Wyomissing’s dream season ends in PIAA semifinals after 31 straight wins
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
ALTOONA — Wyomissing’s undefeated season came to a disappointing end Tuesday night in a PIAA Class 4A girls basketball semifinal at Altoona High School as WPIAL runner-up Blackhawk moved on to face Scranton Prep in the state championship Saturday at Giant Center.
The Cougars matched the Spartans’ production in the post and their defensive excellence before pulling away with clutch shooting from deep and at the foul line for a 47-31 victory.
The defeat ended the Spartans hopes of playing for their first PIAA girls basketball championship and becoming the first Berks Girls League team to win a state title.
What it doesn’t end is the lasting impact seniors Annie McCaffrey and Abby Zechman have had on the program and the motivation to propel the Spartans even further next season with the rest of the roster returning.
“It’s going to be a time of reflection,” Wyomissing head coach Aaron Anders said after his team’s 31-game winning streak was snapped. “It’s a time to remind them how special they are and how big of an accomplishment it was for them to do what they’ve done. We were one game away from the state title.”
Blackhawk’s 5-10 sophomore Aubree Hupp scored 22 points and had nine rebounds to lead way for the WPIAL runner-up Cougars (26-3).
All-State center Amaya Stewart had 18 points and seven rebounds to lead the Spartans. The rest of the lineup produced just four field goals and 13 points. Wyomissing was held below 40 points for the first time all season.
Wyomissing played without junior guard Alexis Hardy, who is out with a concussion, for the second straight game.
Hupp scored seven points in the first quarter but Stewart’s free throw with 8.9 seconds left gave the Spartans a 10-9 lead after one.
The teams went back and forth with five lead changes in the quarter with Hupp and Stewart jostling equally for position in the post, a rarity for Wyomissing’s 6-1 junior.
“We’ve seen her get better and better as the year’s gone on,” Blackhawk head coach Greg Huston said of his sensational sophomore, Hupp. “She did an unbelievable job on Amaya, who is a great player. Every playoff game she does something better. It was an incredible performance.”
Mercyhurst commit Alena Fusetti made a pair of free throws to start the second quarter and regain the lead for the Cougars, who moved on to the PIAA championship for the second straight year after falling to Lansdale Catholic last season.
The Spartans never recaptured the lead in the quarter as Stewart’s bucket with 43 seconds left to tie the game at 18-18 was answered with Mia Sheesley’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer as time expired.
Hupp’s buzzer-beating alley-oop from Mercyhurst commit Alena Fusetti gave the Cougars a 29-23 lead heading to the fourth and they pulled away for the win in the final quarter.
Stewart kept coming in the second quarter to give the Spartans a chance. Her putbacks on consecutive possessions to begin the final quarter cut the lead to two with 4:33 left.
Fusetti’s back-to-back 3’s pushed the lead to eight and started an 11-0 run for the Cougars that finally ended on Stewart’s free throw with the score 40-28 with about 2:00 left.
Blackhawk closed the game out at the line as McCaffrey’s lone points of the night came on a 3-pointer with 29.5 seconds left for Wyomissing.
“We told the girls don’t let (Stewart) beat us,” Huston said. “Make the other girls do that. That was kind of the game plan. Fortunately it worked tonight, because it doesn’t always work that way.”
Wyomissing’s nucleus of Division I athletes McCaffrey, Stewart, Audrey Hurleman, and Alexis Hardy has steadily pushed the program to the top of Berks and District 3 girls basketball.
The next step is becoming the best team in the state as the Spartans have progressed from Elite Eight to Final Four in one season.
The four ‘A’s’ went 13-10 in each of their first year playing varsity basketball — McCaffrey didn’t play as a freshman — losing in the BCIAA quarterfinals and the first round of the District 3 tournament.
The Spartans improved to 28-3 last year and won their first Berks League and District 3 titles before falling in the PIAA quarterfinals to North Catholic.
They doubled down this season and won back-to-back Berks and District 3 titles and avenged last year’s season-ending loss by beating North Catholic in the same round to improve to 31-0, the best start in Berks Girls League history.
It was another step toward the ultimate goal and only the third time Wyomissing had made the PIAA semifinals in program history along with 2004 and 1981.
But the loss will sting until the Spartans gear up for another run next December.
“Does it hurt? Yes,” Anders said. “Are there people (in the locker room) who are crushed? Absolutely. But they’re going to win together, lose together, and stay together. You can see, there’s tiny kids all over the place. Wyomissing girls basketball is alive.”
It’ll be up to Stewart, Hurleman, Hardy and the rest of next season’s seniors to continue the budding tradition much like McCaffrey and Zechman have done this year after the graduation of Maddie Campbell, Lexi Loeb, and Kaitlyn Brunner.
“They’re culture creators,” Anders said. “They’ve worked their tail off and they’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.”
Underclassmen such as sophomore Kacey Maggs and freshman Karly Hyde, who started her second straight PIAA playoff game after Hardy suffered a concussion in the second round, now have played a full season getting crucial varsity minutes in high-leverage situations and can build off that for next year.
“It’s going to help them for next year,” Anders said. “It’s important that you have that and now they’re hungry.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wyomissing | 10 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 31 |
| Blackhawk | 9 | 12 | 8 | 18 | 47 |
| Spartans (31-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Stewart | 6-14 | 6-10 | 0-3 | 0 | 7 | 18 |
| McCaffrey | 1-8 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| Hurleman | 2-14 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Maggs | 0-4 | 3-3 | 0-1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Hyde | 1-4 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Anders | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Noey | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Buckley | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Campbell | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Madrak | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeLucas | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 10-47 | 9-14 | 2-8 | 4 | 18/23 | 31 |
| Cougars (26-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Fusetti | 3-11 | 3-4 | 2-6 | 1 | 5 | 11 |
| Hupp | 5-8 | 11-11 | 1-1 | 2 | 9 | 22 |
| Kinger | 1-3 | 2-2 | 1-3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| P. Romigh | 0-3 | 3-6 | 0-2 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| H. Romigh | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Sheesley | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Davis | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pagani | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tesch | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Enderle | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 11-28 | 19-23 | 6-15 | 5 | 23/29 | 47 |
Turnovers: Blackhawk 18, Wyomissing 12. Team rebounds: Blackhawk 6, Wyomissing 5.
