The ceiling in the Aliquippa High School gymnasium has many championship banners hanging from it, the majority of them celebrating the school’s football and boys basketball teams who have combined to win 33 WPIAL and 10 PIAA titles.
Aliquippa may not be an all-boys school, but Quips boys athletes typically get nearly all of the shine.
“We get overlooked a lot,” said Evanna Lay, a senior on the Aliquippa girls basketball team.
But there was actually a time when Aliquippa was a girls basketball power, with the Quips winning four consecutive WPIAL titles from 1987-90 and back-to-back PIAA titles in 1989 and 1990.
Those championship banners hang in Aliquippa’s gym, as well, and the presence of them is something the team’s current coach regularly points out to his players.
“I was a little kid when we were winning in the ’80s,” Dwight Lindsey said. “I tell the girls that this was the team in the late ’80s or early ’90s. They didn’t believe it because they hadn’t seen it, and seeing is believing for a lot of these kids.”
Well, believe it or not, the Aliquippa girls basketball team is thriving again decades later. And if the Quips — make that Lady Quips — get their way, they soon will have a banner of their own.
“Every practice our coach compares our banners to the boys banners,” junior Carla Brown said, “and he wants us to put our year up there.”
This Aliquippa team has been one of the best in WPIAL Class 2A this season, and Thursday night improved to 15-1 overall and 9-0 in Section 1 after a 49-25 victory at Shenango. The Quips have clinched a winning record for the first time since 2014 and their win total is the highest since they won 21 games in the 2010-11 season, also the previous time they won a section championship.
“I feel like we’re doing well,” said junior Aunesty Johnson, the team’s leading scorer. “We’re getting better every day and I love how we all connect.”
Lindsey, a 2000 Aliquippa graduate who is in his fourth season as coach, has been working toward bringing Aliquippa girls basketball back to its glory days, when Lindsey regularly would attend boys and girls games with his grandfather and cousins. The Aliquippa girls, guided by coach Donna Richey, were a great dynasty in WPIAL girls basketball at the time. Over a four-year span, the Quips won four section titles (going unbeaten in section play each season), four WPIAL titles and two PIAA titles. They featured two 2,000-point scorers in Mona Gaffney and Carrie Bordas, the latter of whom finished her career as the WPIAL’s all-time leading scorer.
“I remember them just smothering people,” said Lindsey, who played basketball and football at Aliquippa, winning WPIAL basketball titles in 1998 and 2000. “Coach Richey, she was my phys ed teacher and middle school health teacher. She had those girls in line. It was like a relentless pursuit of just being better than everybody. And they were great defensively, pressing, being all over the floor. Good athletes. Shared the ball. I remember going to games and them beating teams, 75-10. They were just that much better than other teams, and she didn’t let up.”
Aliquippa hasn’t let up in its pursuit of becoming a power once again. The Quips went 6-12 in Lindsey’s first season and 7-14 in his second, losing their playoff opener both years. Last season provided a big breakthrough when the Quips finished 12-12 and advanced to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time since 1999.
“Last year we were kind of up and down all year and then we hit a little groove,” Lindsey said. “We were a player or two away from playing in the WPIAL championship a year ago. So the girls got a little taste of that and now it’s like that next step, but we have to continue to work toward that. We have to keep pursuing that. It’s not going to be given to us. You’ve got to take it.”
Aliquippa lost leading scorer and all-section choice Angel Henry to graduation, but the Quips did add a few players in the offseason, most notably Carla Brown and her freshman sister, Layla. The two transferred from Beaver Falls. Carla Brown is second on the team in scoring with 16 points per game and leads the team in assists with 6 a game. In a 60-28 mercy-rule win Monday against South Side, Brown drilled a 3-pointer 15 seconds into the game and the Quips built a 12-0 lead three minutes into the contest. Brown scored a game-high 18 points.
Lay is the team’s only senior starter and just one of two on the team (Dacari Hall is the other), while the team’s starting five is rounded out by a quartet of juniors — Brown, Johnson, Yaree Carter and Samiyah Ausby. Johnson, Carter and Ausby have been starting since their freshman seasons. Johnson leads the Quips in scoring at 17 points a game and is second in rebounds with 7 per game. Carter, who is 5 feet 9, is the leading rebounder with 10 a game.
“I like how we’re growing,” Brown said. “We are a bit of a mix of a new team. We have new freshmen, and my sister and I are new to the team, but I feel like we’re building well together.”
Aliquippa has made big strides since a season ago. The defense has been outstanding. After giving up 39.7 points a game in 2022-23, that number has plummeted to 30.8 this season, which ranks fifth among the WPIAL’s 128 teams. Aliquippa has surrendered 50 or more points just once. Offensively, the Quips have collected 53.1 points per game after scoring 43.9 a game last season.
The Quips picked up a trio of impressive wins over a 10-day stretch earlier this month when they defeated Rochester, 37-36; won at Freedom, 47-45, in overtime; and beat Mohawk, 52-51, in overtime. Not only were the wins clutch and included two section triumphs, but they came against teams that have been highly successful in recent years. Rochester won three consecutive WPIAL Class 1A titles from 2019-2021, Mohawk claimed back-to-back WPIAL Class 3A titles in 2020 and 2021, and Freedom played for WPIAL titles in 2022 (in Class 3A) and 2023 (in Class 2A).
“I think that says a lot about the girls and their refusal to lose,” Lindsey said. “We won those three games, but we could have easily been 0-3 in those games. And there wouldn’t have been any shame in that because they’re good programs.”
Aliquippa will play all three teams again. The matchup against Rochester Feb. 1 should go a long way in determining if the Quips reach their goal of winning a section title. Aliquippa leads the section with an 8-0 record and Rochester sits in second at 7-1.
While the Quips haven’t won a championship in years, Lindsey calls it a “championship program” after their deep run in the WPIAL playoffs last season.
“And we can’t go back on that,” said Lindsey.
Lindsey believes this team can win a title or even multiple titles, as do his players.
“I feel like we can go all the way this season,” Lay said.
And with titles come banners, and that’s something these Lady Quips would love to add to the gymnasium ceiling.
“It would mean a lot because the last girls banner was from like 19-something,” said Johnson, “so for us to do it now would really be a change and would be great.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.