Phone: 317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
Blake Ress, Commissioner
_________________________________________________________________________
March 7, 2009
NO. 1 BEN
DAVIS TOPS NO. 2 SOUTH BEND WASHINGTON
Sophomore Bria Goss banked home a driving runner in the lane with 1.4
seconds left on the clock to give top-ranked Ben Davis a 71-69 victory over No.
2 South Bend Washington in the 4A state championship game. The game-winning
shot turned away a furious fourth quarter rally by Washington that saw the
Panthers overcome an 11 point deficit over the last 2:56 before Goss’
shot.
It was Ben
Davis’ third state championship to go along with titles won in 2000 and
2001 allowing them to finish a perfect 30-0 and become the first girls team to win 30 games in a season.
The Giants finished
their season ranked No. 1 nationally in USA Today. Washington, ranked fourth in
that same poll, settled for the runner-up spot for the third time in four
seasons. The Panthers were playing in the state title game for the fourth
straight year.
Senior
guard Skylar Diggins scored
eight of her game-high 29 points in the last 1:40. Her layup with
:45 seconds left tied the game at 69-69. She finished her career with 2,790
points good for third best in state history.
Ben Davis
was led in scoring by senior Alex Bentley with 18 points. Goss finished with 15
points, and DeAirra Goss added 12 points, and eight
rebounds.
Karis
Phillips and Jasmine Watson both hit for 12 points for Washington. Watson led
all with nine rebounds.
Ben Davis head
coach Stan Benge, ranked seventh among active coaches in victories, picked up
career victory 468. South Bend Washington was led by first year coach Maurice
Scott who guided them to a 26-1 finish.
The second
session of the state finals drew 13,449 for a state finals record since 1998.
The four games also drew a state finals record 21,522 during that same time.
SKYLAR
DIGGINS NAMED MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD WINNER
Following the
game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Skylar
Diggins of South Bend Washington High School as the
winner of the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award.
The award
is presented annually to a senior participant in each classification who was
nominated by her principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental
attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.
Academically,
Diggins ranks sixth in her class of 300 students with
a 3.91 GPA. She intends to study pre-medicine at the University of Notre Dame next fall where she also will play basketball.
She’s also played four years of volleyball with the Panthers.
Diggins
has served as an IHSAA Student Leader, a peer mentor and is a member of the
National Honor Society. She’s also volunteered her time at the Martin
Luther King Center as a youth mentor and worked as a volunteer coach with the
River City Basketball League.
She is the
daughter of Renee and Maurice Scott.
Indiana
Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate
partner, will present a $1,000 scholarship to Washington High School in the
name of Diggins.
The award
is named in honor of the former IHSAA assistant commissioner Patricia L. Roy,
who oversaw the girls basketball state tournament from
its inception in 1976 until her retirement in 1999.
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CLASS
4A POST-GAME QUOTES
Ben
Davis Head Coach Stan Benge
“It’s
hard to believe it’s over. What a run. What a great group of kids. Give
(On Alex
Bentley fouling out with 2:43 left) “Well, we played our bench all year
and that really helped us. The other girls didn’t panic at all. The main
thing we wanted to do was stay aggressive to the basket and not just try to hold the ball out there, because they were putting so
much pressure on us.”
(On Bria Goss’ game-winning shot) “We just ran 1-4
low and Bria does a nice job. Bria
and Alex are the ones who do it for us.” (Was it an amazing shot?) “Oh, yeah. But
she does that all the time. What body control she has. I’m so proud of
all the kids, and what a great chance for Bria to be
a star.”
”We
played hard tonight. That was the kind of a game you wanted in a state
championship. It came down to the last shot. There wasn’t enough time
left for us to get off a good shot.”
(On Bria Goss’ game-winning shot) “That was a heckuva shot from the kid for Ben Davis. … She
knocked it down – that’s why you play the game.”
(On his
team’s play) “We struggled on offense a little bit early in the
game. But I’m proud of our kids; they did a good job, working hard to get
back into the game. We never gave up tonight. We fought to the end. Ben Davis
is a tough team. We dug deep to get back into the game. We kept working and
never gave up.”
(On Skylar Diggins, the Patricia L.
Roy Mental Attitude Award winner) “She’s a heckuva
player. I’m so proud of her. She has definitely left a legacy at