Mount Lebanon Defeats Oakland Catholic, 64-43, to End Baldwin's Season

Moments after Baldwin High School lost to Oakland Catholic High School, 39-28, in the WPIAL AAAA girls basketball quarterfinals on Friday night, Feb. 25, Baldwin Head Coach Dan Thayer predicted that his team had just played its last game this season.

Thayer was right.

You see, anything other than Oakland Catholic winning the WPIAL title this year would mean the end for the Highlanders (17-6 overall) since the WPIAL receives only five bids to the PIAA AAAA basketball playoffs. An Oakland Catholic title would have made Baldwin the de facto fifth-place team in the WPIAL this season, but the Eagles (16-9) ran into perhaps Pennsylvania's finest team in the semifinals on Tuesday night, March 1 – the Mt. Lebanon High School Blue Devils.

As Thayer suspected, Mt. Lebanon (20-5) eliminated Oakland Catholic on Tuesday. The final score was 64-43 at neutral-site West Allegheny High School.

Mt. Lebanon will now face Shaler Area High School in the WPIAL AAAA championship game at Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center on either Friday, March 4, or Saturday, March 5, at an exact time to be determined.

Baldwin and Mt. Lebanon are both members of WPIAL AAAA girls basketball's esteemed Section 4, which also features Bethel Park High School.

Shaler Area (23-2) edged Bethel Park (20-5) in the other WPIAL AAAA girls semifinal on Tuesday night, 47-45 at neutral-site North Hills High School.

Coincidentally, this weekend will mark the Titans' first WPIAL championship-game appearance since losing to Baldwin in the final at the Civic Arena in 1981 in what was then Class AAA basketball.

That year marked the first of Baldwin's three straight WPIAL girls basketball championships. After winning the title in 1983, the Highlanders girls had amassed five WPIAL basketball titles in 10 years.

Mount Lebanon, Shaler Area, Oakland Catholic and Bethel Park have all clinched berths in the PIAA playoffs this season, along with either Gateway High School, which lost in the quarterfinals to Mount Lebanon, 70-41, or Penn-Trafford High School, which lost to Shaler Area in the quarterfinals, 60-47.

Mount Lebanon has lost just one WPIAL game this season, falling at home to Baldwin, 48-46, on Jan. 3.