Trib HSSN boys basketball team of the week: Union Scotties

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, December 24, 2018 | 4:36 PM

For years, TribLive has honored a Player of the Week in boys basketball, and that tradition continues this winter.

However, it is a team sport. So this winter, we are saluting a team of the week in WPIAL boys hoops.

Our Team of the Week for the week of Dec. 17 is the Union Scotties.

In 2003, little Union High School in Lawrence County stunned the WPIAL boys’ basketball world by winning district gold from the No. 12 seed and with a 12-10 record entering the playoffs.

The next season, the Scotties made the playoffs but lost in the first round. The magic was gone.

Last season, again Union went on a memorable postseason run. It wasn’t as surprising as 15 years earlier as this Scotties team was a No. 3 seed and finished the season with 18 wins. It made it to the WPIAL championship game before losing to perennial power Vincentian Academy, 54-51.

With a handful of key seniors graduated, many expected the blue and white to take a step back this season.

Instead, the Scotties are showing they are not all bark: They are 7-0 after two big section wins last week.

Mark Stanley is in the third year of his second stint as coach at Union, his 12th overall.

“Nate Meeks and Seth Pinkerton have taken on the leadership roles and have helped the new guys do things right,” Stanley said. “Also, we knew Vince Fuleno, Mike Flowers, Sean Louis and Tyler Benedict would give us key minutes, but the play of Nick Pasquarello has really elevated us.”

Pasquarello missed last year with a torn ACL he suffered early in the football season.

Union started the week with a 71-41 rout of Quigley Catholic as Nate Meeks scored 14, and Vince Fuleno added 13.

Then sweet revenge was had Friday as the Scotties stunned the defending-champion Royals, 81-76, in a double-overtime thriller. Meeks had 27 points, Fuleno 12 and Seth Pinkerton dropped in 21 points for Union.

“The win against Vincentian was big because it was a home section game,” Stanley said. “Also very big for us to play in that type of game to see how the new guys would respond, and they really did answer the bell.”

Stanley said he liked what he saw from his team for the most part in Friday’s win, but there is still work to be done.

“Key to the game was we didn’t have many turnovers and shot like we are capable of shooting. We should have won in regulation, but we missed free throws down the stretch. We were fortunate to get the win after we almost let it slip away.”

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Union