Checking Up On Some People

Former Mars basketball player, Andrew Recchia, made a game winning 3-point shot against Moon in the WPIAL 5A Boys Basketball championship game on March 1st, 2019.

SOURCE: TRIB LIVE HSSN, Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review

With Christmas break just around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to see how some of the WPIAL Boys basketball players, from the Class of 2019, are performing at their respected colleges.

- Connor Ryan & Austin Ryan (Moon): Both Ryan twins won a WPIAL Basketball championship with Moon in 2017 and they both won a PIAA Basketball championship with Moon in 2019. After playing on the same high school team for four years, the twins decided to play college basketball at different schools. Connor plays at Case Western Reserve University while Austin plays at Penn State Behrend. In the six games that Connor has played so far, the most points he has scored in a game was 7 points and that was against Central (Iowa) in Case Western's season debut on November 8th, 2019. Austin has played a total of 10 minutes so far, in four games, at Penn State Behrend and has not scored a single point yet.

-Andrew Recchia (Mars): Recchia became a legend after hitting a game winning 3-pointer against Moon to help Mars win 58-56 in the WPIAL 5A Boys Basketball championship game on March 1st, 2019, at the Petersen Events Center. He won a total of 2 WPIAL championships during his time at Mars and helped his team reach the PIAA 5A Boys Basketball championship game in 2018. Recchia now plays NCAA Division 2 College basketball at Shippensburg University. He has not played in a single game yet for the Raiders. One of his teammates, John Castello, is now a senior at Shippensburg University as he graduated from Mars in 2016. So, Castello and Recchia knew each other before Recchia attended Shippensburg University.

- Keandre Bowles (Woodland Hills): Bowles was named on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Boys Fab 5 in the 2018-19 WPIAL basketball season. He now plays college basketball at a junior college called Barton College, located in Kansas. This season, Bowles is currently averaging 10.3 points per game at Barton. He has even scored a game-high of 18 points in three different games during his freshman season at Barton.

- Jalen Brown (Freeport): Last season, Jalen was one of the three seniors that played on Freeport's Boys basketball team. He averaged 17 points per game in his senior year at Freeport. His grandfather is an assistant Men's basketball coach at Duquesne University. Jalen and his Freeport team suffered a quick first round loss to Ringgold by a score of 76-47 in the WPIAL 4A Boys Basketball playoffs, last season. Brown is now playing college basketball at LaRoche University. So far this season, the most points he has scored in a game was 7 points and that was against Geneva College on November 23rd, 2019.

- Jioni Smith (Moon): Jioni was another key contributor that helped Moon win a PIAA Boys Basketball championship in 2019. He was also on the 2017 WPIAL championship team as well. Jioni is also playing college basketball at LaRoche University. The most points that he has scored, so far this season, is 18 points against Penn State Altoona on November 26th, 2019. LaRoche would win that game by a score of 113-84.

- Joe Pipilo (Chartiers Valley): Pipilo was the star during his senior year at Chartiers Valley. Last season, he averaged 18 points per game for the Colts. He was one game away from appearing in the 2019 WPIAL 5A Boys Basketball championship game. The Colts lost to Mars in the WPIAL 5A Boys Basketball semifinals by a score of 53-44. He is now playing at LaRoche University. To begin the 2019-20 academic calendar year at LaRoche, Pipilo's roommate is Jioni Smith. Who would have thought that the high school star players, on rival schools, would room together? Pipilo scored 6 points in LaRoche's season debut against Mt. St. Joseph on November 15th, 2019.

- Dan Petcash (Pine-Richland): Dan was one of the few WPIAL Boys basketball players, from the Class of 2019, that decided to play NCAA Division 1 basketball. He plays at Binghamton University, which plays in the America East Conference. Petcash won 2 WPIAL basketball championships during his time at Pine-Richland and averaged 21.7 points per game in his senior year. Also, he was on Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Boys Fab 5 team in the 2018-19 season. So far this season, the most points he has scored in a game is 13 points against Army West Point on November 23rd, 2019. Binghamton plays the University of Pittsburgh on Friday.

- Tanner Gensler (Upper St.Clair): Tanner put up a show in his senior year at Upper St. Clair. He had to face "Big Named" players and play against big time schools. His high school basketball career ended when Purdue University recruit, Ethan Morton, helped Butler defeat Upper St. Clair in the WPIAL Class 6A Quarterfinals by a score of 75-70. Now, Gensler plays college basketball at Muskingum University. The team is currently on a three-game winning streak as he scored 6 points, in the team's most recent win, against Waynesburg University on December 18th, 2019.

- Reed Fenton (Latrobe): Fenton and the rest of Latrobe's Boys basketball team was shocked when they lost to Canon-McMillan in the WPIAL Class 6A Quarterfinals by a score of 83-62. To a lot of people, the Big Macs beating Latrobe in that game was one of the biggest upset wins of the year, last season. Fenton is now playing Division 1 basketball at Lehigh University. Fenton is one of the few freshmen, from the WPIAL Class of 2019, that gets a lot of playing time. He plays an average of 24.9 minutes per game and is averaging 6.9 points per game. Fenton scored a game high of 14 points against Misericordia University on November 18th, 2019.

- Bryce Butler (Latrobe): Fenton's high school teammate, Butler, is playing college basketball at West Liberty University and is currently averaging 8.2 points per game. That is pretty good. Butler is also the only player on West Liberty's team that is from the state of Pennsylvania.

- Brandon Caruso (Mars): Caruso, who was part of Mars WPIAL championship teams in 2018 and 2019 and PIAA runner up team in 2018, is now playing college basketball at Slippery Rock University. This year, Slippery Rock played the University of Pittsburgh in a preseason game and current Mars basketball player, Michael Carmody, was in attendance for that game.

-Ethan Beachy (Canon-McMillan): Last season, Beachy scored 27 points in the WPIAL Class 6A Quarterfinals playoff game against Latrobe. He knew Canon-McMillan was not favored in that game and he proved to the media that the Big Macs were their to play that night. Anyway, Beachy now plays college basketball at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is getting some minutes down at Lancaster Bible College as the team currently has an overall record of 1-6.

- Jaden Nelson (Montour): Nelson played his first two years of high school basketball at Trinity. Then, he transferred to Montour to play his last two seasons of high school basketball there. Nelson's high school career ended when Montour lost to Penn Hills in the WPIAL Class 5A Quarterfinals by a score of 62-50. He is now playing NCAA Division 2 basketball at Seton Hill University and scored 7 points against Mansfield on November 23rd, 2019.

- Jimmy Moon (Serra Catholic): Last season, Jimmy was one of the tallest and most dominant players in the WPIAL as he led Serra Catholic to the WPIAL 2A Boys basketball championship against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Unfortunately, Serra Catholic lost that game by a score of 65-46 as the audience, who watched that game, could see that overall Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was the better team. Moon is now at Seton Hill as he is now teammates with Jaden Nelson. There have been 2 games, this season, that Moon has scored over 20 points in a game for Seton Hill.

- Danny Conlan (Quaker Valley): Danny Conlan had three opportunities, in his high school career, to defeat New Castle in the WPIAL 4A Boys basketball championship game at the Petersen Events Center. Him and the Quakers lost to New Castle in the championship game in his sophomore, junior, and senior year in high school. Those were some tough moments in his life. Now, for him, he has moved on and is playing college basketball at Dickinson College. This season, he scored 14 points in a game against Mt. Aloysius and 13 points against Andrew Recchia's Shippensburg University.

- Keeno Holmes (Lincoln Park): Holmes helped Lincoln Park win a 3A WPIAL and PIAA Boys basketball championship in 2019. He averaged 16.9 points per game in his senior year of high school as he now plays college basketball at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Holmes is averaging 11.6 points per game at Allegheny College as they currently have an overall record of 6-3.

BY Hilton: bythebossandgoat@gmail.com and Twitter @BYHilton13