Chartiers Valley Survives a Power Outage, Broken Scoreboard and Greater Johnstown in a Wild PIAA Quarterfinal

NORTH HUNTINGDON, PENNSYLVANIA - Mother Nature made the rematch between District 6 champion Greater Johnstown and WPIAL champion Chartiers Valley one to remember.

A Power Outage Paused the Game in the First Half

In a game briefly paused late in the first half due to a power outage thanks to a nasty wind storm in that blanketed Pittsburgh and the surrounding regions, the Colts escaped with a 42-36 PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal win at Norwin High School.

The storm left nearly 250,000 homes without power around Western Pennsylvania. There were no lights on in the lobby at Norwin. The power fully came later on during the second game on an unplanned doubleheader.

Obama-Deer Lakes Battle Changed Venus Due to a Lack of Power

A Class 4A quarterfinal game between Obama Academy and Deer Lakes was moved to Norwin due to a lack of power at North Allegheny.

“You never know what to expect,” Chartiers Valley coach Corey Dotchin said. “We’re just trying to take care of what we can control and move on.”

PIAA basketball Johnstown Chartiers Valley — Chartiers Valley's Julius Best lines up a shot during the second half of a PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal Friday night at Norwin. The Colts beat Greater Johnstown, 42-36. | Josh Rizzo

What’s the Score? Where is the Buzzer?

Julius Best came off the bench to lead the Colts with 18 points. But it was difficult to make heads or tails out of who was winning the game. The scoreboard on one side was out entirely. On the other side of the gym, the time and score were displayed faintly.

The public address announcer would make his own buzzing noise to signal substitutions.

“It was rough,” Best said. “I kept looking at the side with no scoreboard and I realized it was completely shut out. I had to adjust my vision.”

Dotchin said things weren’t ideal, but he was happy with how everyone did given the circumstances.

“You can only control what you can control,” Dotchin said. “That’s what we try to tell these guys. We want to control the things we can do and make the most of it. It was just kind of one of those things. You just got to go with it.”

Chartiers Valley Johnstown PIAA basketball — Greater Johnstown's Amire Robinson attempts to protect the ball from the reach of Chartiers Valley's Julian Semplice Friday night at Norwin High School. The Colts won 42-36 in a PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal. | Josh Rizzo

Fate Kept Colts, Trojans apart

Chartiers Valley beat Johnstown 68-38 in the state quarterfinals last season.

They nearly had their rematch three months ago. But fate kept the Trojans and Colts apart during the Chartiers Valley Tournament in early December.

Chartiers Valley was upended by Fox Chapel, which went on to beat Johnstown to win the event. Trojans coach Ryan Durham did appreciate having an opportunity to see Chartiers Valley early in the season.

“I thought we had a really good gameplan,” Durham said. “Obviously, we played them in the exact same round last year and we were familiar with them. We got to see them up close and personal at their tournament, even though we didn’t get a chance to play each other. Our defense has improved throughout the year and we were comfortable coming into the game?

Johnstown Started Hot

The Trojans (20-5) started the game on an 8-2 run. Aubrey Robinson scored 20 points and made two 3-pointers in each of the first three quarters.

“Even early in the game, we had four straight turnovers,” Durham said. “For us, defensively we were fantastic, but on offense we weren’t as sharp as we could have been.”

Chatiers Valley battled back with a 14-2 run and had the game tied at 21 in halftime.

Colts Take the Lead Late

In the fourth quarter, Luca Federico scored in the post to give the Colts a 36-34 advantage. Best followed with a basket in transition. Two more buckets from Federico, who finished with 13 points, closed out the scoring.

Chartiers Valley (26-2) will head back to the state semifinals to take on West York. The Colts lost to Hershey last year in the semifinals.

-Josh Rizzo | rizzo42789@gmail.com| @J_oshrizzo