On Saturday, New Haven and Indianapolis Cathedral will start session two at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Class 3A state title game is scheduled for 6 p.m. tip.
New Haven is seeking the school first state title for any sport while Indianapolis Cathedral wants its third state basketball title after knocking off both the #1 and #2 ranked teams last Saturday in semi state.
TWO STORYLINES
IS NEW HAVEN EVER OUT?
New Haven was done last week, right? Twice?
Delta had the Bulldogs on the ropes, leading at one point by 10 in the first game. New Haven flipped the game with a dominant second half. In the night game, conference rival Columbia City had to feel comfortable a couple of times too, but every time they did, the Bulldogs made them regret it.
Columbia City goes into the half with a big shot and all the momentum? Well Tarvar Baskerville says hold onto your hats and watch me finish this game off.
And those examples aren’t the only times that New Haven has come back from the proverbial dead this season, both in wins and losses. They pushed back on a comfortable Huntington North lead on the road to force a pressure back final 6 minutes before ultimately falling. Even against Marion during this postseason run, New Haven showed their strength and ability to build separation late.
So no matter what on Saturday, probably ignore the halftime score. Because that is, afterall, just half the story.
THE JASON DELANEY EFFECT
If you have never seen Indianapolis Cathedral play, but will on Saturday, you are in for a treat. Coach Jason Delaney is among the best active coaches in the state and has earned that title literally ever game of his coaching career.
Delaney sits 373-162 all-time in this his 22nd season. How did it all start? In 2003, he took over as the head coach at Waldron after years of struggle. Waldron was a one win team in 1995-96, then had a couple of just above .500 seasons. The year before Delaney took over, Waldron was 10-12. When Delaney took over, he opened with a win over Brown County and then NEVER lost again as Waldron coach. Sure, he was only there one season but what he did was go 27-0 with a Class 1A state title game win over Blackhawk Christian; Waldron went 0-20 a year later after his left and has had just four winning seasons since.
Delaney made some other stops along the way before he and Cathedral came together. He started a rebuild at Southport, dropped into Anderson Highland and Indianapolis Washington for a season each and then ended up at Arsenal Tech where his teams had a winning record each of his five seasons, including a 2014 Class 4A state crown.
He arrived at Cathedral in 2026 and has never produced a team with less wins than 15, which he accomplished his first season with the Fighting Irish. In year six, he won a state title in 2022 with a 26-6 mark. Last season, in Cathedral’s first in 3A, he went 20-5 and now sits at 24 wins, the fourth most in a season in his career. Delaney is 195-57 at Cathedral in search of his second state title for the program and fourth overall as a head coach.
FOUR PLAYERS TO WATCH
TARVAR BASKERVILLE, NEW HAVEN
He made the closing seconds shot to send New Haven to their first ever state finals appearance, but Baskerville has been doing important work and heavy lifting his entire career. At the forefront of this Bulldogs lineup, Baskerville leads the team in scoring at 16.5 points per game, but also in steals at 2.4 while adding in 3.2 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Baskerville attacks the game at all times, he doesn’t have off nights very often because of his ability to adapt and attack.
KEATON ALDRIDGE, CATHEDRAL
The senior leader for the Fighting Irish is a matchup issue at 6-foot-4 and able to move the way he does. He has not had a single digit scoring game so far this season and is coming off a season third best 29 points in the win over Silver Creek to capture a semi state title. Aldridge shoots 58 percent from the field and in his two best scoring games (32 twice), he shot a combined 19 of 29. Aldridge also leads Cathedral in rebounding with 7.9; 3.4 of those per game come on the offensive end, and he has the most assists with 5.4 per game. He is the guy to stop if you want to beat the Fighting Irish.
LAVELL LEDBETTER, NEW HAVEN
Ledbetter said it himself this week in local news interviews: if New Haven wins the glass, it should win the game. While the Bulldogs have taller guys with longer wing spans, nobody rebounds the ball quite like Ledbetter does. He leads the Bulldogs with 4.8 rebounds per game but even that number doesn’t seem to do justice because of the physicality that Ledbetter attacks the glass with. Oh and he also has a team best 3.4 assists per game.
JULIEN SMITH, CATHEDRAL
Cathedral’s offense is top tier, averaging 77.4 points per contest. Smith averages 15.6 of of those points per game, but is a high volume three point shooter and maker. Smith has made 80 three pointers on the season, placing him among the best in the state, hitting 41 percent of those shots. But don’t think that he is a one trick pony as Smith has hit almost as many shot inside the arc where he shoots 53 percent.
KEY TO VICTORY – NEW HAVEN
The Bulldogs are going to have to find ways to pressure Cathedral in the right ways at the right times.
At its best, New Haven’s pressure in the full or half court is absolutely suffocating and we have seen it time after time this season and that is why they average over 10.5 steals per game on the season. Even better for New Haven is that when their defense runs wild everyone gets involved – everyone understands the assignment.
Baskerville leads the way with 2.4 steals per game, but Ledbetter, Shane Rogers-Smith, Damarcus Wright, Daylen Jackson, Jadrien Ezell and Marquaylon Johnson all average at least one steal per game.
Pressure is the key for both teams, but for New Haven, they can control the tempo and pace of this game from the jump and that isn’t a trait that is just easy to come by for any team.
KEY TO VICTORY – CATHEDRAL
The Fighting Irish may have an extensive advantage on the glass over New Haven. This team averages 32.3 rebounds per game, with 13 of those per game coming on the offensive end, which can just be deflating for an opponent. The Fighting Irish do just that: they fight for every board, for every second chance opportunity.
While Aldridge leads the way with 7.9 rebounds per game, four others average over three per game with Julien Smith and Braylon Pippins each averaging over four per game, while Pippins and R’mani Wells each average two offensive rebounds per game. Those big numbers, specifically on the offensive end, have allowed the Fighting Irish to score a lot of points every night.
In the win last week over Princeton, Cathedral had 27 rebounds to outdo their opponent by just two, but they had 5 more offensive rebounds. In the night title game against Silver Creek, Cathedral actually got outrebounded, but had another eight on the offensive end.
BOUNCE’S PICK
This is a massive test for New Haven in terms of experience and the high level of play. While it has been a few years since Cathedral had even won a Sectional title, things can be a tad different in their neck of the woods.
Good news for New Haven, when you walk onto the big court under the bright lights in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, everything else can be a bit of a second note if you let it be.
New Haven are 17 point underdogs according to John Harrell’s website, generally regarded as the go to source for all of Indiana when it comes to rankings and predictions. But that is also a number generated by a computer that takes the human principal out of it all. And this New Haven team is very dangerous all of the time.
Both teams flex credible depth, both are very fun to watch. So when Session 2 starts on Saturday afternoon, expect a fun paced game and a pretty stellar chess match on the sidelines between two talented coaches in Jason Delaney and the sometimes criminally underrated Brandon Appleton. BOUNCE PICKS INDIANAPOLIS CATHEDRAL 76-67
These opinions represent those of Bounce and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Bounce on Twitter at Bounce_OTH
Be the first to comment