What to watch for in WPIAL sports on Jan. 8, 2025: Southmoreland running section gauntlet – TribLIVE.com

By: Don Rebel
Wednesday, January 8, 2025 | 12:27 AM
Southmoreland’s Noah Felentzer (23) drives past Greensburg Salem’s Luke Rullo (33) and Ryan Burkart (10) during a game last season.
It might not be like the Pittsburgh Steelers’ gauntlet of three games at Philadelphia, at Baltimore and home to Kansas City in an 11-day span, but it will still be challenging.
Inclement weather last Friday forced a change to the original schedule that now has a WPIAL boys basketball Section 4-3A frontrunner playing three of its 10 section games this season in a four-day window this week.
On Wednesday, in a makeup game from Jan. 3, Southmoreland visits Ligonier Valley in the second of three games sandwiched between Tuesday and Friday this week.
The Scotties are off to a 2-0 section start and 9-2 overall after a 72-62 win at Waynesburg (1-9, 1-1) on Tuesday.
The Southmoreland road warriors do return home Friday to host Mt. Pleasant (0-12, 0-3).
Meanwhile, the host Rams are 1-0 in the section and 6-4 overall.
Both the Scotties and Rams are used to playing tight games this season.
The average final score for Southmoreland has been 53.5-52.4 while for Ligonier Valley, it is 58-57.6
More Monday makeups
Snow throughout the day Monday led to the postponements of a majority of the WPIAL girls basketball schedule on Monday.
The schools decide on a makeup date with eight contests being bumped 48 hours to Wednesday.
One of the games is a rematch of the 2024 WPIAL Class A championship game as two-time defending champion Union heads to Natrona Heights to visit St. Joseph.
The 2023 and 2024 champion Scotties are alone in first place at 4-0 in Section 1-A and they are a perfect 10-0 overall.
The average margin of victory in the 10 wins for Union has been 21 points.
The Spartans are 7-4 overall and trail the Scotties by a game with a 3-1 section record.
St. Joe’s has winning streaks of three and four games this season but has dropped two in a row, including its only section loss on Thursday at Aquinas Academy.
The last time these two Class A powers met was for district gold as St. Joseph enjoyed an early seven-point lead after one quarter before Union fought back to eventually tie the game and send it into overtime.
There, the Scotties earned a second straight title by outscoring the Spartans 8-1 in overtime to claim victory and more gold, 50-43.
Another contest rescheduled for Wednesday is in Section 2-6A as Norwin (4-5, 1-1) visits Mt. Lebanon.
The Knights won four of their first six games, but have now dropped three straight games.
The Blue Devils had won four in a row before losing at Canon-McMillan last week. Lebo tries to make it back-to-back wins following a victory over Connellsville on Tuesday, 53-31.
This marks the first of five straight home games for Mt. Lebanon.
Mat mayhem
Wednesday will mark the busiest day of WPIAL section duels thus far this season with first place up for grabs in several matches.
• In Section 2-3A, Canon-McMillan (2-0) visits Waynesburg (1-0)
• In Section 4-3A, Butler (2-0) travels to Seneca Valley (1-0)
• In Section 7-3A, Thomas Jefferson (2-0) hosts Ringgold (1-0)
• In Section 9-3A, Norwin (2-0) is at Penn-Trafford (1-0)
• In Section 7-2A, Southmoreland (2-0) is home to South Park (1-0)
Wednesday also marks the start of section action in seven of the 18 sections in both classifications.

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