Mike Vukovcan Despite their quarterfinal loss last Wednesday to Deer Lakes, the Hopewell HS Boys basketball’s 2025-26 season isn’t finished.
Coach Doug Biega and his program still have the opportunity to qualify for the PIAA playoffs.
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Five Class 4A teams from the WPIAL qualify for the playoffs: the programs that advance to the semifinals along with a 5th team. That 5th team (of teams that lost in the quarterfinals) will be determined from a consolation “tournament” that will start tonight.
Hopewell will play host to Belle Vernon this evening at Hopewell HS starting at 7 PM. Belle Vernon finished the season with a record of 14-10/9-3 and were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Quaker Valley, 72-41.
If Hopewell is able to win tonight, they’re going to have to defeat a very capable basketball team.
“Belle Vernon is a very good program, a very good team,” Coach Biega tells Vikings Sports Now. “A bunch of really good pieces and role players that play their roles.”
“They are the defending WPIAL champions in 4A, so they’re not just going to lay down for anybody. They offer a lot of challenges for us offensively because of how hard they defend and how hard they play. Plus, Belle Vernon kids are tough kids. They are going to compete hard.”
The loss last week for Hopewell was no doubt disappointing for the players as they were hoping to advance to the Final 4 of 4A but that didn’t happen. Considering this is such a young team, I asked Biega about the mindset of the players over the last week.
“Friday was a decent practice for us, Saturday was really good,” said Biega. “The energy seemed back in the room. We’ll see if that carries over to Monday’s game. You would hope it would, and I am confident it will. But you never know.”
“Looking forward to seeing these kids compete as long as possible. The practices and any game competition is hugely important to this program moving forward. They have won a ton of games relative to the recent history of this program. So, every practice or game moving forward has value.”
Not to look ahead, but if Hopewell is able to win tonight, the next game, which would determine the 5th team from 4A, would be played on Wednesday once again at Hopewell High School.
