RELATED PHOTO GALLERY: STEVE MON HIGHLIGHTS MANCHESTER’S STATE TITLE WIN
INDIANAPOLIS – It’s been a long time coming for Eli Henson. He grew up around the game, running around the gym as a young kid when his father – Dave Henson – was the head coach at Whitko. He graduated from Elwood High School where his father Dave coached, and in his high school playing days scored over 1000 points as a Panther. That led him to play at NCAA DII Lees Mcrae in the mountains of North Carolina for one season before returning to Anderson University to pursue a future in coaching and teaching.
Fast forward to the 2011-12 basketball season when Eli Henson finally had his first opportunity to become a head coach, leading tiny North White High School, in Monon, Indiana. In his third season with North White, he led them to a sectional crown in 2014; that was something that hadn’t been done previously since 1984.
In 2016 he took over at Whitko where he led that program for four seasons before coming to Manchester in the spring of 2020.
It was a fresh start for Henson. He was inheriting a freshman class who only lost three games their 8th grade season. A class who had high expectations, led by a kid named Gavin Betten who had potential to become one of the all time Wabash County greats.
He also acquired a kid named Ethan Hendrix, who was a small and scrawny 5-foot-6 freshman guard. There where going to be growing pains with this group, Henson knew that, but he never knew this group would win a state championship. In fact, it was just this team’s goal as seniors to win the programs first sectional title since 1995.
It was senior guard Tallon Torpy who said that they wanted to win a state championship from the very beginning.
The season started off on a high note briefly as the Squires blew out Oak Hill 76-36 in the opener. Then Manchester lost to Homestead at home. A little bit of a set back, but not surprising given that it was Homestead.
Manchester would win it’s next 17 games however, blowing teams out by an average of 29 points with seven of those games being in the running clock mode.
It was on February 21 when Manchester ran into it’s next road block, taking on Maconaquah for the Three Rivers Conference Championship in Bunker Hill. The Braves of Maconaquah upset Manchester 75-70 in OT, even without it’s best player Josiah Ball, who fouled out in regulation. That was a heartbreaker for Manchester, and it started to raise questions entering the 2025 IHSAA Boys Basketball State Tournament.
Manchester drew the bye in the sectional where it was awaiting the winner of Rochester and Eastern (Greentown). It didn’t matter who the opponent was, Manchester was going to be significant favorites. They blew out Rochester 71-46 in the semi finals, and then had no problem with Oak Hill, 70-38, in the sectional finals. Capturing Manchester’s first sectional championship since 1995.
Tipton was awaiting in the regional championship at the Berry Bowl in Logansport. Manchester jumped out to a quick lead in that game, Tipton pulled back to get within two and then it was all Manchester from there. The Squires where just three wins away from a state championship after beating Tipton 54-36. The next Saturday at Michigan City the opposition would be the Jimtown Jimmies, a team that was on a heater coming into that game. Manchester led by as many as seven in the fourth quarter before Jimtown took a brief lead. Manchester caught a huge break on an out of bounds call when Kaleb Kline for the Squires was laying out of bounds with the ball in a scramble and the officials determined it was Manchester basketball. That changing of possesion set up for one of the most clutch shots in Manchester history, Hendrix nailing the game winning three pointer to send Manchester into the semi state championship game 56-55.
In the semi state championship it was Hendrix and Betten knocking down some huge free throws to send Manchester to it’s first state championship in program history. It was a stunning 53-50 win over Gary 21st Century, who played a heck of a ball game the entire way through and would just not give up.
Now that you have the big back story, that leads us to March 29, the day of the 115th IHSAA Boys Basketball State Finals. Manchester was set to play University High School, located in Carmel, for the 2A State Title. There were lots of questions coming into the game. How would these teams match up? Would the slipper still fit for University who was playing Cinderella? Would Manchester become the first ever basketball program, boys or girls, to win a state championship in Wabash County history?
The game started with a bucket from Zien Bland of University, and we rode the seesaw from there. Betten then tied it up a 2-2 then the Trailblazers of University had a three pointer from Blake Gray. Then it was Aaron Reid for Manchester, who was a 14% three pointer shooter entering the game, nailed a three to tie it back up at five a piece. At the end of one quarter University led, 11-10. It was a game that even though Manchester trailed by 1 or 2 points, it felt like they where down by 8 or 9 points.
The second quarter saw Betten start to get going. He scored six points in the second period and Hendrix scored two points as well, but the play of the quarter was Wyatt Prater, who averaged just a single point and shot 24% from three this season, knocked down a three pointer to push the Manchester lead to 19-15. However ,University would throw the final blow of the half as Blake Gray and then Max McComb hit three pointers just before halftime and it was all tied up 21-21 at the intermission.
The third quarter was one of Manchester’s best quarters of the season. The Squires out scored University 18-11 in the third period. Hendrix nailed a big 3 to make it 39-34 going into the 4th quarter.
“We played outstanding in the second half offensively.” Henson said. Manchester shot 8 for 11 in from the floor in the third quarter and then shot 7 for 9 from the floor in the fourth quarter.
McComb hit back to back threes for University to make it 46-43 University before Kline knocked down a three to tie it at 46-46. When the game was over, Kline’s three pointer proved to be one of the biggest of the game.
The fourth quarter was tight, University took a 51-50 lead with 1:44 to go. Betten would score a layup with 1:25 to play to put Manchester back in front 52-51. Manchester never gave up the lead after that. University missed some crucial opportunity’s by shots missed from Gray and Josh Henderson. Manchester would hit some big free throws from Ethan Hendrix to extend the lead.
“My teammates believe in me.” Hendrix said “But if it wasn’t for the guys having that much trust in and being able to shoot free throws then it’s just like give me the ball give me the ball.”
The exclamation point was a steal and a layup from Reid to give Manchester a 59-51 lead. Gray would hit a 3 pointer for University to make it 59-54. However it was too little too late for the Trailblazers.
The ball was inbounded into Betten and time expired; Betten immediately ran too Hendrix and wrapped him up in a hug. Tears in both of their eyes as Manchester had captured it’s first ever basketball state championship.
“We’ve (Betten and Hendrix) been close since we where young, I’m so appreciative of him,” Betten said.
Kline for Manchester won the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award. Kline is a kid who’s been through a lot. On the very first play of the football season, Kline tore his ACL as the team’s starting quarterback. He has over 4.0 GPA and is such a good kid.
“Kaleb tore his ACL the first game of the football season and chose not to have surgery because he knew he wouldn’t be back until March so he chose not to have surgery and rehabbed it for 10 weeks and he started 22 out of 28 games this season,” Henson said. “He’s the toughest player I’ve ever coached.”
Everyone wanted this. The players, coaches, community, the county, it was needed. Manchester etched their name in history as the 20th different team to win the 2A State Championship since class basketball was introduced to the state of Indiana in 1998. Class Basketball has always been a controversial topic but now Manchester fans, players, coaches, administration, and everyone who rooted them on during this run, are now big fans of the class system, I think it’s safe to say.
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