The team's top scorer is a freshman.

Two of the starters are ninth graders.

Only two of the top seven players are seniors.

And the team had won 11 of 13 games heading into Monday's action and is in second place in WPIAL Section 3-AA.

Meet the Bishop Canevin girls' basketball team, which has been something of a surprise to everybody except its coach, Tim Joyce.

"I'm not surprised because I thought we had talent," he said when asked about the Crusaders' 13-4 overall record and 8-2 section mark. Canevin trails Seton-LaSalle by two games in the section race.

"I figured it would take a little while for us to get going. We've really played well since the second half of the first South Fayette game."

Canevin lost that one, 43-39, but has been tough to beat since that third game of the season. Its losses since then have come against Class AAAA Ringgold, 36-29, in a non-section contest and 49-34 at Seton-LaSalle. The Crusaders defeated South Fayette in the rematch, 36-31.

Erin Waskowiak, a 5-foot-9 freshman, is Canevin's leading scorer and is averaging a solid 18 points a game. Joyce said he doesn't have another player in double figures but has been getting contributions from a number regulars.

"Every game it has been somebody different," he said. "Team's have been focusing more on Erin and that has forced some other to step up."

Others who have been starters on a consistent basis are 5-7 senior Erica Bridge and 5-9 freshman Carly Forse. Five other have seen considerable time. They are 5-8 senior Lisa Abbott; juniors Maddy McGuire (5-8), Dana Heidenreich (5-8) and Maura Gustine (5-5), and sophomore Becca Olkosky (5-6).

"Who the other two starters are depends on whom we are playing, whether we want to go a little bigger, and who has been hot for us," Joyce said.

He hopes the Crusaders stay hot. They play at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Saturday and are at Fort Cherry Monday before returning home a week from today for a game against Seton-LaSalle. The final two games of the regular season are non-section affairs against Oakland Catholic (Feb. 13) and at Knoch (Feb. 15).

"It's a tough stretch for us coming up," Joyce said.

The Sewickley Academy boys' basketball team has received a great deal of attention this season thanks to highly touted guard Tom Droney and the fact the Panthers are the defending WPIAL Class A champions. But the school's girls' team has done OK for itself and has a bright future.

Following Monday's Section 1-A victory at Union, the Sewickley Academy girls were 7-6 overall, 4-3 in the section and in third place behind Rochester and Quigley.

What's impressive about that is the girls' team does not have a senior on the roster and starts a junior, three sophomores and a freshman. With three freshmen and just two juniors on the roster, Sewickley Academy could have the youngest girls' varsity in the WPIAL.

"I am surprised because we had just four returning players with any kind of varsity experience," Sewickley Academy coach Allen Vaccarelli said. "But most of our players are on the soccer team and they know how to win."

The girls' soccer team finished 15-4-1 this fall and advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals before the season ended.

Vaccarelli hopes his team makes the playoffs so his young players will get some postseason experience.

Sewickley Academy should qualify for the playoffs. It has just three games remaining and two are at Western Beaver (2-12) tonight and at home against Union (1-13) Friday. The other contest is a week from today at Quigley. One victory should secure a playoff spot.

"Every game we've been able to use all 11 of our players and that's been a good thing," Vaccarelli said. "We've been getting pretty good balance in our scoring and a lot of contributions."

Reed Mango, a 5-foot-10 junior, is the team's leading scorer at 15 points per game and also averages 12 rebounds a contest. Sophomore Rachel Pregel, a 5-7 sophomore, averages 10 ppg and sophomore Nudge Vaccarelli, a 5-3 guard and the coach's daughter, averages eight points and six assists a game. The other starters are 5-5 sophomore Jackie Orr and 5-6 freshman Alexis Bosilovic.

The fact the school's boys' team has been so successful has helped the girls.

"The girls are big supporters of the boys and I think they have tried to follow up on what the boys are doing," Allen Vaccarrelli said. "We are hoping there are good things ahead."

Reporters are always looking for angles for stories and because of that, ask questions when they see something they think is odd or out of place.

In the locker room under the Beaver Falls Middle School gym, which serves as the high school varsity gym, the banner celebrating the school's 1970 PIAA championship hangs over the window of the coach's office.

It has to be there for inspiration for this season's Beaver Falls team, right? Why else would it be squirreled away where nobody but the players and coaches can see it? There's got to be an interesting story behind it hanging there, right?

"There was nowhere else to put it," Beaver Falls coach Doug Biega said. "And, truth be told, I put it up there to give me a little bit of privacy in my office."

So much for a good story.

There are a number of big games on tap tonight. Perhaps the biggest will have nothing to do with section standings or a team making the playoffs, but it is a battle between No. 1 and No. 2 in the Post-Gazette's Class AAA rankings. Chartiers Valley, No. 2, travels to take on No. 1 Hampton at 7:30 p.m. For those who don't already have tickets you might want to try and find a couple quickly because this one could be a sellout.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.