IHSAA boys basketball semi-state preview: South Bend area making history Saturday
History is being made for the city of South Bend on Saturday.
For the first time ever, two South Bend-based high schools will be playing on the third weekend of the IHSAA boys basketball state tournament in the same year. Riley (Class 4A) and Saint Joseph (Class 3A) both won regional championships last week to advance to its respective semi-state rounds Saturday.
Saint Joseph will have the advantage of familiarity, as it will travel to Logansport for semi-state for a second-straight season. Riley will get to stay close to home, playing inside Elkhart’s North Side Gymnasium.
Here is more of what to expect from the Huskies and Wildcats this weekend:
Class 3A at Logansport
Saturday schedule: Saint Joseph (24-3) vs. Maconaquah (21-5), 10 a.m.; Delta (17-7) vs. East Chicago Central (20-8), noon; championship, 8 p.m.
If you are a fan of points, Logansport is the place to be Saturday.
Saint Joseph has the top-scoring offense in the state at 75.5 points per game, while Maconaquah is fifth at 72.4. Huskies senior Chase Konieczny is at 2,093 career points, Braves senior Josiah Ball is at 2,100 and East Chicago Central senior Dominque Murphy is at 1,998, with all three leading their respective programs in all-time scoring.
Just like last year, Saint Joseph will play in the first semifinal game. Huskies coach Eric Gaff sees that as an advantage for his team.
“If we can get the win, it’s more time off to recover and get ready for the game at 8,” Gaff said. “I also don’t want my boys just sitting around; there’s less sitting around when the game’s at 10 a.m. I think it’s great, and the guys know what it takes.”
Ball is complimented on offense by classmates AJ Kelly (17.8 points per game) and Devon Murry (10.5 points). The top five scorers for the Braves are seniors.
Josiah Ball 32 points, Devon Murry 18, Fuddy Kile 15, Landon Adams 8, AJ Kelly 5.
— Bryan Gaskins (@BGaskinsKT) March 16, 2025
Although this is the program’s first time in semi-state since 1999, Maconaquah coach John Burrus has plenty of tournament experience, having won six sectional, three regional, and one semi-state title in his 26-year career, the bulk of which came at Southwood.
The second semifinal will be a stylistic clash, as Delta scores fewer than 50 points per game ― but also limits teams to 44.7 a contest as well. The Eagles are in semi-state for a third straight year, winning semifinal games on both prior trips before losing to NorthWood (2023) and Saint Joseph (2024) in the final.
East Chicago Central won a 4A sectional title last year but moved down to 3A this season due to new IHSAA classification rules. They have the youngest head coach in Alaa Mroueh at 24 years old, taking over midway through the 2022-23 season and posting a 52-15 record since then.
The Huskies enter the semi-state as the favorite, given it won semi-state last year and was ranked No. 2 in the final USA Today Network Class 3A regular season poll. The other three teams did not receive votes.
“For us, we are aware that rankings don’t matter,” Gaff said. “That’s what’s great about March – everyone can say they’re the best team this side of the Mississippi, but unless you’re playing like it, it doesn’t really matter. To get to semi-state, you must be good. No team here this weekend doesn’t deserve to be here.”
Class 4A at Elkhart’s North Side Gymnasium
Saturday schedule: Riley (22-4) vs. Fishers (28-0), 10 a.m.; Crown Point (22-2) vs. Homestead (22-5), noon; championship, 8 p.m.
If the games were played on paper, Riley would have no reason to show up Saturday.
Fishers has been the top program in the state for the last two years. They are 57-1 in that time, the most in a two-year stretch since Class basketball came to Indiana 30 years ago. They’ve won 41 games in a row overall, including a 50-point beatdown of Lafayette Harrison in the regional last week.
The Tigers already have a win over the Wildcats this year as well, 89-29 on Jan. 18.
Most of the state has written Riley off already. They feel ready to shock the world.
“At some point, we knew the road most likely was going to have to go through Fishers,” Riley coach Alex Daniel said. “Whether it’s game one or game two, it doesn’t matter. … We were able to see it earlier in the year, know what it’s about, and now we get another crack at it.”
As mentioned earlier, Fishers beat Riley by 60 earlier this season. The Wildcats did not have its full complement of players, however, following a postgame scuffle with South Bend Adams two days prior.
“We were missing about 85 minutes, let’s just leave it at that,” Daniel said. “At the end of the first quarter, it was 13-10. We competed really well. We were playing at their pace, which is our pace, too. It’s one thing to hold up for a quarter … can we sustain that over a four-quarter game?”
Fishers has two Division-I commits: Justin Kirby for basketball (Miami Ohio), and JonAnthony Hall for football (Stanford). Sophomore Jason Gardner Jr. and Cooper Zachary are highly sought-after prospects as well. All four guys average more than 10 points per game.
Riley might need a special performance or two like they had from Tyrese Jones last week. The junior scored 45 points (18-for-21 shooting), adding 10 rebounds and four steals in a 77-71 double-overtime win over Warsaw. The likes of seniors Marvin Schindler, Jaylen Barbara, and Brandon Williams will need to be at their best as well if the Wildcats want to pull the upset.
Crown Point won its first 13 games, then lost the next two before rattling off its current nine-game winning streak. That included avenging a regular season loss to Portage in last week’s regional final.
Homestead plays the best defense of the four teams, in regard to points per game allowed (46.3). Two of its three postseason wins have come against sub-.500 teams, the same as Crown Point.
Follow Austin Hough on X (formerly Twitter) @AustinRHough and on Facebook at "Austin Hough - South Bend Tribune." Hough can be emailed at ahough@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: IHSAA Class 3A, 4A: South Bend boys basketball semi-state preview
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