Finished business: Blackhawk wins
After losing last year’s title game, Cougars raise championship trophy
HERSHEY, Pa. — The players on Blackhawk’s girls team had been wearing T-shirts to many games this season with the words “Unfinished Business” on the front. A few players on the bench who weren’t dressed for Saturday’s state championship game were also wearing the shirts.
But maybe they can burn those things because they don’t fit now anyway.
Blackhawk finally finished business.
A year ago, Blackhawk lost in a WPIAL title game. Lost in the state championship, too. This year, it was more of the same business when the Cougars lost in the WPIAL final. But Blackhawk finally found gold at the end of a Class 4A rainbow when it defeated Scranton Prep, 56-44, in the PIAA championship at Giant Center in Hershey.
When you win a state championship you have to “soak” it all in. Just ask Blackhawk girls coach Greg Huston after winning state 4A.
Blackhawk used a strong start to the game, scoring the first eight points, and also used nice performances from senior Alena Fusetti and sophomore Aubree Hupp to turn back a Scranton Prep team that was the District 2 champion and had won four previous PIAA playoff games by at least 19 points.
Blackhawk (27-3) won the title under first-year coach Greg Huston, who resigned at Beaver last season and then took over at Blackhawk
when highly successful coach Steve Lodovico resigned. Huston’s daughter, Grace, is a sophomore reserve on Blackhawk’s team.
“I was here [at the state championship] last year and I felt the pain in the stands because I wanted my daughter to win a gold medal,” said Huston, who was dripping wet from a water celebration in the Blackhawk locker room after the game. “That hurt because they lost the WPIAL and state last year. We lost the WPIAL again this year, but it almost doesn’t even matter at this point. We’ll take this any day of the week.”
There were a number of historical coincidences to the win. This year was the silver anniversary of the Blackhawk girls’ team’s first state championship in 1999. One of the starting guards on that team was Jodie Knotts, who happens to be Fusetti’s mother. Knotts had six points and three rebounds in that March 27, 1999, title game. Alena Fusetti’s father, Mark, also was on Blackhawk boys teams that won back-to-back state titles in 1995 and 1996.
“I wasn’t letting my parents have state championships on me without me having one,” Alena Fusetti said with a laugh. “Losing in the WPIAL and all the other games, it was kind of anger and I knew this was it. I’m leaving Blackhawk, and I’m sad, so I knew I had to [win a championship].
But there’s more. Houston
also won a state championship 25 years ago as a guard on Blackhawk’s boys’ team. He had two points in the title game and one of his assistants, R.J. Brown, had five rebounds.
“When everyone was saying this stuff about championships years ago, I said we’re not losing,” Alena Fusetti said. “We had lost too many championships. We had to be the ones with the cameras in our face at the end this time.”
Fusetti was saying “cheese” after her doubledouble performance (18 points and 10 rebounds) against Scranton Prep (236). She also made 3 of 6 3pointers, had three assists and a steal. She finished the season with 72 3-pointers.
Hupp complemented Fusetti. Despite being in foul trouble much of the game, Hupp had 21 points, nine rebounds and made 11 of 12 free throws, many of them down the stretch to clinch the win.
Blackhawk led by 25-17 at halftime and widened the advantage to 15 points in the third quarter. Scranton Prep’s Jenna Hildebrand, who scored a team-high 16 points, scored with 4:07 left on a drive to make it 43-37. But Scranton Prep missed their next five shots and Hupp scored six consecutive points to put the Cougars ahead, 49-37.