Jeannette and Beaver Falls were ranked 1-2 in WPIAL Class AA boys' basketball at the start of the season. Jeannette was in the title game only a year ago while Beaver Falls was in the championship three times from 2002-05.

So, it comes as no surprise Jeannette and Beaver Falls will play for the WPIAL Class AA title. But, from a historical perspective, their meeting is one of the most unusual happenings in WPIAL sports.

Jeannette and Beaver Falls also played in the WPIAL Class AA football championship game in November. Now get this: Since the WPIAL was formed in the early 1900s, this is only the second time the same two schools have met in a football and basketball championship in the same school year.

"I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened more often," Beaver Falls basketball coach Doug Biega said of the football-basketball clashes.

The only other time it happened was in the 1998-99 school year, when New Castle and North Allegheny met in the Class AAAA football and basketball championships. New Castle won both titles that year.

Only a few players from North Allegheny and New Castle saw significant playing time in both sports, but most of the starters in the Jeannette-Beaver Falls basketball game also were significant players in football.

"Our goal has been to get the WPIAL [basketball] title, no matter who we're playing," said Jeannette star senior Terrelle Pryor. "But we were rooting for Beaver Falls because we wanted to play them. It's two great programs. It's two great powerhouses going at it."

Pryor is one of the greatest two-sport athletes in WPIAL history. Beaver Falls' Todd Thomas isn't on Pryor's level, but he also is a football-basketball star.

"Everyone knows about Todd, and everyone knows Terrelle," Biega said. "But I think what this shows is their supporting casts are pretty good, too."

Jeannette crushed Beaver Falls, 61-12, in the football championship. But a month later, Beaver Falls beat Jeannette, 83-63, in a basketball game. Jeannette, however, had finished its football season only a week earlier.

"We said we didn't have our basketball legs in that game. We can't use that excuse this time," Pryor said.

Biega isn't putting much stock in that game.

"You can throw that first game away. That tape will show us nothing," Biega said. "None of us are stupid enough to think that game meant anything a few days after [Jeannette] came off the football field."

Thomas scored 32 points in the first meeting. He and Pryor, who played on the same AAU team last summer, seem to have a personal rivalry going.

"It's not a rivalry. I can't be too worried about him. They have a lot of other good players," Pryor said. "But you can put this in the paper. He will not do what he did last time. Put in the paper, too, that I wish he would guard me."

Thomas said: "We have a little thing going. But it's not just me that has to have a good game. Everyone has to have a good game."

NOTES - None of the championship games will be televised live. But all four boys' championships and all four girls' championships can be seen on Comcast's On Demand beginning Monday.