Phone:
317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
Blake Ress,
Commissioner
Lawrence
North became the first IHSAA Class 4A repeat winner with its third state title
overall by defeating Muncie Central, 63-52, in front of a sellout crowd of
18,345 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Coach Jack Keefer’s 24-2 Wildcats finish the campaign with 16
consecutive victories. They become the
first repeat champion since Westview in Class 2A in 1999 and 2000. Ben Davis was the last single-class repeat
winner in 1995 and 1996.
Lawrence
North junior center Greg Oden put on a dominating display with a Class-4A
record 29 points, breaking the previous mark of 28 by
Lawrence
North led for the entire 32 minutes. The
Wildcats held a 12-9 edge after the first quarter and they built a 25-17
halftime advantage on a three-pointer by senior forward Tyler Morris three
seconds before the break.
Lawrence
North broke its 4A record for field goal accuracy set last season by hitting
24-39 (.615) against Muncie Central.
Lawrence
North senior guard Brandon McPherson joined Oden in double figures with 11
points, making all five free throw attempts.
McPherson received the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude following the
game.
Muncie
Central had four players score in double figures, led by the 12-point effort
from junior forward Terry Jenkins.
Jenkins hit 5-7 from the field.
Ty Riddle added 11, while Jordan Armstrong and Josiah Miller each had 10. Coach Matt Fine’s Bearcats finished 27-2
after having their 20-game winning streak snapped.
Lawrence North’s Brandon
McPherson Named Trester Mental Attitude Award Winner
McPherson ranks in the top 25 percent of his
senior class of 533 students and scored 1,150 on the SAT. He is an academic
honors student and was admitted into the school Honors Degree program.
His activities include being a member of the
Lawrence North Community Service Program, serving on the Youth Board of the
A part of two Class 4A state championship
squads, McPherson is a 2005 McDonald’s All American nominee and was named First
Team All-State by Hoosier Basketball Magazine as well as All-Conference. He
also participated in junior varsity football as a freshman. He has earned a
full scholarship to
Members of the IHSAA Executive Committee present
the Trester Award to the outstanding senior participant in each classification
of the boys’ basketball state finals.
The recipients of this award, who were nominated by their principals and
coaches, must excel in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic
ability in basketball. The award is
named for Arthur L. Trester, who served as the first commissioner of the IHSAA
from 1929-44.
Farm Bureau Insurance, IHSAA corporate partner,
presented a scholarship check for $1,000.00 to
IHSAA Book, Play On,
Recaps 100 Years Of High School Sports in
The
exciting book, Play On, celebrating 100 years of
high school sports in
Team Posters And
Individual Action Photographs Available
Visit 20-20 Photographic, the IHSAA’s
photographer and the
Own This Game On VHS Or
DVD
If you’d
like a copy of this state championship game, the IHSAA will have it as well as each
of the other three contests (one game per video) available in VHS or DVD
formats as part of the IHSAA
Video Library collection. Phone in your order beginning Monday, March 28 to
317-846-6601 (M-F, 8-4 EST) and pay by credit card (Visa or MasterCard
accepted). VHS copies are $35 each by mail, while DVD copies are $55 each by
mail. Please allow up to four weeks delivery.
For
t-shirts and other merchandise commemorating this year’s state finals
tournament or for any of our events, visit our friends at Morris, Inc.
State Finals Programs
Available
Couldn’t be
there for the state finals? You can still purchase a copy of the official
program while supplies last! Programs are $3.00 if you purchase in person at
the IHSAA Office (
Class 4A Championship
Game Quotes
Muncie Central Coach Matt Fine
“We knew
they would come out and guard us well. They’ve got three great guards out front
that really do a good job of getting into you. Give them all the credit in the
world, they defended us well. In the first half I thought that we just made a
couple of mistakes at the end of the half that we normally don’t make with some
shot selection and things like that that could have had us right there with
them.”
“I love my
kids, they fought their hearts out as usual.”
On the
momentum swing-
“Momentum
is everything, especially when you are dealing with young kids and adversity. We
didn’t respond well to it. I’m proud of them, we didn’t knock shots down and they
took us out of what we wanted to do offensively. Defensively we just didn’t execute
our plan”.
On them
getting the ball to Greg Oden-
“Lawrence
North knows what they want to do offensively. Their plan is to go through Oden
and they do a great job of executing that plan. They really know how to get him
the ball in positions where he’s able to score.”
#50 Jordan
Armstrong-
“It’s
always sad when you get to the last game of your high school career. We didn’t
want to go out like this, but I think we still played hard tonight.”
Armstrong
on Oden-
“He’s big
and physical in the post. He’s obviously NBA material and you can’t stop him,
you can only hope to contain him. Our plan was to keep a body on him at all
times. We wanted to keep him off the block and make him shoot jump shots, but
obviously that plan didn’t work as well as we wanted to.”
“Greg is a
great player, but he has some great players around him and he would be the
first one to tell you that.”
(On being
only the 13th team in history to repeat as state champion)
“It just
means that we have very dedicated players and coaches. I’m just so proud of our seniors because they
worked so hard. Every state title is
different. The one in 1989 was probably
not expected. I think we earned this one
more because of who we played. The
regional was just so stacked and I was not sure if we would get past that.”
(On LN’s
defense)
“McPherson
did a great job tonight. I think our
seniors just wanted it more than them (Muncie Central). We played with a real passion all night. Conley and Morris did a great job defending
their outside shooters.”
“This team
just got better as the year went on. At
the beginning of the season, we were experimenting with what everyone’s roles
were. Tonight, everyone knew what to
do.”
#50 Greg
Oden
“My
teammates played so well tonight that they had no choice but to play me
man-to-man. Our coaches put together
every defense we would face, so we were pretty prepared for this. It feels so good to be champion again. My teammates deserve this. We came out and played a good team and it
just got tougher and tougher throughout the tournament. It feels better than last year because that
is in the past and this is now.”
#10 Brandon
McPherson
“We played
a great team tonight. We came out strong
and played a great game. I’m just happy
to be one part of this team.”