The WPIAL released basketball schedules for the upcoming season Thursday and revealed an updated section alignment for girls that moved Greensburg Central Catholic to Class 3A.

Greensburg Central Catholic was moved up a classification by the PIAA competitive-balance rule, which wasn’t reflected in the alignment released last month by the WPIAL. The updated sections have the Centurions now in a very competitive Section 2-3A with recent WPIAL champions Shady Side Academy (2024) and Avonworth (2023). GCC won the WPIAL Class 2A title last season.

The only other change saw Frazier switch sections in 2A to balance the number of teams in each after GCC’s departure. The WPIAL moved Frazier from Section 3 to 4.

The WPIAL schedules only section games in basketball, unlike in football, where the league gives teams full schedules. The earliest basketball teams will start section play is Dec. 12-13. The last play date on the WPIAL section schedule is Feb. 6-7.

Basketball teams can begin practice Nov. 15, will start scrimmaging Nov. 23 and open the regular season Nov. 29. The WPIAL playoffs begin Feb. 13 with the league finals Feb. 27-March 1.

The state championship games are March 27-29, a week later than usual. The PIAA board on Wednesday voted to push the games back because Giant Center was not available the week earlier. As a result, teams that win in the state semifinals March 21-22 with have a week to prepare for the finals.

Joining Greensburg Central Catholic, Avonworth and Shady Side Academy in Section 2-3A girls are Deer Lakes, East Allegheny, Ligonier Valley, South Allegheny and Steel Valley. Section 4-2A girls includes Frazier, Apollo-Ridge, Ellis School, Jeannette, Riverview and Winchester Thurston.

2024-25 WPIAL boys basketball schedules

2024-25 WPIAL girls basketball schedules

Here’s the updated 2024-25 section alignment for #WPIAL girls basketball. Greensburg Central Catholic moves up to Section 2-3A. Frazier slides over to join Section 4-2A. pic.twitter.com/nWRYNsX3Y4

— Chris Harlan (@CHarlan_Trib) July 18, 2024

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.

If Javascript is disabled browser, to place orders please visit the page where our photos are available to purchase.