The Last One-Class Champion

INDIANAPOLIS - The last Indiana boys' basketball state champion in a one-class system wasn't won by a small school, which would have been appropriate, but it was coached by someone who at least appreciates what he has done.

"I am against class basketball," Bloomington North coach Tom McKinney said. "But I also have an understanding the small schools wanting to have class basketball. It is special to me. We (his team) never even talked about it. It is special to the older adults. The players are still going to play next year."

Bloomington North, in its first appearance in the state finals, became the champion of the last one-class IHSAA boys' basketball tournament with a physical 75-54 win over Delta Saturday.

"It was just a real battle for us, mentally and physically," Delta coach Paul Keller said. "I don't if there would be any difference it we would have been fresh or not. They really just overpowered us."

The Eagles had the unfortunate task of coming back after having played the second semifinal game and just didn't have the energy to put into the press that had spurred their surprise run to the state finals.

"Overall, we were probably too physical and wore them down," McKinney said. "I don't think they had the same legs tonight that they had at noon (semfinals vs. LaPorte)."

A tough start ultimately was Delta's downfall. The Eagles didn't score a single point until 45 minutes into the second quarter. The Cougars led only 9-0 at the time, but Delta was climbing uphill the rest of the way.

"The thing of it was we shut them out, but we were only up nine points," McKinney said. "I think they missed some shots they normally hit."

Delta got ontrack in the second half behind the shooting of junior guard Patrick Jackson, but the Eagles could not break below double digits.

"It was below two minutes, I told them not to worry that we hadn't scored because we were still only down 2-0," Keller said. "At some point, you have to get going on offense."

Game one

Bloomington North 50, Kokomo 43

The Cougars rallied from a 10-point deficit and also survived a cold-shooting start to get past the defensive-minded Wildkats.

No. 1 Bloomington North led Kokomo 20-10, but the Cougars went on a 19-4 run over the next two quarters to open up a 29-24 lead on a dunk by Kueth Duany. Kokomo eventually tied the score at 29-all, but Bloomington North was patient in the fourth quarter against Kokomo's tough zone.

"We just kept shooting the ball, and they fell," McKinney said. "We were 0-for-10 in the first half from three-point range. We got a good start in the second half and tied them and got some momentum from there."

Herman Fowler kept Kokomo in the game himself by scoring 27 points, but both Fowler and center Matt Brady had foul trouble in the second half, hampering the Wildkats.

"Fouls were our nemesis but they're part of the game," Kokomo coach Basil Mawbey said. "Brady and Fowler being out a lot of the time didn't help, and it was because of Bloomington North's aggressive nature."

Kokomo cut a 44-34 lead to 45-40 with the help of two three-pointers from Fowler, but with Brady on the bench with five fouls, the Wildkats couldn't muster offense from anyone else.

Sinsabaugh led the Cougars with 15 points, while Mario Wuysang added 10 points off the bench.

"Wuysang is a spark off the bench," McKinney said. "He played loose, and we needed that."

Game two

Delta 57, LaPorte 56

Tyce Shideler's layup with 4.5 seconds left in the game gave the Eagles the one-point win.

Delta got the ball into the hands of Patrick Jackson with 9.7 seconds left. After blowing past the first line of LaPorte defenders, Jackson got the ball to Shideler for the easy layup. LaPorte's offense failed to get a shot off in the final seconds.

"I got outcoached in that last situation," LaPorte coach Joe Otis said. "They adjusted to what we intended to do. We called timeout to see what alignment that they were in, and they burned us. I wish we would have got off that last shot.

"Patrick Jackson almost never makes the wrong decision with the ball," he said. "I think they knew we would double Jackson."

LaPorte jumped out to the early 18-4 lead in the first quarter. The Eagles began to chip away at the Slicers' lead, but still trailed 32-24 at halftime. In the third quarter, Jackson began to heat up as Delta began to turn the momentum around and eventually took its first lead 41-39 on a steal and layup by Jackson in the third quarter.

Delta even held a 55-51 lead with 1:50 left, but missed twice on one-and-one free throw opportunities and LaPorte got back on top with a three-pointer by Ben Tonagel 56-55 with :35 left.

"The game could have gone either way," Keller said. "Our kids just didn't know how to quit. That's a great trait of our team.

"When we were down 18-4 I didn't panic, but we were concerned," he said. "But we'd been down before, and the game didn't get away from us."