At different points in Fishers’ march to 43 consecutive victories, a team would occasionally stress the Tigers, even taking leads into the fourth quarter. Every time, the Tigers knew the opponent did not believe it would win.
They were right.
Until Saturday night. The top-ranked Tigers, in front of a crowd of 14,483 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse full of red-clad Jeffersonville and Fishers fans for the Class 4A state championship, finally met their match. It took everything and some to end Fishers’ 43-game winning streak.
Final: Jeffersonville 67, Fishers 66. In overtime.
“There’s only two teams in the state that really play like that,” Jeffersonville senior Michael Cooper said. “It’s them and us. We kind of matched their intensity and picked them up full court. They had to use the same amount of energy that other teams they were beating were using. Everybody is going to get tired when you play like that.”
In other words, fight fire with fire against a team with the fifth-longest winning streak in state history. Senior Tre Singleton, a 6-8 Northwestern recruit, was the main antagonist, finishing with 26 points, five rebounds and four assists to lead the sixth-ranked Red Devils (24-5). Fishers was unable to slow him down most of the night. But Singleton’s biggest play came on a pass, not a shot.
It came after No. 1 Fishers took a 66-65 lead with 1:07 left in overtime on a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Millen McCartney – the first lead in the extra session for the Tigers.
“I knew when it shot it, it was going in,” Fishers coach Garrett Winegar said of McCartney’s shot. “I fully expected us to get a stop. Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe you take the timeout and set the (defense), but we had the momentum.”
On the next possession, Singleton backed his man down in the post, then dished off to a cutting Elijah Cheeks, whose layup gave the Red Devils a 67-66 lead with 37 seconds remaining. Winegar said the next defender over should have rotated to stop Cheeks from getting to the basket.
“I knew when they collapsed on Tre, I’d get an open look,” said Cheeks, who finished with four points.
Said Singleton: “I saw his man start to dig the post on me and as soon as I saw him dive with his hands up – and he did a good job of keeping his hands up – I passed it and he did a good job of catching the ball in traffic and finishing. He did all of it.”
Jeffersonville then had to survive a couple of heart-in-your-throat moments in the final seconds. Jason Gardner Jr. missed a contested pull-up jumper, but the ball went out of bounds to Fishers with 9 seconds remaining. After the baseline inbounds, Singleton deflected Gardner Jr.’s jump shot, but Fishers again got the rebound and a timeout with 2.1 seconds left.
“On the baseline out of bounds, we tried to get Jason downhill,” Winegar said. “Then we got the sideline out of bounds with 2.1 seconds to go and they were playing off Cooper (Zachary). So, the goal was to get it in and pitch it right back to him.”
But with Zachary closely guarded after stepping in bounds, McCartney caught the ball going away from the basket and shot an off balance 3-pointer that only grazed the bottom of the backboard before it fell harmlessly to the floor.
As Jeffersonville’s players jumped and celebrated on the floor, one of the few people who could understand what they were feeling – Jeffersonville coach Sherron Wilkerson – hugged his assistant coaches. In 1993, Wilkerson led the Red Devils to their only previous state championship in state history.
Now, he is one of six coaches to win state as a coach and player. And only the second – joining Don Carlisle of Ben Davis two years ago – to accomplish the double at his alma mater. The emotions were clearly running through the 49-year-old Wilkerson after the game. He has not shied away ...
