Saint Vincent men's basketball sets championship expectations

Saint Vincent enters another college basketball season with high hopes in the third year of D.P. Harris’ second men’s coaching stint with the Bearcats.

“It’s business as usual,” Harris said. “We expect to win championships.”

After finishing a year ago as runner-up to Geneva in the NCAA Division III Presidents’ Athletic Conference standings, then falling to the Golden Tornadoes in the PAC Tournament championship game, Saint Vincent will attempt another run at a conference title without last year’s leading scorer, Jaden Gales (17.8 ppg), who transferred to Division II Newman.

Gales, a Bishop Canevin product, sat out most of Saint Vincent’s final two games with an Achilles tendon injury. The Bearcats ended the year with a pair of decisive losses: 83-63 to Geneva in the PAC Tournament title game and 81-64 to Penn State Behrend in the ECAC Championship Tournament.

“We’re still a young, talented, rich program, and our league is very, very good,” said Harris, whose 18-year coaching record at Saint Vincent from 2003-19 and 2022-24 is 318-126 (.716). “Our goal is to go to the NCAA Tournament.”

Junior guard Dev Ostrowski heads a list of three returning starters. The all-PAC second-team selection averaged 17.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists last season for Saint Vincent.

Graduate guard Osyon Jones (14.7 ppg) and senior guard Mike Iuzzolino (12.6 ppg, 61 assists) are the other returning starters.

A Yough connection joins Saint Vincent this season as Harris has added 6-foot-3 guard Terek Crosby and assistant coach Jim Nesser, who spent the past six seasons as the Cougars’ coach, compiling a 67-68 record that included just the school’s second trip to the WPIAL playoffs.

Crosby, a career 2,000-point scorer in high school, as a senior led the WPIAL in scoring (27.0 ppg).

He’s joined by Matthew Puodziukaitis, a 6-7 freshman forward, as incoming freshmen for Saint Vincent, which also added three Division II transfers: sophomore guard Maxwell Gordon (Nova Southeastern), senior guard/forward Jadakis Mack (Alderson Broaddus) and 6-8 senior forward Ian McNeill (Edinboro).

Pitt-Greensburg

Trent Rozich returns to the Bobcats’ lineup following a stellar freshman year that earned him the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Newcomer of the Year Award.

Rozich ranked second on the team in scoring (15.5 ppg) behind Ligonier Valley product Matt Marinchak (17.7) and led the Bobcats in rebounding (8.1 rpg) and assists (101).

Both were named to the all-AMCC second team and are joined by Jackson Byer (10.1 ppg) as returning double-figure scorers for UPG, which finished 11-7 in the Division III AMCC (13-14 overall) and advanced to the conference tournament semifinals in Chris Klimchock’s third season as coach.

Klimchock is the former Greensburg Salem and Saint Vincent star and a son of Greensburg Salem girls coach Rick Klimchock, who also serves as a UPG men’s assistant.

The other returnees are junior forward Ryan Greggerson (Gateway), senior guards Jeremiah Crockett and Joshua Mentzer and senior guard/forwards Tyler Watkins (Central Catholic).

Junior guard Michael Bigley (Seton LaSalle) is back after sitting out last season with an injury following his transfer from Division III Washington & Jefferson.

The Bobcats welcomed six new players, led by junior college transfer Joziah Wyatt-Taylor, who last season paced Penn Highlands in scoring (21.9 ppg).

The others are freshman guard/forward Ty Keffer (Southmoreland), senior guard Drew Tapscott and freshman guards Tyler Freas (Penn-Trafford), Jason Flemm (Kiski Area) and Jahmir Collins.

Seton Hill

Sophomore forward Kedrick Curtis, who last season was named NCAA Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Freshman of the Year, and graduate guard Ryan Meis (Bethel Park), an all-PSAC second-team selection, have returned to the Griffins, who were chosen to finish fifth among eight teams in the PSAC Western Division.

The 6-7 Curtis averaged 8.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, and Meis led Seton Hill in scoring (12.8 ppg) as the Griffins posted a 16-13 record (11-11 PSAC) in Ben Wilkins’ second season as coach.

The Griffins’ season ended with a 71-69 loss to Slippery Rock in a first-round PSAC Tournament game.

Junior forward Gabe Gillespie (9.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and sophomore guard Dimitrios Sklavenitis (8.7 ppg) lead a group of returning players after the departures last season of starters Drew Green (9.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg), Caleb Whitaker (9.0, 5.5) and Jimmy Moon (7.5, 5.5).

Others returning are junior guard James Rice (4.3 ppg), junior forward Brian Belade (3.9), junior guard/forward Brandon Coury (Burrell), senior guards Aaron Garcia-Square and Andrew Somuah, sophomore guards Camden Brewer and Noah Wright, and sophomore guard/forward Carter Anderson.

Eight incoming freshmen include guards Finian Hutchison (Franklin Regional), Gage Lattimore, Solomon Hughes, Ben Myers and Aiden Fenkl; 6-10 forward Kaspar Martenson; 6-9 forward Edir Ortiz; and 6-8 forward Dean Simos.

Penn State New Kensington

The 1-2 punch of junior guard Ta’Rasi Means (Plum, 19.5 ppg) and senior guard Aubrey Feaster II (19.1) return to lead PSNK, which has three starters back from a 15-10 team, including 12-7 in the Penn State University Athletic Conference.

Junior guard Jadyn Benson (10.1) is the other.

Though forward Benjamin Cunningham (13.2 ppg) has departed, fourth-year coach Brant Mack added size to the interior with a pair of freshmen forwards: 6-foot-8 Aaron Feaster and 6-7 Mekhi Murray.

Other returnees are senior guard Andre Hayes, sophomore guard Dre Jones (Woodland Hills) and junior guard Donaven Johnson.

Two others from the area who are on the team are sophomore guard Ian Ramsey, a Verona native who attended Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, and freshman forward Keith Rockmore (Jeannette).

Westmoreland County Community College

Nine players from WPIAL schools are part of a 17-man roster for coach Scott Morrison’s Wolfpack, who are trying for their first winning season since a 15-13 mark in 2016-17.

Since then, WCCC, which competes in NJCAA Division II Region 20, is a combined 14-115 (.109) after completing a 1-23 season with an 11-game losing streak in 2023-24.

Two players each from Greensburg Salem and Monessen are among the team’s local recruits, seven of which are freshmen.

The list includes sophomore guard Marvel McGowan and freshman guard Ryan Burkart (Greensburg Salem), freshman guard/forward Lorenzo Gardner and freshman forward Jaisean Blackman (Monessen), sophomore guard Tyler Travillion (Yough), freshman guard/forward Colin Masten (Franklin Regional), freshman guard Alex Lowery (Gateway), freshman guard Connor Pavlocak (Mt. Pleasant) and freshman guard Nate Papuga (Derry).