Shady Side Academy has been one of the most impressive teams in the WPIAL during the opening month of the season.

These Bulldogs are talented and boast one of the area’s most successful coaches, but another reason they are 8-0 and one of only five unbeaten teams in the WPIAL is experience, a factor that has twice helped the team rally back from double-digit deficits to grab victories.

“I think this group is pretty experienced, having had the WPIAL championship experience last season and even prior to that a deep playoff run in the state playoffs [the season before],” said coach Jonna Burke, who has more than 500 career wins.

Shady Side Academy had never won a WPIAL title before last season. The Bulldogs will now shoot for a second in a row. Considering their early success and the fact they have one of the WPIAL’s top players in junior point guard Karis Thomas, you have got to like their chances. 

Thomas is a three-year starter who surpassed 1,000 career points earlier this season. Thomas, along with junior forward Cassie Sauer and sophomore forward Leah Buford, all started on last year’s championship team. The Bulldogs would have returned four starters, but junior guard Maggie Spell, the star of the WPIAL Class 3A title game when she scored a game-high 31 points, transferred to Thomas Jefferson. Joining Thomas, Sauer and Buford in the starting lineup have been senior guards Cameron Capel and Makiyah Mitchell. Capel was the sixth man last season.

Spell led Shady Side Academy in scoring the past two seasons (she averaged 19.8 points a game last season), a role that has since been taken over by Thomas, who is averaging 21.7 and has reached 30 points twice. Thomas averaged 16.1 a game last season. Sauer leads the team in rebounding with 13 per game.

“The team chemistry is very good,” Burke said. “I don’t want to sound corny or cliche, but they do really get along well and they care about each other. More importantly, they don’t care who gets the credit. It’s really special to watch them play. There’s clearly a star in Karis Thomas. She makes the other kids better. Karis has upped the level of her play. I think she’s playing even better than she had in the past.”

Shady Side Academy has had a challenging schedule, and so far the Bulldogs have been up to the challenge. The Bulldogs, who are 3-0 in Class 3A Section 2, own wins against defending PIAA Class 4A champion Blackhawk, Avonworth (a WPIAL Class 3A finalist last season), Class 6A Seneca Valley, Class 5A Baldwin, and District 5 power Berlin Brothersvalley.

The wins against Berlin Brothersvalley and Blackhawk were among the most impressive. Burke said that the Bulldogs rallied from 10 points down to beat Berlin and stormed back from 12 points behind against Blackhawk. Both of those games were played at neutral sites, while the triumphs against Baldwin and Avonworth were on the road.

“Again, I think it’s the experience,” Burke said. “You draw on that. You say, ‘OK, there’s a lot of time left in this game. We can fight. We can do this.’”

Thomas — the Bulldogs are 59-7 in her career — and Shady Side Academy continue to show a lot of fight as they pile up the wins, and the Bulldogs will hope to keep their perfect record intact Friday and Saturday when they host the Pete Sauer Memorial Classic. The Bulldogs are scheduled to face two more Class 6A teams, Woodland Hills and Pine-Richland.

Creach nears return

It has been 10 months since London Creach last played in a game, but it looks like the Oakland Catholic star could be making her season debut soon.

Creach, a 5-8 senior guard and Robert Morris recruit, has spent much of the year recovering from a torn ACL she suffered in a WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal win against North Hills on Feb. 23. Creach had surgery on her left knee on April 10 and has been working her way back since. Creach, who said she has been practicing since August, said she’s currently at about 85% to 90% and is “hoping to come back early January.”

Oakland Catholic is off to a 4-2 start (2-1 in Class 4A Section 1) under first-year coach Henry Schechter. The Eagles figure to be even better with Creach in the lineup. As a junior, she averaged 13.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.9 steals a game for an Oakland Catholic team that finished 26-3 and reached the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA quarterfinals.

Wade Watch

When you pump in the points like Clairton’s Iyanna Wade does on a game-by-game basis, career totals can climb in a hurry. Some milestones Wade is on pace to reach soon are 2,500 points and becoming her school’s all-time leading scorer.

Wade, already a two-time WPIAL scoring champion, once again leads the district in scoring as she has averaged 42.7 points per game while helping Clairton to a 5-2 start (3-0 in Class 1A Section 2). Wade poured in a season-high 56 points in her most recent game, a 67-51 overtime win at West Greene.

A 5-4 senior guard, Wade now has 299 points this season and 2,448 in her career. That puts her only 255 away from the school record of 2,703 achieved by 2003 graduate Kamela Gissendanner, whose total stands as fifth best in WPIAL history. Gissendanner is now the women’s coach at La Roche. Gissendanner’s single-game high was 60 points, which stood as the school record before Wade scored a WPIAL-record 65 against Steel Valley last season.

Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.

Brad Everett

Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.