INDIANAPOLIS – Breaking a century-plus drought of state championships isn’t supposed to be easy.
For Orleans, its road to an IHSAA basketball Class A state championship definitely wasn’t.
The fourth-ranked Bulldogs broke from a 46-46 tie early in the fourth quarter and finished Saturday's title game on an 18-9 run to claim a 64-55 win over Clinton Prairie at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Bulldogs' last state finals trip was in 1914, and to win the school's first state title had to go through the No. 1- and 2-ranked teams at the Seymour semistate last week, then take out No. 3 Clinton Prairie on Saturday.
That’s about the hardest road you can take and long-time coach Tom Bradley spread the credit around for his team’s successful run.
“More than anything (winning) is a gift to our community,” said Bradley, who picked up his 425th career victory. “Our community is so good about supporting anything that goes on and this was a chance to say we appreciated their support.”
The victory came as a result of a state-record shooting performance.
The Bulldogs (25-4) shot 23-of-36 from the floor, a sizzling 64%. That broke the previous Class A mark of 56% set by Loogootee in 2012. That hot shooting kept Orleans pretty much in control the whole way as it never trailed by more than three points the entire contest.
Clinton Prairie’s last lead came at 23-21 after a 3-pointer by Evan Smock with 4:06 left before halftime. The Bulldogs finished the half on a 7-2 run, then opened the third quarter with a 16-8 spurt to build their biggest lead at 44-33.
But, with a century-plus drought to overcome, Orleans wasn’t going to have it so easy.
“We knew a team like that would make a run,” Bradley said.
The Gophers (26-2) did just that behind 6-5 senior Jake McGraw. He scored six points in a quarter-ending 11-2 spurt that pulled CP with 46-44. McGraw then opened the fourth quarter converting a driving lay-up to tie the score.
“We picked up our intensity,” CP coach Chad Peckinpaugh said. “We picked them up half-court and a little beyond and that got us some turnovers and got a few more rebounds.”
From that point on, Orleans caught fire. The Bulldogs hit 6-of-7 from the floor in the final quarter, while CP went cold. The Gophers only hit 5-of-15 from the floor during the final eight minutes.
“We had some looks,” Peckinpaugh said, “but shots we typically hit just didn’t go down.”
Orleans' Alex DeWitt finished with a game-high 24 points (on 10-of-14 shooting), along with a team-high seven rebounds.
“Alex turned it on the second part of the year,” Bradley said. “He’s been spectacular since Christmas. Every game, we could count on him to score for us.”
Bryce Jones, the Ray Craft Mental Attitude Award winner, added 17 points (6-of-8 from the floor) for the winners and Rylan Crocker netted 16.
McGraw led CP with 23 points and seven rebounds and Alex Farley netted 16.
The two teams combined for a Class A record for combined field goal percentage at 53% (44-of-83). Rossville and Barr Reeve combined ...
