It was a playoff game with a spot in the WPIAL championship on the line, but Chartiers Valley treated this game Wednesday night like an exhibition.
A 3-point shooting exhibition, that is.
Chartiers Valley tied a WPIAL Class AAAA playoff record by making 15 3-pointers and coasted to a 78-53 victory against North Hills in a semifinal at Moon.
The second-seeded Colts (22-3) advanced to the title game for the third consecutive season -- they lost in the Class AAA final the past two seasons -- and will play 9 p.m. Saturday against No. 1 North Allegheny at Petersen Events Center.
The Colts were beyond outstanding Wednesday night when shooting from beyond the arc, making eight 3-pointers in the first half to build a huge lead before adding another seven in the second to keep North Hills (13-11) from getting back into the game. The Colts finished 15 of 32 from 3-point range, tying a record they set in 2005.
Jake Ritson had the hottest hand, convertuing seven 3-pointers. Ritson finished with 23 points as did WPIAL scoring leader Matty McConnell, who made two 3-pointers. Ross Wilkerson connected on three and added 13 points.
North Hills used a 2-3 zone against Chartiers Valley, and Colts coach Tim McConnell said the Indians were the first team to play a zone against his team this season.
"You have to pick your poison," McConnell said. "Do you want to stop our dribble-drive or do you want to stop our 3s? [Wednesday night], they tried to stop us from going inside, and us making 15 3s, that's what made us successful."
Chartiers Valley raced to a big lead and never let its foot off the gas.
Ritson's 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first quarter gave the Colts a 20-5 lead. The Colts extended that to 38-18 at the half and 55-29 after three quarters. They led by as many as 32 in the third.
North Hills, the No. 11 seed, was trying to reach the final for the first time, but falling behind by so many points so early doomed a team that doesn't shoot the ball well from the perimeter and prefers to play at a slower pace.
"I told the guys, I don't think it would have mattered how we would have approached it," North Hills coach Buzz Gabos said. "By the time the second quarter started, we were basically [playing man-to-man defense] anyway, and it really didn't get any better. It was just one of those nights against a really good team."
Kindhal Taylor led North Hills with 20 points and Nick Smith added 11.
North Allegheny coach Dave DeGregorio sees his Tigers as a good free-throw shooting team. In a WPIAL Class AAAA semifinal against Fox Chapel, they were out of this world.
North Allegheny (23-2) converted a mind-boggling 39 of 45 (86.7 percent) from the free-throw line, including 15 for 15 by senior guard Cole Constantino as the Tigers blew past No. 12 Fox Chapel, 71-44, in the other semifinal at Chartiers Valley.
"We make free throws, and Cole's like a low-90-percent free-throw shooter," said DeGregorio, whose Tigers have reached the final for the first time since 1999.
"To be honest, and Cole will probably tell you, he usually finishes better and some of the looks that he got, he knocks down."
Constantino finished with a game-high 20 points, while freshman guard Curtis Aiken chipped in 18 off the bench, including 10 in the first half when North Allegheny struggled against the chippy Foxes. But Fox Chapel (16-9) was bitten by its aggressiveness as four players, including three starters, fouled out.
"One of our concerns coming in was that their size was similar to ours, but they're strong kids," DeGregorio said. "It's always a concern on the boards, and we were losing the boards by nine in the first half and I don't know how the numbers turned out but I thought we rebounded better in the second half."
First Published: February 26, 2015, 5:00 a.m.