Huger has magical night in leading Sto-Rox to win

Sto-Rox followers dubbed Davon Huger "The Magician" after his disappearing act in the Vikings' WPIAL Class AA championship game loss to Aliquippa.

This time, he pulled a rabbit out of his hat.

Huger had game-highs of 24 points and 17 rebounds to lead Sto-Rox to a 56-45 victory over Aliquippa in the PIAA Class AA Western Final on Wednesday at North Allegheny.

"I felt I had to make a statement," Huger said. "I had to make up for that today."

Sto-Rox (26-6) clinched a second consecutive trip to Hershey, where it will play Trinity (32-0), a 71-48 winner over Reading Central Catholic, in the PIAA final at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Giant Center.

The Vikings also avenged their 69-62 loss to the Quips on March 1, when Huger fouled out with four points and four rebounds. The 6-foot-8 junior forward redeemed himself, outplaying Aliquippa's Marques Council (10 points) by scoring 11 of his 18 second-half points in the third quarter.

"Davon brought it upon himself to get the ball and take it to Council," Sto-Rox junior point guard Adam DiMichele said. "This was his game."

The turning point came shortly after Council made a pair of big plays early in the fourth quarter. Darrelle Revis stole the ball and fed Council for a breakaway dunk over DiMichele, then Council got a steal and banked in a shot to tie the score at 37-37 with 6:30 remaining.

Instead of succumbing to Aliquippa's pressure like it did in the WPIAL final, Sto-Rox used John Geiger (12 points) to help DiMichele bring the ball upcourt. Geiger whipped a pair of passes to Mike Yost for easy baskets.

"Once we beat the pressure and got up four or five," Sto-Rox coach Bill Minear said, "it gave us control of the tempo."

Huger's driving shot with 2:36 left put the Vikings up 46-43. Geiger found Terrence White open underneath for a 48-44 lead, then Yost added two free throws to stretch it to six.

Aliquippa struggled from the field against Sto-Rox's zone defense, making 14 of 45 attempts (31 percent) and only 2 of 18 3-pointers. Revis led the Quips (26-6) with 14 points, making 4 of 21 field goals and 6 of 9 free throws.

"If you don't make a jump shot, you're done," Aliquippa coach Mike Zmijanac said. "Our biggest problem was we were never able to force them out of that defense because we couldn't make the big shots."

The game ended with Aliquippa fans throwing Hershey's kisses onto the floor and at the Sto-Rox bench, for which the Quips were assessed a technical foul. The Vikings made 6 of 8 free throws in the final 40.6 seconds for the winning margin.

After losing to Bishop Hannan, 70-68, in the 2002 PIAA finals, the Vikings are once again looking to redeem themselves, this time in Hershey.

And Huger has another magic act hidden in his sleeve: He wants to turn his PIAA silver into gold.