Basketball Recap: New Castle Falls Short of Upper St. Clair in the Playoffs

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact New Castle can now relate to. They came up short against the Upper St. Clair Panthers on Friday, falling 65-43. The game marked the Hurricanes' lowest-scoring match so far this season.

New Castle lost despite a true team effort on offense. The best among them was Ralphie Blundo, who posted 13 points. Kai Cox was another key player, putting up five points in addition to eight assists and seven boards.

Hurricanes

Previous 5 Games

02/28/25 vs Upper St. Clair	43-65
02/24/25 vs Mt. Lebanon	67-56
02/20/25 vs Butler	64-43
02/10/25 vs Bishop Canevin	79-45
02/08/25 vs Aliquippa	57-56

New Castle moved to 21-4 with that defeat, which also ended their nine-game winning streak. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.7 points over those games. As for Upper St. Clair, the victory was the fifth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 23-2.

New Castle and Upper St. Clair should be looking forward to their upcoming games as both have a sizable advantage in the MaxPreps Pennsylvania Rankings. New Castle (ranked 23rd) will meet Hickory (ranked 86th) at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. New Castle is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 63.2 points per game this season. Meanwhile, Upper St. Clair will square off against William Penn at 1:00 p.m. on March 8th up 118 places (6 vs. 124).