FIRST CATHOLIC SCHOOL TO WIN IHSAA BOYS BASKETBALL TITLE -- With its Class A championship, Lafayette Central Catholic becomes the first Catholic school to have won an IHSAA Boys Basketball title. Catholic schools were first admitted to the IHSAA beginning in 1942-43, and Central Catholic joined in 1957-58, its first year of existence. Evansville Rex Mundi (1964), Andrean (1980), Indianapolis Cathedral (1982), Hammond Noll (1988), South Bend St. Joseph's (1989 and 1993) and Brebeuf (1991) had each made it to the state finals, but never won the championship. Of note, Indianapolis Cathedral, a Catholic school, will play for the Class 3A title later today.

SECOND TITLE EVER FOR LAFAYETTE CENTRAL CATHOLIC -- Today's Class A championship was the second state title of any kind for Lafayette Central Catholic. The Knights claimed the Class A football state crown in 1976 with a 8-6 victory over Lawrenceburg.

COACH CHAD DUNWOODY THE YOUNGEST SINCE… -- Central Catholic head coach Chad Dunwoody, in just his third year with the Knights, becomes the youngest man to win an IHSAA boys basketball title since 25-year-old Ike Tallman at Muncie Central in 1963.

BLOOMFIELD MATCHES BEDFORD NORTH LAWRENCE -- Bloomfield was trying to become the first school to win both the boys and girls basketball titles in the same year. The girls team won the Class A championship two weeks ago with a 90-58 victory over Morgan Township. The Cardinals matched Bedford North Lawrence, which won the boys crown and finished as the girls runner-up in 1990.

BLOOMFIELD'S GRANT McBRIDE WINS TRESTER AWARD -- Senior Grant McBride of Bloomfield was named the 1998 recipient of the Arthur L. Trester Award for Mental Attitude in Class A Boys Basketball. McBride, a 5-8 point guard, finished the game with seven points and two steals. Besides playing basketball, McBride has been a four-year letterwinner in cross country and baseball for the Cardinals. Academically, he ranks third in his senior class of 86 students with a 4.4 GPA (4.0 scale) and has served as Vice President all four years. He plans to study medicine at Indiana State University. Farm Bureau Insurance, the corporate partner of all IHSAA tournaments, presented a $1,000 scholarship to Bloomfield High School in McBride's name. Of note, Bloomfield girls basketball player Melissa Cochrane won the Mental Attitude Award in Class A Girls Basketball two weeks ago. McBride and Cochrane are the first two mental attitude award recipients in their school's history.

MACONAQUAH'S TIM MAIBEN WINS 3-POINT SHOOTOUT -- By converting 14 of 25 attempts, Tim Maiben of Maconaquah won the Sixth Annual IHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance 3-Point Shootout during halftime festivities of the Class A game. LaPorte's Stephen Drabyn finished as the runner-up with 13; Justin Noblitt of Clay City finished third with 12 points; and Chip Day of Providence placed fourth with 11. Each participant shot five balls from five different racks located around the three-point arc.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC HEAD COACH CHAD DUNWOODY—"Our kids did a great job in coming out to play. Bloomfield was very patient. We had more depth so we wanted to pick up the pace."

"All year we’ve had people step up. (Dan) Schukraft has come off the bench most of the year and he did a great job in the game."

"We talked about getting the ball inside. That’s where we are best. When we are able to get it inside, it opens up the perimeter."

"To be 26 years old and coaching three years at Central Catholic, it was just great to have this opportunity."

"Class basketball gave us an opportunity to be here. But these kids are champions and not just winners and that’s what helped us get here."

"I’m not for the Tournament of Champions. I feel that we are a state champion and that’s where it should end. But we’ll try to take advantage of it (opportunity to play in the T of C)."

"The staff we have and the players are dedicated to the game, and that was helpful. When they made a run at us in the second half, we were able to handle it and come away ahead at the end."

BRAD METZGER (CENTRAL CATHOLIC)—"Beating Cathedral (during the season) was a big win for us. Class basketball hasn’t affected our program here."

BLOOMFIELD HEAD COACH RON McBRIDE—"We felt, to be competitive, we needed to get to the line. We did, but we didn’t make the shots. We wanted to control the game and keep the score low. They took us out of our game plan and that was because our shots didn’t drop. The second half we put more pressure on them and our shots started to fall."

"At half time we felt we were in good enough position to get back in the game. When we were down 19, we wanted to get it to eight or nine by the end of the third quarter. We got it to five, but we didn’t hit our free throws. We were glad to be here, but there is a bunch of disappointed players in the locker room. We’d like to play in the Class A Championship game every year, if they’d let us."

"Our game plan was sound, but we got so far behind, we had to alter it."

GRANT McBRIDE (BLOOMFIELD), TRESTER AWARD WINNER—"It’s an honor to have this award, but I would enjoy it more if we had won the game. We got deep in the hole early and that cost us the ball game."