The Boys’ Basketball team started the 2024 season on a high note, defeating Mars in their first game of the year by the score of 67-54 on December 3rd. They’re off to a 4-1 start.
“I think that we have a lot of depth through the whole team,” senior forward Jon Nestor said last week. “The first real test is gonna be the section opener against Butler.”
The Tigers faced Butler on Friday night, defeating The Golden Tornado, 66-56.
The 2023-2024 team finished the year with a less than ideal 11-12 record, but they turned it around for sectional play and finished strong, placing second in the section at the end of the regular season with a section record of 7-3. They ultimately lost in the quarterfinals against Baldwin last year.
This year’s WPIAL section looks different from last season, going from six teams to eight teams. The current basketball 1-6A section is made up of Butler, New Castle, Fox Chapel, Woodland Hills, Pine-Richland, North Hills, Seneca Valley, and North Allegheny. A noticeable absence is Central Catholic, who will play in WPIAL section 2-6A. Nevertheless, the expansion opens up a lot of opportunities for new entertaining sectional matchups to watch and be a part of.
“I’m hyped up to play Pine-Richland this year,” Nestor said. “Because Central changed sections, it’s weird not looking forward to that one.”
This year’s team has an unusually low number of seniors on the roster, only four: Carter Melzer, Jon Jubeck, Carson Burns, and Jon Nestor. Comparatively, last year’s squad had eight seniors. There is a total of 11 upperclassmen on the team, so juniors like Peter Bratich, Justin Stalter, Blake Craft, and Will Robertson receive a large portion of the playing time during games.
The Tigers will be looking to make it deep into the WPIAL playoffs this season. The section competition will be tough (New Castle has gotten of to a blazing 5-0 start, as well as Butler at 5-1), so the Tigers need to show up and show out in section play if they want to compete for the top spot in the rankings.
But by all appearances, this season’s Tiger lineup looks up to the challenge.
“We’ve all worked really hard for our season,” Burns said. “We can be really good this year.”
The team plays Seneca Valley tonight at NASH.
