Now, Seton-La Salle will see if it can be the first to beat Aliquippa this season.
Rebels senior Ryan Norkus said they thought from the beginning that they'd have the chance to defend their title.
“That's our goal,” he said.
Walsh said he expects Aliquippa to come right after them.
“They haven't lost,” he said. “If you think back to their last loss, it was to us last year, I believe, in the state playoffs. So that in and of itself is enough motivation.”
The first quarter ended with Seton-La Salle ahead 22-18. The Rebels led 12-4 midway through the quarter, but Conlan's jump shot and a 3-point play by Marshall cut Seton-La Salle's lead to 12-9.
The teams traded 3-pointers to start the second quarter and with six minutes remaining in the first half, Quaker Valley tied the score 28-28. From there, Seton-La Salle went on a 9-0 run and forced Quaker Valley to call a timeout with three and a half minutes remaining.
The Rebels led 41-34 at halftime.
Karen Price is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach her at kprice@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KarenPrice_Trib.
