This one’s for the fans — the friends, family, classmates and community members who carried the Highlands boys basketball team to their first WPIAL title in 25 years.

Top-seeded Highlands beat sixth-seeded Belle Vernon, 72-54, on Saturday at University of Pittsburgh Peterson Events Center during the WPIAL Class 4A championship, capturing the team’s first WPIAL title since 1995.

Cheering fans welcomed the team back to Highlands High School in Harrison following the victory in Oakland with a police and fire escort, and a pep rally to ceremoniously cut down the gymnasium’s basketball net.

None of it would have been possible without the support of everyone off the court, the team’s senior captains said.

“Traveling to games anywhere, always having our back, at school, in the lunch room, the community around here coming to every game,” senior point guard Luke Cochran said.

He and other teammates called the support “remarkable” and credit fans with the win as much as their own performance on the court.

“I’m ecstatic,” Cochran said. “It’s definitely something beautiful to do for the community, and I’m just happy we can bring one home in my senior year.”

The boys barely stepped off the bus before parents, friends and community members smothered them with hugs, gathering around the players as they snapped photos and raised their championship medals to smiling faces.

“This is the best feeling in the world, having the whole community behind us and all of my brothers with me,” said senior shooting guard Korry Myers, 18.

The team was leading Belle Vernon by halftime but turned up the heat in the third quarter, Myers said.

The Golden Rams defense kicked in and kept Belle Vernon at bay through the end of the game.

“Our mentality, our culture, is that we always keep fighting,” Myers said. “We never stop.”

The Golden Rams last made it to a WPIAL championship in 2016 and lost in the semifinals the past two seasons.

“It’s a great feeling,” senior power forward Johnny Crise said. “After so many years of being so close to almost getting this, to finally get it, is a great feeling.”

Crise said he didn’t expect to win the championship, but knew the team had something special throughout the season.

“The team bond that we have, I think really put the pieces all together,” Crise said.

A team effort helped carry the team to Saturday’s win, coach Tyler Stoczynski said.

“There were some roadblocks along the way,” Stoczynski said of the team’s season. “We stayed together as a true team does, and we’re going to continue to do that as we go through the state playoffs. And hopefully we can make a run at another championship.”

Cochran hopes younger players will build on this year’s big win.

“Keep thriving, keep pushing,” Cochran said. “Let’s build a whole foundation.”

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