It was an intense week of action in boys Sectionals across the area. In the end, the area sends 8 teams to the Regional round.
In Class 4A, titles were captured by Snider and Homestead…In 3A, it was New Haven, Columbia City and Blackhawk Christian grabbing titles…in 2A, both Bishop Luers and Westview became champions…and in 1A, it was Canterbury reclaiming a crown.
CLASS 4A
• Snider found a way on Saturday night when it really didn’t look like they would against North Side in the championship game of their Sectional. A comeback from trailing by 14 all came together with 54.3 seconds left in regulation. Following a steal from Trell Hogue, he found Xavier Wilson in the post, who passed it out to an open Braylin Fertil for a three ball to tie the game at 53 all. North Side got another bucket from a wide open Maalik Moore and Wilson hit two free throws for Snider to tie the game again and force overtime.
An Andrew Upton three with just over two minutes to play gave North the 60-57 lead, but Wilson notched it up on the other end on the very next trip. Again though, Fertil was the X-factor for the Panthers as his three gave Snider a 63-62 lead and the lead for good. Snider led just three times in the entire game.
• Homestead proved a point on Friday in their win over SAC champion South Side, while Wayne provided an upset of the host team Huntington North. Homestead outscored South 21-14 in the second half after trailing by one at halftime; Mack Welker scored 23 points including 9-of-13 from the foul line in the win. Wayne scored 45 points in the second half to beat Huntington North; Everen Akison scored a team high 17 points while Brayden Freiburger scored 21 points to lead the Vikings.
Homestead freshman Mason Weaver had one of the biggest plays for Homestead in their run to another title. On Friday night, in the closing minutes, he put an off balanced reverse layup that we will call one part skill, one part luck, but the freshman nailed it and it was a big blow to the Archers. The Spartans went on to dominate Wayne 80-48 in Saturday’s final; it was the fourth straight season that either Wayne or Homestead ended their season with a loss to the other in the Sectional round.
In the title game win over Wayne, Welker had 30 points to go with 11 rebounds and five assists while Ryder Imel hit 5-of-7 three pointers and ended with 17 points for Homestead.
CLASS 3A
• Was there a better spot for Sectional action this week than DeKalb? Seven games were played at DeKalb, two going to overtime. The average margin of victory across the entire Sectional? Just 5.4 points per game, with the closest being Blackhawk Christian’s 53-52 semi final overtime win against the host Barons.
The back and forth game was tied at 44 with 1:53 left in the fourth with Zeke Penrod hitting the second of two free throws. The game see sawed as Bryce Lacross missed a shot just short of the buzzer, Dalton Cox got the rebound and heaved up a 3/4 court shot that almost went in. The game was highlighted obviously by the 40 point outing from Lacross, but kudos to Kyler Wood who stepped in and looked so calm with the ball after Briggs Pardon was injured in the Sectional opener against Angola. Blackhawk Christian took the lead for good with 1:12 left when Lacross created space with a bump and drained the midrange jumper to make it 48-47. Brady Vince was able to get up a well defended shot in the closing seconds for DeKalb, but it was short, allowing only time for a Caden Rice two before the final horn. Blackhawk outscored DeKalb 22-13 between the fourth quarter and overtime.
This game was probably the highlight, but the entire Sectional was fantastic from Angola/Blackhawk’s physical affair (ended in a Sectional high 13 point spread) and a rivalry rematch with DeKalb and Garrett to open the week through Leo/Concordia going to overtime on Wednesday, a great Leo/East Noble semi final and a championship game where Blackhawk edged East Noble 47-45. In the title game, it wasn’t until 3:20 in fourth before East Noble scored in the quarter when Keegan Derry‘s three cut it to a three point game with 2:45 to play. Blackhawk’s title game win was their 9th straight Sectional, the longest active streak in the state.
• Columbia City battled through all kinds of different types of games this week. On Tuesday, they dominated Columbia City as Owen Marshall went 4-of-5 from three point range on his way to 32 points, just one shy of what West Noble scored as a steam. On Friday, they got more of a battle with a strong and consistent Fairfield team, but still picked up a 10 point win behind a 19 point, 8 rebound, 5 block night from Landon Richmond. On Saturday, they survived a low scoring battle with NorthWood 31-22 for the 30th Sectional title in program history. Marshall scored 18 in the game, while Richmond added 11 in the low scoring title game.
CLASS 2A
• Westview doesn’t get enough love or credit for the workmanlike performances they have put out all season and continued to showcase in the Sectional round. The Warriors won 85-24 on Friday while hitting a program record 14 three pointers in the game, led by four from Pierce Yoder and three from Kaden Grau. On Saturday, they toppled Lakeland 66-43 with Grau scoring 23 and Austin Schlabach added 20. Westview’s last game within 20 points was a February 20 16-point win at Goshen; their last game played in single digits was a 59-58 win against Blackhawk Christian on February 7.
• Bluffton may not have come out of the week with a title, but they did have a bit of a passing of the torch from one Grieser to the next. Senior Declan Grieser shined as one of the area’s best scorers again, but sophomore brother Gavin Grieser had a really stellar week. On Tuesday, Declan had 16 and Gavin scored 15 in a win over South Adams; on Friday, it was Gavin’s 16 points and 15 rebounds that led while Declan scored 10 in a win over Woodlan. In Saturday’s championship loss, Declan scored 23 and Gavin had 19. It was a tremendous week for the two and a keen indication on who may take over the lead role for the Tigers next season with Declan’s graduation.
• Speaking of Bishop Luers, they have risen to another title. In a year with a fairly young roster and after losing out on having a 6-8 transfer play due to football commitments, the Knights had some question marks. But they have played tight together much of the year and all night Saturday they had the answers for any push from Bluffton. And trust that Bluffton had plenty of pushes.
The Knights scored a season seventh best 75 points against the Bluffton defense that held teams to an average of 47 points this season. Zen Szaferski scored 26 points on 7-of-9 shooting from three point range and Ayle Taylor scored 25 in the win, going 9-of-12 from the field.
On Friday, it was sophomore Jayden Moore‘s 20 points that led Luers to a win over Whitko despite the Wildcats getting 22 points from Cooper Laukhuf.
CLASS 1A
• It was a week of various guys stepping up for Canterbury as they reclaimed the Sectional title from Lakewood Park. In Tuesday’s victory over Hamilton, Jack Landgraf scored 15 points…on Friday, it was Aran Padmalingam‘s 17 in the win over Fremont, followed by 16 from Alden Greider…on Saturday, it was Ben Hardin‘s 23 points that helped them top Lakewood for the title.
QUICK NOTES
On Friday, Homestead‘s Mack Welker reached the 500 point mark on the season, just the 7th different Spartan to do so ever….Blackhawk Christian has now won 26 straight Sectional games with their three wins this past week….On Friday in a win over Prairie Heights, Keyan Arroyo had 6 assists and became Lakeland‘s all-time leader in assists, passing 2023 graduate Ben Keil….Homestead coach Chris Johnson has now led his team to 14 of the last 15 Sectional finals, winning 10 of them….Westview‘s Austin Schlabach hit 1,000 career points in Saturday’s Sectional final, becoming the 13th Warrior to hit the mark in history….Kudos to our area college guys as this past week, Caedmon Bontrager (Leo) was named Crossroads League Player of the Year for Indiana Wesleyan while Jaxson Fugate (North Side) was named the WHAC Player of the Year for Indiana Tech and Kellen Pickett (Blackhawk Christian) was named the Horizon Freshman of the Year for Wright State.
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