Potential Purdue walk-on next season, and younger brother of current Purdue big man Caleb Furst, Josh Furst is finishing his high school career with his second 2A State Title.
Furst had a quiet night on the court. He came into the game as Blackhawk Christian’s leading scorer at 19 points a game, but it took every second of the game for him to get his first basket of the game, a final two-handed dunk with time expiring after a last turnover by Linton-Stockton. It was celebratory explosion to cap an excellent high school career on a night where his scoring stats didn’t match-up with his season’s performance.
But the only numbers Furst will care about is the final score, 52-45 in favor of Blackhawk Christian.
But Linton-Stockton, playing for their program’s first State Title, implemented a zone that took away Josh Furst’s normal looks inside the post. Instead, Kellen Pickett had 19 points and Gage Sefton had 16 points in a low-scoring finals match-up.
Sefton got going in the third quarter, sparking a 10-0 run that erased a 10 point Linton-Stockton lead with 1:10 remaining in the third and tied the game at 33.
Braden Walters would finish the quarter with a lay up to give Linton-Stockton the lead going into the fourth, but the fourth quarter was all Blackhawk Christian.
Joey Hart had an impressive first half, scoring 18 points in the first half, tying Blackhawk Christian’s entire team’s output in the first half. But Blackhawk Christian’s defense contained Hart in the second half, and held him to 23 for the game, including a three with 1:09 left in the game to cut Linton-Stockton’s deficit to three points at 43-40.
But Blackhawk Christian controlled the ball and made free throws late and Furst’s final dunk sealed the school’s third state title, all of them with a Furst on the team.