Andrew Cressler ended his 2007-08 varsity basketball season on the bench as a high ankle sprain forced the Plum rising senior to watch as his Mustang teammates battled for a WPIAL playoff spot.

Plum tied with Gateway for third place in Section 2-AAAA and made the playoffs.

The Mustangs were eliminated by Moon in the first round.

Cressler, the team's leading scorer last season at more than 18 points per game, said he has recovered fully from the injury and was able to take advantage of one of the Pittsburgh region's top summer leagues.

Project CHUCK (Continuously Helping Uplift Community Kids) is a basketball league for both boys and girls basketball players started by Pittsburgh Steelers reserve quarterback Charlie Batch in his home neighborhood of Homestead.

The league is part of The Best of the Batch Foundation, which includes many activities and programs for youth in the area.

The Project CHUCK league consists of eight teams with 10 players on a team.

Five of the 10 players on each team are from the Homestead area and five others are players selected from WPIAL and City League schools.

Cressler, playing in the league for the first time, competed for the Spurs, a squad that also included 2007 Penn Hills graduate Mo Cox and Woodland Hills rising senior Corley White.

The Spurs went 8-0 in the regular season and won two playoff games en route to last Saturday's championship game.

The Spurs fell to the Clippers in a close game, 66-63.

The Clippers were led by Chris Giles, a 2007 West Mifflin graduate who will be a redshirt freshman on the Seton Hill University men's basketball for the 2008-09 season.

More than 500 people were on hand to watch the championship game.

"This league was a good experience for me," Cressler said.

"The competition made me tougher as a player. It was a lot of fun and not a lot of pressure."

The Spurs' semifinal win last Thursday was against a team that featured Schenley products Deandre Kane and Jamaal Bryant.

Kane, a 2008 graduate, and Bryant a 2007 grad, were prominent members of the 2007 Schenley boys basketball team that brought home PIAA Quad-A gold.

Other players in the league included McKeesport's Zeke Marshall and Quentin Harding, Pittsburgh Central Catholic's Lucas Mickens and Matt McKenna, and Serra Catholic's T.J. Heatherington.

Marshall and Mickens will lead their school teams as seniors this year.

McKeesport and Pittsburgh Central Catholic finished 1-2 in Section 2 last season.

Jeannette's Terrelle Pryor, Aliquippa's Herb Pope and Schenley's DeJuan Blair are just a few of the many notable alumni of the Project CHUCK league.

Cressler also has been working out this summer with shooting coach Ron McNabb, an assistant under former Plum boys basketball head coach Ron Richards.