BUTLER, Pa. – Moniteau High School graduate and sophomore All-American Aslyn Pry led the Butler County Community College women’s basketball team to the program’s sixth Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship in eight years and to its ninth victory by 30 or more points this season with a 72-42 win over Westmoreland County Community College.
Pry began the Pioneers’ scoring with a 3-pointer and ended it with a reverse layup.
The 5-foot-10 forward received the prestigious postseason award from the National Junior College Athletic Association following her freshman season. BC3’s other All-Americans in women’s basketball, Julia Baxter in 2017 and Mackenzie Craig in 2019, were honored after their sophomore and final seasons.
Ranked third in the NJCAA Division III in rebounding average and seventh in scoring average, Pry on Saturday scored at least 25 points for the eighth time this season and led BC3 with 19 rebounds.
BC3 guards Emma Johns (Karns City) added 17 points and Emma Monteleone 13 for the Pioneers (18-5). The 18th victory of the season was the program’s most since the 2010-2011 team finished 17-12.
The Pioneers’ Lydia Roth, in her first season, was selected Saturday as the WPCC coach of the year, and Pry, Monteleone, and Hailey Metzger were named to the WPCC all-conference team for a second consecutive year. Metzger, a guard, was injured and did not play Saturday.
The sixth WPCC championship since 2016 is “really impressive for the program and for BC3 in general, that the women’s team can be that successful in such a short period of time,” Pry said. “I’m ecstatic. I love winning. I love putting numbers on that banner” in BC3’s Field House.
The Pioneers will seek the program’s fourth National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region 20 championship on Feb. 25-26 at Westmoreland County Community College, Youngwood.
“We have the reputation of a program that plays at a very high level,” Roth said. “That’s the culture that started with (former) coach (Dick) Hartung that I have been able to keep going with the group this year.”
Hartung retired in March 2022 after coaching the squad for 12 seasons.
BC3’s No. 11-ranked men’s team later Saturday won the program’s seventh WPCC title since 1980 with a 91-62 victory over Pennsylvania Highlands Community College in BC3’s Field House.
Saturday marked the second time that BC3’s women’s and men’s basketball teams won WPCC championships in the same season and the first time at home.
Pry as of Saturday was seventh among players on 73 Division III teams with a scoring average of 21.2 and third with a rebounding average of 16.1. Saturday marked the 10th game this season in which she has had 19 or more rebounds.
The Region 20 player of the month for December and for January, and the Division III player of the week Feb. 8 has averaged 27.8 points in her past eight games.
“Everything flows through (Pry),” Westmoreland County coach James Brymn said. “We just don’t have the height to guard her. We try to double (team) her on the inside and then she kicks out to the guards, including (Metzger), who did not play today.
“Today we tried a little bit of a different defense. We thought we would guard the perimeter and let (Pry) kill us. That way it is one killing us instead of four. And that didn’t work either.”
The Pioneers will be seeded No. 2 and face No. 3 seed Anne Arundel, Arnold, Md., at noon Feb. 25. The winner faces No. 1 seed Prince George’s, Largo, Md., in the championship at noon Feb. 26.
B3 MEN ALSO CLAIM TITLE
Joe Lewandowski watched Saturday as fans and a professional photographer made pictures near the center court of his Butler County Community College men’s basketball players celebrating in the red T-shirts awarded to the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference champions following a 91-62 win over Pennsylvania Highlands Community College.
“I am so happy for the guys,” the first-year BC3 coach said. “They earned this. This is something in which they have invested so much time. They decided, ‘We want to come to school here and we want to bet on ourselves in a lot of ways and give ourselves opportunities.’”
Derrick Anderson, of Boardman, Ohio, scored a game-high 28 points as the Pioneers moved to 18-3 with their eighth consecutive victory.
BC3 finished 2-16 in 2021-2022 and had not had a winning record since at least the 2009-2010 season.
“They knew the situation coming in,” Lewandowski said. “They knew we haven’t had a great track record in the past couple of years in terms of wins and losses. But they said, ‘I want to compete here. We want to do what it takes to give ourselves a shot at a championship.’
BC3 will seek its first National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III Region 20 championship since 2002 on Feb. 25-26 at Westmoreland County Community College in Youngwood.
The Pioneers have scored 90 or more points in five of their past six games. They are ranked No. 11 among 97 teams in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III.
BC3’s Todd Simons, a graduate of Austintown Fitch (Ohio) scored 19 points Saturday. Anthony Watson, a graduate of Bethel Park, and Kevaughn Price, of Bishop Canevin, added 14 each.
Lewandowski was selected Saturday as the WPCC coach of the year, and Pioneers Jason Baker, Anderson, and Price were named to the WPCC all-conference team.
The WPCC championship was the seventh for BC3 since 1980.
Simons’ 19 points were his most since he scored 19 on Dec. 21.
“This is why all of us came here, to win and make a deep run in the playoffs,” Simons said. “The job isn’t finished. We have to win regionals.”
BC3 will face No. 4 seed Pennsylvania Highlands, Johnstown, at 2:30 p.m. in a Region 20 semifinal on Feb. 25. Second-seeded Prince George’s, Largo, Md., plays Anne Arundel, Arnold, Md., at 5 p.m. Feb 25. Winners meet in the championship at 3 p.m. on Feb. 26.
