The Penn-Trafford girls basketball team made history Saturday. Sort of.
With a thrilling 59-57 win over Upper St. Clair, the Lady Warriors capped a perfect 22-0 regular season, the No. 3-ranked team in WPIAL Class 5A going on the road to knock off the No. 2 team in 6A.
The accomplishment is impressive. But as it turns out, perfection has happened before in Harrison City.
The 1973-74 Lady Warriors went 13-0 in the regular season and lost their opening playoff game to Penn Hills.
That was just the second year for the school and team, and the girls played in the Western Pennsylvania Girls Athletic League before later joining the WPIAL.
“Back then, a lot of schools were just getting started with their girls teams,” said Grace Clair, who played on that Penn-Trafford team. “They took all the girls teams available and split them into two divisions. One group would play their games in the fall, and the other group in winter.”
After P-T played 13 regular-season games in the fall, the girls had to wait until the completion of the winter season to get a playoff opponent.
The season winners played for the championship.
“The league wouldn’t let the fall winners start practice again until two weeks before the playoffs began,” Clair said. “So fall division winners were at a slight disadvantage trying to get up to midseason form to play against winter teams that were at their peak.
“We ended up losing to a very good Penn Hills team, and I doubt we would have beaten them no matter which season we had won.”
This year’s Penn-Trafford team has been displaying championship-caliber traits in the form of balanced scoring, senior leadership, long-bench depth and energy at both ends of the floor.
Junior Torrie DeStefano had 20 points and eight rebounds in the win over Upper St. Clair, just the Lady Warriors’ second win that wasn’t by double figures.
Senior Lauren Marton and junior Hannah Weishaar added 12 points each, with Weishaar making some key free throws late.
Five of the team’s wins have come against 6A teams. The WPIAL playoff tournament brackets come out Monday. Penn-Trafford is in line for a top-three seed with South Fayette and Peters Township.
“It’s amazing what these girls have been able to do,” said Penn-Trafford coach John Giannikas, who did not guide the team Saturday as he rests his right arm following triceps surgery. “The way they play defense is incredible. They have really kept it one game at a time.”
Assistant Chuck Fontana, the former Penn-Trafford athletic director and standout quarterback and point guard at Jeannette, was in charge Saturday.
Penn-Trafford is the first Westmoreland County basketball team since Norwin in 2015-16 to have an undefeated regular season.
The Lady Knights went 22-0 and won their second straight WPIAL title. They didn’t lose until the PIAA quarterfinals.
Penn-Trafford and Union (22-0) finished the regular season undefeated, and Oakland Catholic did so last season.
Blackhawk was the last to go unbeaten in the regular season and win a WPIAL title, in 2021-22.
Shady Side Academy (21-0) plays its final regular-season game Monday.