Wood can’t climb back, falls to Blackhawk in state finals
HERSHEY — Throughout her career at Archbishop Wood, Aubree Brown has been known for her stoic demeanor on the floor.
The Vikings senior rarely shows emotion, good or bad. Saturday night was an exception.
Despite her best efforts, Brown was unable to cap her career with what had eluded her last season, a state title as team’s center piece.
“The second half, nothing was really falling for us,’ Brown said.
Blackhawk got a combined 40 points out of Chassidy Omogrosso (23) and Courtney Vannoy (17) as they topped Wood for the second straight year in the PIAA Class AAA girls championship game at the Giant Center. After a torrid start, Wood couldn’t fend off the Cougars’ two big guns while the supporting cast came up with enough plays to slow the Vikings and claim a 46-40 win.
Standing outside the locker room after the game, the second-place medal was conspicuously absent around Brown’s neck.
“I don’t even want it, actually,’ Brown said. “I am proud that we got here but I’m not happy with second.’
No matter the outcome, it was Brown’s final time wearing a Wood uniform. The senior certainly played like it in the first half.
“It was my last game playing with these girls and last game wearing the Wood uniform,’ Brown said. “I really didn’t want to lose. That’s the way I was feeling so I guess I got a little crazy out there.’
After trailing from just before halftime, Wood cut the score down to one when junior Claire Bassetti stole the ball and laid it in with 3:54 left in the game. Wood didn’t score again for 5:20, but they could also point to a 4-of-12 performance at the foul line.
“I can’t explain ours,’ Wood interim coach Mike McDonald said. “It’s just a mental thing. We haven’t been shooting well and got to this point but they continued not shooting well.’
Brown was electric in the first quarter, scoring 10 points and ripping down five rebounds. She had 10 of the team’s first 12 points, scoring a lay-up off the opening tip then emphatically rejecting Blackhawk star Chassidy Omogrosso’s first shot attempt.
Brown went scoreless in the second half, finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks. But for 15 minutes, it looked like the start of a great night.
“I think it would have been that,’ McDonald said. “I think it would have been that, but we were just not smart with a lot of possessions against Omogrosso in the first half.
“Similar to last year, I thought there were plays were we could have put them deeper in a hole in the first half and we didn’t and the second half we got in a hole ourselves and couldn’t fight our way out of it.’
Wood opened up a 7-4 lead but back-to-back steals and lay-ups by Omogrosso and Courtney Vannoy got the Cougars on the board. Omogrosso finished the quarter with four straight makes from the foul line to close the gap to 14-8 after one.
Wood junior Bailey Greenberg started after missing the semifinal with an ankle injury. The injury was still apparent as the forward wasn’t at full speed, though Greenberg did put it 10 points.
Brown, who was 4-of-4 from the floor in the first quarter, cooled to start the second, missing her first two shots, but Karly Brown provided a jolt off the bench. Karly Brown also missed her first two attempts as both teams slogged through the first 1:17 of play until Vannoy cut it to 14-10. Karly Brown came back with a drive along the baseline, finishing with a slick reverse lay-in, then answered an Omogrosso bucket with a trey off a Cassie Sebold assist.
After four straight by Blackhawk, Sebold stole the ball then found Brown gliding up the court in stride for an easy lay-up. Counting that bucket, Brown scored the last six points of the half for Wood, the final score coming on a powerful drive down the middle of the paint.
Yet for every play Brown made, Omogrosso had a counter. Shaking off an 0-of-4 start, the Duquesne recruit poured in 16 in 13:15 of game time, matching Brown’s point total at the break.
Brown’s last score put Wood up 25-20 with 1:17 left, then the Cougars scored six straight, four by Omogrosso, to take the lead into the break. Omogrosso handed her team the lead with a driving score with less than a second on the clock.
“It was killer,’ McDonald said. “It was one of the unintelligent plays on our part. We wanted to force her left and when she went left, nobody saw the ball for weakside help and went over to contain. She’s hard to stop, she’s a good player and going to Duquesne for a reason.’
Offensively, the third quarter was rough for Wood.
Through the 2:07 mark, Wood had scored just two points, a pair of split trips to the foul line by Greenberg. Greenberg scored with 2:06 left and again with 4.6 remaining to provide all six of her team’s points in the frame and kept Wood in it, down 37-31.
“I think she was hesitant a little bit, defensively I think it was hindering her a little bit,’ McDonald said. “Overall, she was better than I thought she was going to be coming into the game.’
Meanwhile, Vannoy stepped her game up in the second half. The Cougar forward shot 8-of-11 overall, and scored six in the third, also assisting an Omogrosso 3-pointer.
She also had five rebounds and used her experience and strength to full advantage.
“She’s a tough player, especially with our two freshmen,’ McDonald said. “I think they need to hit the weight room in the offseason to try and play against kids like that, but they are freshmen still and they fought their tails off. (Blackhawk) is an established team and they played better than us tonight.’
Kate Connolly and Katie May scored the first five points of the fourth, bringing Wood within 37-36. The teams traded misses, then Omogrosso got to the line, where she hit both. As a team, Blackhawk shot 17-of-17 from the stripe, with Omogrosso going 10-of-10 herself.
Omogrosso then stole the ball, but Wood escaped after she missed a lay-up and Breanna Hoover missed after an inbound play. Wood missed on its next trip, but Bassetti came up with her big steal and basket.
“I thought we were going to win the whole time, I didn’t think that this was going to be the outcome,’ Bassetti said.
Brown had a chance to tie or take the lead when she was fouled with 2:01 left, but missed both, part of an 0-of-6 night at the line.
“My foul shots, if I could make one, that would have helped,’ Brown said. “But they weren’t falling.’
A few possessions later, Hoover made a huge play, stealing the ball and sending it up the floor to Vannoy. Through contact, Vannoy scored and hit the foul shot to turn the one-point game into a four-point edge with 52.8 left.
Greenberg scored inside with 34.2 left to cut it back to two, but Blackhawk’s Bridgette Shaffer hit two freebies to get it back up. After Wood missed the next time down, Shaffer came up with the board and got two more makes with 1.8 left, sealing the deal.
Brown departs along with Morgan McGhee, but the rest of the Vikings return. McDonald said he expects a big year out of Greenberg next season and his message in the locker room was to remember the pain of Saturday’s loss but to also look around and see who was returning.
Regarding his future, McDonald would like to remove the interim tag from his title.
“I am 100 percent interested in returning as head coach,’ McDonald said. “But we haven’t had any discussions about that.’
At Wood, where a title is the expectation, a night like Saturday is a tough one to take for the players. Bassetti and Brown said it, they expected to win until the final horn sounded. As a senior along with Greenberg, Bassetti will have another chance to try and achieve that.
“I’m excited for the future, it’s hard right now,’ Bassetti said. “I’ll get there.’
