After the WPIAL championship, there seemed to be less “if” and more “when” as to Greensburg Central Catholic and Shady Side Academy meeting again in the girls basketball postseason.
GCC (22-7) did its best to keep the Bulldogs (26-2), who spoiled their WPIAL three-peat, on the backburner through three rounds of the state tournament. The Bulldogs did the same, handling their business one game at a time.
With minimal suspense out of the way, the teams’ fourth matchup of the season is set for Monday night in the PIAA 3A semifinals — the western final. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Norwin.
The winner will go to Hershey to play for a state title against Holy Redeemer (21-8) or Hughsville (27-3). The title game is 6 p.m. Thursday a Giant Center.
GCC and Shady Side Academy have strolled through the bracket so far, much like they did in section play and in the WPIAL playoffs before competition amped up for their three encounters.
The teams simply get up for one another. Their games look different and feel different.
“We know it will be another dogfight,” GCC coach Chris Skatell said.
GCC beat Cranberry, 66-14, Northwestern, 50-36, and Trinity, 65-51 to reach the much-anticipated semifinal against the Bulldogs, whose state wins have been closer and came against Marion Center (60-54 in OT), Beaver Falls (39-31) and Central Cambria (59-32).
Shady Side Academy, the PIAA runner-up last year, has 17 straight wins.
GCC is in the semifinals for the third time in four years. It lost to Kennedy Catholic in 2022-23 and ’23-24. The Centurions’ last state finals appearance was in 1997, the year it won its only PIAA title in girls hoops.
“We didn’t come all the way out here just to lose,” GCC senior guard Erica Gribble said after Friday’s quarterfinal victory. “We’re always confident in each other, play within each other, and we really just wanted to win. We didn’t want this to be our last game. That bus ride back would be pretty awful.”
Gribble will meet senior Karis Thomas again in what has made for a high-end point guard matchup. Both are Division I commits — Gribble to Richmond, Thomas to Purdue Fort Wayne — and both are their schools’ all-time leading scorers with more than 2,000 career points.
GCC also features off-guard Jayla Peterson, a senior headed to Division II Wheeling, while Shady Side junior Leah Buford is coming off a career playoff game in the quarterfinals with 20 points.
The “bigs” could again be the difference-makers. For SSA, 6-foot-2 senior Cassie Sauer, a Division III Chicago commit, has been effective every time she has faced GCC. She didn’t play in last year’s WPIAL final when GCC won 56-51.
Junior Avery Jones, meanwhile, has been in a groove for GCC. She had a team-high 14 points and nine rebounds in the 57-40 WPIAL final loss to SSA. Senior Abby Dlugos also has re-established her post presence for the Centurions.
GCC and Shady Side Academy have a brief but meaningful history. The Bulldogs own a 5-1 lead since they became section opponents last season, so GCC remains the underdog.
“They’re a very familiar team,” Gribble said. “We know who they are, what they can do. It also gives us the confidence. They beat us three times. They got all the pressure to beat us a fourth time. State playoffs are a clean slate. Put that in the past, and we got a new game.”
Gribble, the third all-time leading scorer in Westmoreland County history, girls and boys combined (2,355 points), wants to lead GCC to a state title.
“We haven’t been to Hershey,” she said. “That would be awesome.”