North Allegheny handles Mt. Lebanon, advances to 6th straight WPIAL finals

By: Josh Rizzo
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 | 8:12 PM

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Lizzy Groetsch’s pass to the perimeter allowed Jasmine Timmerson to snap a cold spell midway through the first quarter for the North Allegheny girls basketball team.

Timmerson knocked down a 3-pointer that pulled the Tigers within one and stopped a string of four team misses from the perimeter.

Even when North Allegheny’s shooting touch wasn’t there, the Tigers ability to play a number of styles helped propel them to a 49-36 win over Mt. Lebanon in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals Wednesday night at home.

Groetsch, who finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds, says North Allegheny knows how to ride out stretches where things aren’t going well.

“I think we control what we can control every game,” Groetsch said. “We want to get every loose ball and hustle play, and the shots will fall for us.”

North Allegheny will play Upper St. Clair, which survived Norwin, 33-31, in the other semifinal, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Peters Township in the championships game.

The Tigers’ ability to throw diverse looks at opponents has them headed to the WPIAL finals first the sixth straight year. The Tigers (23-1) are the defending district champions and have played in every WPIAL Class 6A final since the PIAA expanded to six classes in 2017.

“It’s humbling,” North Allegheny coach Spencer Stefko said. “We don’t take this for granted. We know this comes rarely, and the fact we get to go back is humbling. We’re lucky.”

North Allegheny stayed steady when its shooting touch wasn’t there early. The Tigers missed their first four 3-point attempts. Mt. Lebanon (17-4) took advantage, surging ahead 8-4 following a 3-pointer from Morgan Palmer.

Palmer led the Blue Devils with 16 points.

Then Timmerson knocked down her trey to kick off a 17-2 run and stretch North Allegheny’s lead to 21-10.

“I think our kids did a great job problem-solving tonight,” Stefko said. “Lebo threw four or five different things at us. We knew it was going to be that kind of game because they are that kind of team that can play five different ways.”

Palmer stopped the run with a 3-pointer with 3:34 left before halftime. Mt. Lebanon shot 12.5% (1 of 8) from the field in the second quarter.

“We thought we handled their traps well,” Blue Devils coach Dori Oldaker said. “I thought we got a lot of good looks. I talked to the kids at halftime. Some of our shots went down the net and popped back out. They just didn’t fall.”

The Blue Devils forced North Allegheny into another cold spell in the third and early fourth quarter. Mt. Lebanon went on a 12-0 run and cut the lead to 40-33 on a Brooke Collins jumper with 6:11 remaining.

“I thought our kids showed a lot of grit and desire,” Oldaker said. “We tried to change the tempo of the game. I want to give North Allegheny their respect. They hit the big shots.”

The Blue Devils defense forced five straight empty possessions from North Allegheny to start the quarter. Mt. Lebanon’s offense just couldn’t get any shots to go to cut the deficit any further.

Emma Fischer stopped the run with a 3-pointer — which ended up being North Allegheny’s only field goal of the quarter.

“They dug in and got stops until the dam broke on offense,” Stefko said. “It’s easy to be proud of them for that.”

North Allegheny has the tools to do it any way they see fit. The Tigers know what is at stake.

“We played really hard,” Groetsch said. “You can tell we played like our season was on the line.”

Tags: Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny