(Butler, PA) Joe Lewandowski watched Saturday as fans and a professional photographer made pictures near center court of his Butler County Community College men’s basketball players celebrating in the red T-shirts awarded to the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference champions.
“I am so happy for the guys,” the first-year BC3 coach said. “They earned this. This is something in which they have invested so much time. They decided, ‘We want to come to school here and we want to bet on ourselves in a lot of ways and give ourselves opportunities.’”
The Pioneers never trailed Saturday in defeating Pennsylvania Highlands Community College 91-62 behind first-year players who attended high schools that include those in Allegheny County, in Ohio or in South Carolina.
Among them, Derrick Anderson, of Boardman, Ohio, who scored a game-high 28 points as the Pioneers moved to 18-3 with their eighth consecutive victory.
BC3 finished 2-16 in 2021-2022 and had not had a winning record since at least the 2009-2010 season.
“This is one championship”
“They knew the situation coming in,” Lewandowski said. “They knew we haven’t had a great track record in the past couple of years in terms of wins and losses. But they said, ‘I want to compete here. We want to do what it takes to give ourselves a shot at a championship.’
“And this is one championship.”
BC3 will seek its first National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III Region 20 championship since 2002 on Feb. 25-26 at Westmoreland County Community College in Youngwood.
“This is why all of us came here, to win and make a deep run in the playoffs. The job isn’t finished. We have to win regionals.”
“We all have goals and places we want to go. We don’t want the ball to stop bouncing anytime soon.”
“It’s a blessing to be here and to win and make some history with these guys."
“We came into this season really like the underdogs. It’s getting out there that BC3 is good. We have a great team. And we’re making some history here.”
The Pioneers have scored 90 or more points in five of their past six games. They are ranked No. 11 among 97 teams in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III.
BC3’s Todd Simons, a graduate of Austintown Fitch (Ohio) scored 19 points Saturday. Anthony Watson, a graduate of Bethel Park, and Kevaughn Price, of Bishop Canevin, added 14 each.
Lewandowski was selected Saturday as the WPCC coach of the year, and Pioneers Jason Baker, Anderson and Price were named to the WPCC all-conference team.
“I will tell you what,” Pennsylvania Highlands coach Quan Britt said of BC3. “They are a quality-coached team. That is a quality program. … They play together. They share the ball. They do the little things that count. They do the little things that get you ranked. They do the little things that make you champions.”
WPCC crown 7th for BC3 since 1980
The WPCC championship was the seventh for BC3 since 1980.
Simons’ 19 points were his most since he scored 19 on Dec. 21.
“This is why all of us came here, to win and make a deep run in the playoffs,” Simons said. “The job isn’t finished. We have to win regionals.”
The Pioneers’ 6-foot-9 Baker was named the Region 20 player of the month for November. As of Saturday he led Division III with 96 blocked shots.
“Early in the season, we were talking about winning championships and creating history for BC3 basketball,” said Baker, a graduate of Legacy Early College, Greenville, S.C. … “We all have goals and places we want to go. We don’t want the ball to stop bouncing anytime soon.”
Anderson was named the Region 20 athlete of the month for December and as the Division III player of the week Feb. 1. Saturday marked the seventh game this season in which he has scored at least 26 points. His 20.7 scoring average ranks 11th in Division III.
“It’s a blessing to be here and to win and make some history with these guys,” Anderson said.
“That’s what it means to be a Pioneer”
Price was selected as the Region 20 athlete of the month for January and ranks fifth in Division III with a scoring average of 21.5 points per game.
“We came into this season really like the underdogs,” Price said. “It’s getting out there that BC3 is good. We have a great team. And we’re making some history here.”
Pennsylvania Highlands’ Joziah Wyatt-Taylor and Devin Lewis were also selected to the WPCC all-conference team. Wyatt-Taylor scored 16 points against BC3 and Lewis eight.
The Pioneers are the top seed in the Region 20 championship tournament.
“These guys are special,” Lewandowski said. “They are doing things that haven’t been done here in a really long time. And that’s a credit to them, 100 percent.
“It’s 9 in the morning and they are showing up in the gym after a game the night before. These guys are different. Most people don’t do that. Those are the guys you want working for you. That’s what it means to be a Pioneer.”
BC3 will face No. 4 seed Pennsylvania Highlands, Johnstown, at 2:30 p.m. in a Region 20 semifinal Feb. 25. Second-seeded Prince George’s, Largo, Md., plays Anne Arundel, Arnold, Md., at 5 p.m. Feb 25. Winners meet in the championship at 3 p.m. Feb. 26.
BC3’s women’s team earlier Saturday won the program’s sixth WPCC title since 2016 with a 72-42 victory over Westmoreland County Community College in BC3’s Field House.
Saturday marked the second time that BC3’s women’s and men’s basketball teams won WPCC championships in the same season and the first time at home.
The WPCC championships follow those won by the college’s softball, golf and volleyball squads since May 2022.
Members of BC3’s 2023 WPCC championship team are Anderson, guard; Baker, forward; Troy Loughry, guard-forward, Grove City Area High School graduate; Price, guard-forward; Austin Rodgers, forward, Butler; Cole Rodgers, forward, Knoch; Simons, guard-forward; and Watson, guard.
