Boys basketball, week in review

Team of the Week - Trinity
Trinity solidified its postseason status with three consecutive wins in Section 5-AAA in a week where the Hillers were playing for postseason seeding.
Trinity started last week with a win over Waynesburg and, one day later, beat slumping Ringgold (also a playoff qualifier) by 20 points. That win eliminated Washington from playoff contention but it did litle to take away from a playoff-like atmosphere Friday night at Wash High Gymnasium in this area's high school version of the City Game.
In a tightly contested game throughout, the Hillers got 34 points from Josh Valentic and went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line in the final minutes to secure a 59-52 win.
Trinity, which takes a 14-8 record into the playoffs, played without Valentic (flu) - the WPIAL's second leading scorer - Monday night against Class AA power Sto-Rox and lost a close one, 48-47.

Runner-up - Chartiers-Houston
The Bucs brought a 10-game losing streak into last week and started the final stretch of their schedule with a 66-48 loss to Burgettstown. Chartiers-Houston, which lost its top nine players from the 2009-10 season, gave head coach Eugene Briggs a few reasons to be optimistic about next season with their performance in the final two games.
C-H beat South Allegheny in a non-section game before knocking the Section 5-AA standings for a loop with a 59-56 win over playoff-bound Fort Cherry. The loss dropped the Rangers into fourth place and all but assured them of playing a preliminary round playoff game.

Starting five
Nate Bellhy, Fort Cherry
Seth Krall, Carmichaels
Josh Patterson, South Fayette
Tyler Pavan, Burgettstown
Josh Valentic, Trinity
First sub
Josh Counihan, Chartiers-Houston

Broken records - Nate Bellhy became the second local boys player to establish a school scoring record this season when he became Fort Cherry's all-time scoring leader with 21 points in a non-section loss at Monessen Saturday. Bellhy had 1,488 points. Trinity's Josh Valentic previously accomplished the feat. ... Burgettstown's Tyler Pavan reached 1,000 career points last week in a game when teammate Chris McNamara set a single-game Blue Devils record with seven three-pointers.

Playoff clinchings - Class AAA, South Fayette (19-1), Ringgold (15-7), Trinity (14-8); Class AA, Monessen (19-2), California (15-7), Charleroi (7-14), Burgettstown (11-10), Fort Cherry (11-11); Class A, Avella (12-9), Carmichaels (12-10), Bentworth (9-13), Jefferson-Morgan (6-16).