Austin Butler walked into the locker room to greet his team after a big section win, only to find his players had locked themselves behind a fenced-in area.
The Hempfield coach looked perplexed and proceeded with caution.
Suddenly, the Spartans burst into song — a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” — for their first-year head coach who turned 27 on Tuesday.
Hempfield made sure to celebrate with a win as it used a 23-point fourth quarter to finally pull away from Norwin for a 71-57 victory in Section 2-6A.
Butler responded to the singing the way he did with the win, clapping and cheering while players smacked the fence after rattling Norwin’s cage.
“It was awesome what those guys did,” Butler said. “We talked at halftime about having the mindset that it was 0-0 and not letting Norwin do what they can do. They smacked us in the teeth, but we got back into our stuff and got stops when we needed to.”
How do you celebrate a section win AND Hempfield coach Austin Butler's 27th birthday?
With a postgame "Happy Birthday" from a fenced-in part of the locker room.
Butler was as surprised as he was fired up.@austinbutler44@hasd_athletics@TribLiveHSSN#wpialhoopspic.twitter.com/RwWJfEcPrN
— Bill Beckner (@BillBeckner) January 14, 2026
Hempfield (9-5, 3-4) took a 33-24 lead into halftime, but Norwin (8-7, 3-4) rallied to take a 40-37 advantage in the third, using an 8-0 spurt.
Hempfield tied it at 40 on a 3-pointer by senior Danny Husenits, and senior Trevor Donsen, who scored a game-high 20 points, completed a three-point play to put the Spartans up for good.
Husenits had 10 of his 19 points in the fourth, and Simmons finished with 15. Donsen had eight in the fourth.
Hempfield made nine 3s.
Senior Chris McKnight, who had nine of his team-high 15 points in the third for Norwin, cut it to 43-42, but senior Jack Kopas hit a 3 and junior Lucas Simmons scored on a break to make it 48-42 after 24 minutes.
Senior Mario Csukas made a pair of 3s in the fourth for Norwin, the second answered by a 3 from Husenits after the Knights closed the gap to 49-48.
Husenits made a tough layup through traffic to extend it to 55-48.
An 8-0 run by Hempfield — Donsen and Simmons made 3s — ballooned the lead to 63-50 with 2:30 remaining.
Sophomore King Carver’s basket and free throw made it a 10-point game, but Hempfield kept its foot on the gas. Donsen caught a deep pass near the low block and looked like he was going to pull the ball out to waste clock. Instead, he juked a defender and went in for a layup to make it 67-53 with 50.9 to play.
“We needed to get stops,” Donsen said. “We knew we had to keep the pace up and get downhill. In these late-game situations we need to take care of the ball.”
Senior Alex Graney finished with 12 for Norwin, senior Nate Kuch added 10, Csukas eight and Carver seven.
“We ran out of steam from playing from behind,” Norwin coach Cam Auld said. “And we didn’t get that spark from our bench like we did Friday against Canon-Mac. Give (Hempfield) credit, they made us take shots we didn’t want to take. We didn’t guard the ball well enough and didn’t shoot it well. We couldn’t make that last run.”
Hempfield has won five of its last six games. Norwin has dropped three of four.
“We looked at this as a must-win game,” Butler said. “We’re excited to put four good quarters together. You have to be resilient on the road. Our guys are meshing and jelling. I am hard on our guys, but they know why. They see what they are capable of.”