BUTLER, Pa. – The Butler County Community College men’s and women’s basketball teams Saturday could win Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championships at home for the first time in the same season.
The men’s team features District 10 alums Spencer Langas of Slippery Rock and Troy Loughry of Grove City, while the women’s team features four former District 9 standouts in Aslyn Pry (Moniteau), Zoey Hillwig (Moniteau), Emma Johns (Karns City) and Brooke Manuel (Karns City).
Led by national Top 10 statistical leaders selected as players of the month or week since November, BC3’s squads have earned the No. 1 seeds in WPCC championship tournaments.
BC3’s women’s team is 17-5. BC3 men’s team is 16-3 and ranked No. 11 nationally. Their records are the best for the BC3 programs at this point of the season since at least 2010-2011.
BC3’s women’s team faces Westmoreland County Community College for the championship at 1 p.m. Saturday in BC3’s Field House.
BC3’s men’s team hosts the Community College of Allegheny County at 6 p.m. Friday in a semifinal. Westmoreland County Community College visits Pennsylvania Highlands Community College in the other semifinal Friday evening in Johnstown.
“I think it is a credit to both (BC3) programs. You have great players with high character.”
The men’s championship would be played in BC3’s Field House at 3 p.m. Saturday if the Pioneers defeat the Community College of Allegheny County.
“I think it is a credit to both (BC3) programs,” said Joe Lewandowski, head coach of BC3’s men’s team. “You have great players with high character. You put yourself in a position to be successful and do all the right things, and usually, it takes care of itself.”
Said Lydia Roth, head coach of BC3’s women’s team: “It’s very exciting. It’s fun to have that kind of culture where both the men’s team and women’s team are excelling. Both teams are turning heads. BC3 as a whole is benefiting from that in terms of recruiting and people coming to the games. … This brings that excitement of basketball to BC3.”
BC3’s men’s team has claimed six WPCC championships since 1980 and its women’s team has five since 2016. The teams captured WPCC crowns in the same season only once, in 2019, but in different locations.
BC3’s squads will also compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region 20 championship tournaments in Youngwood from Feb. 25-26.
“We just have to keep focusing on what we are doing, playing well together,” Lewandowski said. “Right now everyone understands that in order for us to be successful, everyone has to play together.”
BC3’s men’s basketball team has averaged 23.6 assists in its past five games.
“Those numbers,” Lewandowski said, “are through the roof. That means the ball is always moving. It’s being shared.”
BC3’s men’s team climbed in Division III rankings in three consecutive weekly polls since Jan. 23, from No. 15 to No. 13 to No. 11. The Pioneers were ranked No. 11 again on Feb. 13.
BC3’s men’s team has won six games in a row and is coming off the program’s first 100-points-plus game in regulation play since Feb. 4, 2019.
The Pioneers’ 6-foot-9 Jason Baker was named the Region 20 player of the month for November. He leads players on 97 Division III teams with 96 blocked shots.
BC3’s Derrick Anderson was named the Region 20 athlete of the month for December and as the Division III Player of the Week Feb. 1. The Pioneers’ Kevaughn Price was selected as the Region 20 athlete of the month for January.
Price ranks fifth in Division III with 21.5 points per game average and Anderson, ninth with 20.7.
Baker is averaging 16 points and Todd Simons, 15.2.
Baker is a graduate of Legacy Early College, Greenville, S.C.; Anderson, of Boardman, Ohio; Price, of Bishop Canevin; and Simons, of Austintown Fitch, Ohio.
Women’s team “crashing the boards”
BC3’s women’s team, Roth said, “is playing some of the best basketball they have played all year, which is very exciting to see, especially now as we come to this point of the season.”
The Pioneers are second in Division III with a rebounding margin of 21.3 per game.
“We’re crashing the boards, and we really have been able to limit other teams to one shot per trip down the floor,” Roth said. “I tell them that rebounding is focus and remembering to box out. And they’ve really taken it upon themselves to do that.”
All-American Aslyn Pry was named the Region 20 player of the month for December and for January and as the Division III player of the week on Feb. 8.
She is first among players on 73 Division III teams with 341 rebounds, second with 81 blocked shots, and sixth with 21.2 points per game.
Emma Johns ranks fifth in Division III with 67 successful 3-pointers and Emma Monteleone is sixth with 105 assists.
Johns is averaging 15 points and Hailey Metzger 11.4.
Pry is a graduate of Moniteau; Johns, of Karns City; and Monteleone and Metzger, of Butler.
