Tom Pipkins had many scintillating plays during his basketball career at Valley and Duquesne.

So many that it's hard to pick out one signature play.

For starters, let's try the 1993 WPIAL Class AAA title game at Pitt Field House when the Vikings were playing Seton-La Salle.

In the third quarter, Rebels guard Eric Binkowski charged downcourt for what looked like an easy layup.

Pipkins came out of nowhere, leaped over Binkowski and swatted the ball away.

After the game, Pipkins' handprint was still on the backboard.

Valley won 52-46 behind a typical Pipkins performance, scoring 30 of his team's 52 points and going 14 of 18 from the foul line.

The leading scorer in WPIAL history with 2,838 points, Pipkins will join seven others in this year's Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame induction class.

The local hall's 46th induction banquet will be May 16 at the Clarion Hotel in New Kensington.

“We had put in our time and worked hard for three or four years, but it took until our senior year to reap the benefits,” Pipkins said of the 1993 championship game victory.

While Valley didn't make the WPIAL playoffs in Pipkins' freshman year, it didn't take long for him to make his mark.

In his first varsity game Dec. 8, 1989, he scored his first basket on a one-handed, leaning dunk at Highlands in the A-K Tip-off Tournament against Kiski Area.

The second night of his career was the third-longest game in WPIAL history, a four-overtime 61-54 win over Highlands.

Late in his sophomore season, he reached the 1,000-point mark in a game at North Catholic on a two-handed dunk.

“That was our rival at the time,” Pipkins. “We had some great games up at the auditorium stage.”

On Dec. 10, 1992, he reached 2,000 points at home against Wilkinsburg in the A-K Tip-off Tournament on a two-handed, alley-oop dunk set up by Billy Coury.

On Jan. 29, 1993, Pipkins needed three points to break the WPIAL scoring record of 2,376 held by Wampum's Don Hennon since 1955.

A packed house at Valley watched Pipkins set the mark on — you guessed it — a one-handed, alley-oop dunk.

“That was one moment that stood out,” Pipkins recalled. “The TV stations were there with all the big lights. It was surreal.”

Valley went on to play in the state finals at Hershey, losing to Pottstown.

By then the Pipkins legend had grown and grown.

It was time to select a college, and Pipkins stayed close to home.

“I'm a Pittsburgh guy, but I took my first visit to Penn State and liked it a lot,” Pipkins said. “I considered Pitt, but a couple of things happened in my recruitment, like dishonesty, so I went with Duquesne.”

He scored 26 points in his first game with the Dukes and finished as the third-leading scorer in Duquesne history with 1,828 points.

Pipkins is a teaching assistant at Quaker Valley.

“This year I'm doing Chinese classes in Mandarin,” Pipkins said. “It's a very extensive language with the words and the characters.”

While basketball was his ticket, it's easy to forget Pipkins was a promising football player who did Valley's placekicking and could out-leap defenders as a pass catcher.

“Football was my favorite sport growing up,” Pipkins said. “After tenth grade, my dad got me to concentrate on basketball. Football's an easier road to the next level in Western Pennsylvania.”

But basketball fans are glad Pipkins chose the sport with the orange ball.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

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