A gold medal and two silvers hang proudly around Ava Christopher’s neck. But the Norwin senior guard will take more than material mementos from three straight WPIAL basketball finals.
“We fought through a lot of adversity this year,” Christopher said. “I am so proud of these girls for that and how far we’ve come.”
Norwin didn’t win its fourth WPIAL title Saturday night at Petersen Events Center, but the Lady Knights (19-5) will return to the court Friday for the PIAA playoffs.
Norwin drew a rematch at Altoona (19-4) in the first round at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Altoona beat the Knights, 49-38, last year.
Canon-McMillan (21-4) held off a third-quarter surge from Norwin, which staged a frantic 15-0 run — the Lady Knights scored 39% of their points in the game in about three minutes — to win its first WPIAL title, 50-38.
Norwin was denied a title for the second consecutive year after losing to Upper St. Clair last season. The Lady Knights won their third title in 2024. The others came in 2015 and ’16.
“It’s a fine line,” Norwin coach Brian Brozeski said. “You need a lot of things to go your way. Nothing is going to come easy when you get this far. Canon-McMillan has a nice team, and they had some good senior leaders.”
Brozeski will lean on his three seniors — Christopher, Anna Fraser and Kylie Rodkey — to steer the team into the next phase of the postseason.
“This is the first group ever (at Norwin) to go three times in a row to the Pete,” Brozeski said. “They had a fantastic year to come this far together. Every year is different, and every team is special in its own way.”
Christopher had a game-high nine points in the WPIAL final, and freshman Giuliana Giannikas and sophomore Nia O’Barto had eight each.
Junior Liz Yarosik grabbed 11 rebounds in her second appearance in the finals, although Canon-McMillan outrebounded the Knights, 45-30.
“To be able to compete against Norwin, they are as good as anyone and Brian is one of the best coaches in the history of the game,” Canon-McMillan coach John Fontana said. “They don’t rebuild, they reload.”
Giannikas, O’Barto and sophomore Lenyn Brozeski all played 20-plus minutes in the loss, giving them a taste of the big stage.
“We’ll find out next year if it helped them,” Brian Brozeski said. “There is no substitute for experience.”
Westmoreland County teams were 0 for 3 this weekend at the “Pete,” with the Greensburg Central Catholic girls and Jeannette boys also falling in the finals.
Seven county teams will enter the PIAA tournaments: the Norwin (6A), Penn-Trafford (5A), Belle Vernon (4A) and GCC girls (3A), and the Ligonier Valley (3A), Jeannette (2A) and Monessen (A) boys.