Former Indiana University Men’s Basketball player Matt Roth leads Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian to Class 2A State Title
Former Indiana University Men’s Basketball Matt Roth led the Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian Braves to the Class 2A Boys Basketball State Championship at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Saturday Afternoon with a 52-45 win over The Linton Miners. Roth came to IU from Washington Ill. and played in Bloomington from 2008 to 2012 under Tom Crean. During IU’s 2011-12 season he shot a Big Ten best 54.5 percent from 3-point range (2nd best ever at IU) and 59.2 percent in league games (an IU record). He tied for 10th all-time in IU career 3-point field goal percentage (41.4 percent) and shares the single-game record with nine 3-pointers made against Ohio State in 2009.
Roth took over for Marc Davidson who won 2 state championships in 2019 in Class 1A and 2021 in Class 2A. Davidson retired after last season after due to his ongoing cancer battle with 197 wins in nine seasons at the school. Roth who is 33 years old was hired and Marc Davidson passed away five days later at Age 49. Davidson’s son Jimmy, who is a Senior, scored 9 points in the win. Jimmy’s older brothers Frankie and Marcus won state titles with their dad and current Purdue Basketball Caleb Furst was a teammate of the Davidson Brothers and was 2021 Indiana Mr. Basketball. Roth started coaching with Davidson at Blackhawk Christian from 2014-2016. He got married in 2014 to former IU basketball and volleyball player Lindsay Enterline. They have three children, ages 8, 6 and 4. Roth stayed involved in basketball as a trainer and later a referee with his father-in-law, Bob Enterline. But he had an itch to get back into coaching and joined the staff at Heritage for a season in 2021-22. Roth is an elementary and middle school physical education and health teacher at the school.
Blackhawk Christian overcame an 11-point, second-half deficit. Behind sharp-shooter Joey Hart’s 18-point first half, the Miners took a 29-18 lead into the break and still led, 33-23, after two Logan Webb free throws with 3:46 left in the third quarter. The Braves’ defense, however, was already starting to take its toll by that point as Hart and Webb who combined for 40 points per game this season were off the mark. Most of those tough shots Hart didn’t make. He hit only 1-of-14 from the floor in the second half, scoring only five points in the final two quarters. In the meantime, Pickett and senior Gage Sefton began to click on the offensive end allowing the Braves to rally. The victory also denied Linton-Stockton its first title after two previous runner-up appearances in 2013 and 2019. The Miners (29-2) had won 25 straight games and were seeking to become the first 2A champion to win 30 games in a season. The loss was also the only one this season to an Indiana school. Hart came in averaging 23.7 points per game and looked the part during the first two quarters, but never got in gear in the second half and finished with his average. Webb, who had a 17-point average, struggled all game and finished with 11 points on 2-of-12 shooting. All told, Linton-Stockton shot 4-of-27 from the floor in the second half (15%). The Miners held on for a 35-33 lead after three quarters, but a free throw and subsequent lay-up by Pickett to open the fourth quarter gave the Braves a lead they never relinquished. Pickett finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, while Sefton had 16 points and eight boards. Linton-Stockton held Blackhawk senior Josh Furst to just two points which came on a dunk as the clock expired. Furst averaged 19 points a game this year and scored 30 in the team’s Semi State semifinal win over Gary 21st Century last week. Linton-Stockton’s Nathan Frady, the Ray Craft Mental Attitude Award winner, led all rebounders with 12.
Former Indiana Men’s Basketball Manager and Eastern Green Graduate Dusty May leads Florida Atlantic to the Final Four
# 9 seed Florida Atlantic beat # 3 Kansas State 79-73 in the East Regional final at Madison Square Garden in New York City Saturday Night. The Owls are coached by Dusty May who is a 1995 graduate of Eastern Greene High school which is located Southwest of Bloomington and was a manager under Bob Knight at Indiana University from 1996-2000. May is in his fifth season as head coach of Florida Atlantic University and his team is on a roll with a 35-3 record this season and will be in the final four this Saturday in Houston Texas facing # 5 San Diego State as both teams are in the final four the first time with the winner playing in the very first National Championship Game. May is 101-59 at school with 2 Post Season Tournament appearances in the CBI along with the CIT and losing in the first round in each tournament, May has not had losing season since he started at FAU. May has been an assistant coach with Eastern Michigan, Murray State, UAB and Florida.
Florida Atlantic beat # 8 Memphis, #16 Fairleigh Dickinson and #4 Tennessee before knocking off Kansas State had been to one NCAA tournament before this season and didn’t have a single NCAA tournament victory in program history, became the first No. 9 seed to reach the Final Four since Wichita State in 2013 and the ninth No. 9 seed or lower to make it that far since seeding began in 1979. In an NCAA tournament filled with upsets, a tournament that featured zero 1-seeds in the Elite Eight and a record-low number of top-two seeds in the Elite Eight, a 9-seed FAU team making a run to the Final Four still registers. Only six Final Four teams in NCAA tournament history have been seeded lower than the Owls. FAU’s basketball program didn’t move to Division I until 1993 and had one regular-season title in program history before this season.
At the same time, this is a team that won 20 games in a row earlier this season and is now on an 11-game winning streak. The Owls were ranked in the top 25 for most of the second half of the season and entered Saturday’s game ranked higher than Kansas State in most predictive metrics. Sophomore Johnell Davis had points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in the win. Davis is 6-4 from Gary Indiana and played at 21st Century HS. Davis has played in 36 of 38 games starting 15. He averages 26 Minutes per game and averages 13.9 Points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Indiana University Men’s Swimming & Diving finishes fourth in the NCAA Championships
Indiana men’s swimming and diving is bringing a trophy back to Bloomington after finishing as the No. 4 team in the nation at the 2023 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday inside the Jane K. Freeman Aquatic Center. The Hoosiers scored 379 points to earn their fourth top-five finish of the last five championships. Indiana remains among college swimming’s elite – in the last five years, only four team have consistently finished top six nationally: Cal, Texas, Florida and the Indiana Hoosiers. IU finished just short of third, five points back of Texas. Over the week, three different Hoosiers won individual national championships, six program records were smashed, 10 medals were earned, and 10 IU athletes combined for 37 All-America honors. Indiana outperformed its No. 6 CSCAA national ranking as well as the psych sheet projections, which simulated a fifth-place performance.
Sophomore Carson Tyler joined the legendary list of Hoosier national champions on Saturday when he won the program’s first platform diving title and 21st diving total overall. Tyler scored 476.30 points to outduel Tennessee’s Bryden Hattie with 455.10. On his fifth dive, Tyler created space with a perfect score on his Back 3 ½ Somersault Tuck to earn a 99.00. He clinched the title with an 81-point dive in round six. Tyler was joined in the top three buy bronze medalist and fellow sophomore Quinn Henninger, who tallied a 408.60. Indiana’s 36 points in the platform diving event were crucial to the team’s top-four finish at the end of the night. Totaling five medals and two national titles, Indiana diving accounted for 104 points in just three events. Senior Andrew Capobianco’s collegiate career ends after winning his third-career NCAA 3-meter title Friday which followed a runner-up performance on 1-meter the day before. The Olympian closes this chapter of his career a three-time national champion, six-time NCAA medalist and 12-time All-American.
Indiana was solid in all three disciplines all week: swimming, diving and relay. All five of IU’s relays had top-10 performances for the first time since the team’s third-place finish in 2019, accounted for 136 points and all five finished higher than their seeding. On Saturday, the 400-yard freestyle relay quartet of senior Van Mathias, junior Tomer Frankel, junior Gavin Wight and sophomore Rafael Miroslaw placed sixth in 2:47.17, just six hundredths shy of the program record. Individual swimming accounted for the remaining 139 points. IU swimmers earned eight first-team All-America (top eight) finishes and four medals. Senior Brendan Burns became the NCAA 100-yard backstroke champion on Friday with a program record 43.61. It was his first title in the event but second overall after winning the 200-yard butterfly a year ago. On Saturday, he followed that up with a national runner-up placement in the 200 fly. Van Mathias fifth-year senior season of drastic time drops ended with three All-America finishes and a silver medal. Prior to this week, Mathias had never finished higher than 26th at the national meet. Tomer Frankel was the only swimmer in the field to finish top-five in both the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly events. The junior from Israel set personal bests in both races and earned a bronze medal in the 100 fly with a program record 44.04.
Ben Davis completes perfect season winning the IHSAA Boys Basketball State Championship
The Ben Davis Giants accomplished their goal: undefeated champions in 2023. The Giants embarked on that mission the minute they were eliminated by eventual 2022 state champion, Cathedral in the regional finals. Ben Davis beat Kokomo 53-41 in the class 4A state title game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday night to finish the year perfect at 33-0. The Giants took control midway through the first quarter, building an 11-point halftime lead. The Wildkats cut the advantage to three after three quarters on an unbelievable alley-oop dunk by Flory Bidunga, one of the top prospects in the nation in the class of 2024. Ben Davis responded with a Zane Doughty put-back and a Mark Zackery lay-up off a Kokomo turnover to stretch the lead. Doughty led the Giants with 20 points with Zackery chipping in 16 and Shaun Arnold 12. Bidunga paced the Wildkats with 19, who were looking for their first title since 1961. Ben Davis is the 14th undefeated state champion in IHSAA history and first since Warren Central went 32-0 in 2018. The 33 wins breaks the school record for wins and is the second most from a state champion since Vincennes finished 34-1 in the 1922-23 season.
Guerin Catholic’s quest for a third state basketball championship will have to wait for another year. Top-ranked NorthWood hung on to beat the Golden Eagles 66-63 in overtime in the class 3A title game on Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Guerin trailed by as many as 14 points before rallying to tie the game at 52 on a Kamea Chandler three-point play with 1:39 to go in the game. The Panthers scored seven straight early in overtime to take control. Ian Raasch made a lay-up to give NorthWood the lead, then Cade Brenner hit a three-pointer and lay-up to stretch the lead. Brenner led all scores with 28 points, while Chandler paced the Golden Eagles with 22. The win is the Panthers’ first state basketball championship in their first state finals appearance. Guerin head coach Bobby Allen was looking to lead the school to its third title after the program’s first coach Pete Smith won championships in 2012 and 2015. Allen would have joined a select few to win state titles as both players and head coaches. The Cathedral graduate was on the Fighting Irish’s 1998 3A championship team.
Lutheran beat Southwood 97-66 in record-breaking fashion to win the class 1A boys’ state basketball championship Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The title is the Saints’ first in basketball and second this academic year after the football team won the 1A championship in November at Lucas Oil Stadium. Lutheran broke North Central’s record for most points scored in a state final in the multi-class era, while tying Crispus Attucks’ record for single-class basketball. The Saints also broke the finals’ record for most points in a quarter with 36 in the second. They trailed by five early in the frame before going on a 33-9 run to take a 19-point lead into halftime. Cayden Loescher led Lutheran with 22 points with Durray Smith adding 21. LJ Ward, Kaiden Patterson and Kameron Patterson also scored in double-figures for the Saints. The lopsided loss ended a magical run for Southwood, who entered the tournament below the .500 mark. The second-place finish is the second in school history after being runner-up in 2018.
Indiana University Field Hockey names Leah Zellner as assistant Coach
Indiana coach Kayla Bashore has announced the hiring of Leah Zellner to Indiana Field Hockey’s coaching staff as an assistant coach. Zellner comes to Bloomington after graduating from the University of Iowa and playing five seasons of field hockey there from 2018-2022. Zellner transitions from her playing career to the coaching ranks with plenty of success and knowledge as she starred in five great seasons as a Hawkeye.
She played in 96 games with 70 starts while also marking 15 goals and 10 assists in the course of her career. The standout forward recorded six game-winning goals and had 65.4% of her shots taken on goal throughout her five years, as well. In the 2019 season she posted a career-best seven goals. Zellner’s Iowa teams had a combined record of 72-29 in her five seasons. Those five seasons featured two Big Ten regular season championships (2019, 2021), a Big Ten Tournament title (2019) and five NCAA Tournament appearances. In the 2020-21 season, the Hawkeyes reached the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 1 North Carolina.
Zellner is an Emmaus, Pa. native and had a standout career at Emmaus High School. She notched 110 goals and 49 assists in her career there. She was a two-time Pennsylvania AAA State Champion in 2015 and 2016 and was a three-time Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Champion from 2015-2017. Zellner was also selected to the USA Indoor Field Hockey Team in 2016 and 2017 and was a gold medalist at the U-16 National Club Championship in 2016 and U-19 Shooting Star Showcase with the WC Eagles.
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