Ben Hays scored 31 points, leading Bentworth past West Greene Thursday night, opening the WPIAL basketball playoffs. Beth-Center struggled in the first half and couldn’t recover, losing at Brentwood. In the 5A preliminaries, Ringgold rolled at home against Laurel Highlands. Four more Washington/Greene County teams will take the floor Friday as the League’s first round gets underway. A total of 22 teams from the two-county area have games in the prelims or first round and will play over the first four days of the tournament. We’ll have seven more games on-air and online in the opening round, including three games tonight. 1A boys #3 Avella (Wednesday) and 6A girls #1 Canon-McMillan (Thursday) are slotted into their quarterfinals and will play next week. Our audio coverable is available free on-air and online. Video for WPIAL/PIAA playoff games is accessible through the NFHS Network under League agreements. We are producing the video for all of our early round games. Here’s a daily schedule of games for Washington/Greene County teams. WPIAL Brackets
Friday, Feb. 13 — First Round
5A Girls #9 Trinity at #8 West Allegheny, 6:45 pm, WJPA-FM (95.3) Watch/Listen
5A Girls #12 Peters Township at #5 Plum, 6:45 pm, WJPA-AM (1450) Watch/Listen
3A Girls #11 McGuffey at #6 Our Lady/Sacred Heart, 6:45 pm, WJPA.com Watch/Listen
3A Girls #10 Deer Lakes at #7 Waynesburg, 7:00 pm
Thursday, Feb. 12 — Preliminary Round
2A Boys #14 Bentworth > #19 West Greene, 61-44 Watch/Listen
2A Boys #16 Brentwood > #17 Beth-Center, 58-41 Watch/Listen
5A Boys #15 Ringgold > #18 Laurel Highlands, 64-39