Baldwin Girls Draw Plum Borough in First Round of WPIAL AAAA Basketball Championships

The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League officially invited 's varsity girls basketball team to its 2011 AAAA championships tournament today, Feb. 15.

Baldwin finished its 2010-11 regular season with a 16-5 overall record, including a 9-3 mark in WPIAL AAAA Section 4. The top four teams in each section are guaranteed a spot in the championships, and the Highlanders' 9-3 record was good enough for third place in their section behind Mount Lebanon and Bethel Park high schools. earned Section 4's final playoffs spot.

Baldwin will face in the first round of the AAAA tournament in a neutral-site game at North Allegheny High School on Friday, Feb. 18, at 6:30 p.m. Baldwin, deemed to be a higher seed by the WPIAL, is designated as the home team for that contest.

Plum Borough competes in Section 2 of the WPIAL's AAAA, or highest, level. The Mustangs finished 2010-11 with a 12-9 overall mark, including a 7-5 record in Section 2, also good for that section's third-place entry into the playoffs.

Baldwin comes into the WPIAL championships fairly battle-tested having competed in a section that features two of the WPIAL's top three seeds for the AAAA tournament – Mount Lebanon (1) and Bethel Park (3).

Should the Highlanders defeat Plum in the tournament's first round, they will move on to the quarterfinals to face either Oakland Catholic High School or Upper St. Clair on Friday, Feb. 25, at a location and exact time to be determined. Oakland Catholic and Upper St. Clair play at Northgate High School in another neutral-site first-round game on Feb. 18 at 8 p.m.

Oakland Catholic is WPIAL AAAA's fourth-ranked team.

Should Baldwin advance to the semifinals, it may have to face Mount Lebanon for a third time this season on Tuesday, March 1, at a location and exact time to be determined. The Highlanders won at Mount Lebanon, 48-46, on Jan. 3 before losing to the Blue Devils at home, 63-31, on Jan. 27.

Mount Lebanon knocked Baldwin out of both the WPIAL and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association championships last year.

Like last year, Baldwin could still advance to the PIAA playoffs this year even without winning a WPIAL championship. Though, of course, this year's WPIAL champions will automatically earn berths to the state playoffs.

If the Highlanders get to the WPIAL tournament championship game this year, they will play for the title at Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center on either Friday, March 4, or Saturday, March 5, at an exact time to be determined.