Trojans are final test (03/24/06)

It’s been an exciting week in Jay County. Surely the same can be said for New Castle.

But Saturday night all the hype and hoopla will come to an end. Starting at 6:06 p.m. it will all come down to two teams, one court, 32 minutes and one Class 3A state champion.

No. 10 New Castle, Jay County’s opponent in the title game at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, got off to a great start this season. They opened 10-0, including a victory over Connersville, and were ranked No. 1 in class 3A.

“We all knew, and I told the players, we’re not as good as everybody thinks we are and we’re going to have to get a lot better,” said New Castle coach Steve Bennett. “We had to keep it in perspective for the simple fact that six of the eight teams in our league won 16 games or more.”

New Castle struggled against its North Central Conference rivals with losses to Marion, Logansport, Muncie Central, Huntington North and Anderson, four of which were ranked in the top 10 in Class 4A for at least part of the season. At that point, Bennett said, he had to convince his players they weren’t as bad as their stretch of six losses in eight games may have indicated.

And the team got back together, winning its final two regular-season games followed by six in the tournament. The last of those was a 60-44 victory over Evansville Mater Dei in which the Trojans trailed by two heading into the final period.

The trip to the finals may have come a year earlier than expected as New Castle is led by junior Zach Hahn (18.5 points per game) and sophomore Chase Stigall (14.8 ppg).

“You’re not going to stop Hahn,” said JCHS coach Craig Teagle of what he’s learned from talking to other coaches who have battled New Castle this year, including Yorktown’s Judd Moulton and Joe Buck of Pendleton Heights. “He’s going to score. He’s going to hit pull-up shots. He’s going to get to the basket. He’s just the type of kid that whether you’re guarding him or not, he’s going to hit shots.

“What you need to do is make sure (Hahn and Stigall) are not breaking you down and kicking and getting a lot of other people involved to. What makes them really tough is not only are those kids athletic good shooters then they crash the boards so hard. If they do miss, they have really good spacing and when the ball goes up they have all those lanes to crash.”

Jay County and New Castle, both 20-6, had five common opponents this season. The Trojans went 4-1 against those with the Patriots at 1-4, but two of those losses came with players out because of injury or illness.

New Castle is comparable to Plymouth offensively as they are very much perimeter oriented. Hahn has hit 68 3-pointers this year, Stigall 52, Drew Tower 28 and Bryant Hazelman 17.

JCHS point guard Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman said while the Trojans are similar to Plymouth, they are also more athletic, taller and simply better all-around. As much would be expected at this point in the tournament.

The Patriots, as has been the case in tournament wins over No. 6 Wawasee and No. 7 Plymouth, will counter with their balanced attack which has senior Tyler Rigby leading the team with 11.7 points per game. Five other players average between 6.6 and 9.2 per contest.

“We’re going to have to be patient, play defense and get good looks on offense,” said Bruggeman. “We’ll have to play great to win.”

Bennett said the scary thing about Jay County is how well they work together as a team to make each other better.

“They play basketball the way it should be played,” he said. “They play hard-nosed defense. They’re physical.

“Offensively the good thing about them is they can do everything you need to do to be able to score ... I think that sums it up more than anything else. They’re pretty versatile, well-rounded.”

The game provides a chance for both teams to end droughts.

While New Castle is a storied program in Indiana, this will be its first trip to the state finals since 1984. It won its only state title in 1932.

Meanwhile, Jay County has never been this far before. The school had never won a regional in its 30 years prior to this season, and no school in county history had ever brought home a semi-state title.

“Obviously I’m very happy for us and our community,” said Bennett. “But I’m happy for Jay County. I respect their coach and players. It’s going to be a great game. I just think they’re finding out up there that sports, if it’s done correctly, can bring a community together.”

Teagle said Bennett’s squad is the best team the Patriots have played since falling 72-48 to Muncie Central in mid-December. Jay County missed several point-blank shots in the opening minutes of that contest, fell behind 16-0 and never recovered.

“I thought we had good shots, but they didn’t go in,” said Teagle of the early drought in the loss to the Bearcats. “Everyone talks about great defense wins championships, I agree, but the ball has to go in the hole. I think you’ve got to hit shots, that’s all there is to it.

“This is the next level up. And I think if you look how we’ve went through the tournament, each game really has been that step up to the next level. To beat them we’ll have to be at our very, very best.”[[In-content Ad]]