It was one of the best games of the year for an area team, but Westview fell on Saturday afternoon, 57-56, to Parke Heritage in the Class 2A state title game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Parke Heritage’s length played a role early as they went to the basket to start the game and their rebounding was huge. With 5:24 left in the first, a Daniel Yoder offensive rebound off Westview’s second three point miss of the game gave the Warriors a true first chance to score, finished with a Kaden Grau three pointer with 4:52 left in the first. The patience shown by Westview on the possession that led to their first score set a tone for how they could change the game.
But the Wolves did the same thing on the other end with an offensive rebound that led to a Brenden Goins three pointer to give the Wolves a 7-3 lead. After hitting 1-of-5 to start the game, shart shooting Pierce Yoder nailed his first shot of the game on a three off a Daniel Yoder pass, but again Goins responded on the other end with a three before getting a steal on the defensive end.
It took until the 49 second mark of the game before Westview hit their first non-three pointer on a bucket from Schlabach, his first points of the game. After one, Parke Heritage led 20-11; each team had four different players score with 21 of the 31 points in the game coming from the three point line (Parke Heritage 4 threes, Westview 3 threes).
Goins finished the opening quarter at the buzzer with his third triple.
The battles early in the second were fun to watch as Grau made a couple of solid defensive plays against 6-foot-9 Parke Heritage center Isaac Pickel while Westview’s Austin Schlabach and Parke Heritage’s Treigh Schelsky battled back and forth on both ends. The Warriors trailed 22-11, doubled up early in the second quarter, but Westview was patient in their comeback. Westview went on a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to 24-23 on a putback basket from Bryce Yoder and then a Schlabach runout that ended with a handoff assist to Grau.
Parke Heritage went back to the interior and into the hands of Pickel and Carter Crum later in the second to take a 30-23 lead before a technical on Goins with 46.6 seconds left to slow the momentum. Westview trailed 30-28 at the halftime break after Grau hit three pointer at the buzzer in an as close as it gets off the hands shot; that negated a seven point Wolves lead with just around a minute to play.
Westview shot 15 first half three pointers compared to eight two pointers.
Parke Heritage would again find separation to start the second half, going up 35-28 on a pull up basket by Schelsky before Daniel Yoder buried a three with 5:52 left in the quarter, the Warriors’ seventh three and fourth different player to hit one. Yoder hit another one just a minute later from deep to keep Wesview’s pace strong after he didn’t score in the first half at all. But on the other end, Parke Heritage kept parading to the free throw line and led 38-34 with 4:36 to play as the Wolves shot five free throws in the first five and a half minutes of the second half after not shooting a free throw in the firsrt half.
Westview cut the deficit to just one, but Parke Heritage pushed back with a 5-0 run including Goins’ fourth three of the game; he averaged 8 points per game heading into the state finals. Daniel Yoder again was the one who answered as he hit his third three of the third quarter and Westview’s 10th three of the game to make it 43-40 with 2:25 left in the third frame. Westview trailed after three 48-45 as Bryce Yoder hit a three to end the quarter.
Pierce Yoder opened the fourth quarter with a triple to tie the game at 48, followed by a moving screen from Parke Heritage’s Crum. With 7:26 to go, Schlabach got into the lane for a bucket to give Westview their first lead of the game 50-48.
The fourth was another example of a lot of buckets being exchanged through most of the quarter. With 3:03 to play, Pickel went to the free throw line after a big offensive rebound, his 7th rebound of the game; he missed the first and hit the second to give him just his third point of the game and the Wolves a 55-54 lead. Parke Heritage would run some clock inside of the two minute mark until a chlabach steal and dunk with 1:22 left gave Westview a 56-55 lead. An 8 player scrum with 1:05 left on the Wolves side of the court led to a jump ball despite it never looking to be tied up, it was a Pierce Yoder hand on the ball that started the scrum.
Parke Heritage took the ball out of the jump with a minute to play but Schelsky gets stopped on a wall up from Pierce Yoder, leading to a foul by the Wolves with 40.8 seconds left, but just their second of the quarter. With 31.2 left, heavy defense forced Grau to step on the sideline in front of his own bench, giving Parke Heritage the ball down 56-55. With 10.2 left, Schelsky drove and dumped the ball to Pickel for just his second shot of the game to give the Wolves a 57-56 lead with just 8.4 seconds remaining and Westview needing to go the length of the court.
Schlabach got to the rim on the final possession and got a great look at the rim, where the ball hung for what had to have felt like forever, but never fell and Parke Heritage won 57-56. It is the first state title for Parke Heritage in any sport in school history.
Westview led for just over three total minutes in the game.
Westview fell just two three point makes (12) away from the Class 2A state finals record for three pointers made in a game. The record of 14 was set in 2014 by Park Tudor against Westview. Westview also fell two three point attempts short of the record for attempts in a 2A title game, while the two team’s combined 18 makes was also two short of the 2A record.
Grau led Westview with 14 points, while Schlabach scored 13, Daniel Yoder scored nine and Bryce Yoder had eight points. Grau added seven rebounds and Schlabach eight assists.
Goins led Parke Heritage and all scorers with 17 points going 5-of-5 from three point range, while Schelsky added a co-game high 17. They also each had five assists, none bigger than Schelsky’s game winning pass to Pickel.
Westview’s Grau was named the winner of the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award for Class 2A.
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