Takeaways From the Class 3A and 4A IHSAA Boys Basketball State Championship Games
We are just days removed from the 2025 IHSAA boys' state championship, and what a day it was. Eight teams took action, ranging from South Bend in the far northern part of the state to Orleans in the southern part of the state (a whole 3 hours and 37 minutes apart from each other—isn't Indiana lovely?). Those eight teams put on a show for one of the best crowds in the championships' now 115th year history (including a record 10,457 people for the early session) and wrapped up the incredible 2025 season with a storybook ending that involved the seemingly unstoppable Fishers Tigers falling just a point short from back-to-back championships to the now champion Red Devils of Jeffersonville.
I was, of course, in attendance in the ONLY way one should be in attendance, that being off quite literally zero minutes of sleep after work, and enjoyed every second of it. This isn't the only time I've been in this state in the previous few weeks. I followed the eventual champion Red Devils throughout the entirety of their playoff run, made my way to semi-state in the same condition, and was rewarded with an enjoyable Jennings County and Princeton game, followed by a blowout to the Evansville Harrison Warriors by way of Jeffersonville. The point I'm getting at is I have seen a lot of basketball these past few weeks and am ready to unpack the culmination of everything I saw down below.
If you enjoy this piece, please feel free to share or subscribe to the newsletter (it's free!) on updates for everything I post on The Hardwood Tribune. It means the world, and I appreciate it always.
Author's Note: Real quick, just wanted to say, yes, that is the same intro that is in the 1A and 2A sister article to this piece. It was originally supposed to be all four in the same article, but it was over 5,000 words, so, yeah.
Practice Makes Perfect for Coach Eric Gaff
The Tigers of Indianapolis Crispus Attucks and the Huskies of South Bend Saint Joseph played the closest 3A state championship game since the 66-63 OT thriller between Northwood and Guerin Catholic in 2023. What started with a very confident and determined Tigers team eventually led to a barrage from a handful of Huskies who made it their mission to outclass the Tigers beginning in the 2nd quarter. Down one to Attucks at 18-17, the Huskies opted for a 7-0 run to push their way back in front of the Tigers by one and would keep that six-point lead at 30-24 to enter the halftime period.
Sophomore Elijah King and junior Nick Shrewsberry were the tale of the tape for the opening half of play. Oddly enough, senior and three-star recruit Chase Koniecnzy (pronounced in the same vein as Krzyewski, as in Mike Krzyewski, yeah, I had no idea either) was particularly quiet and didn't seem to be getting too involved in the offensive schemes for the Huskies, but played a greater defensive role. The Huskies opted for their same gameplan they utilized in the first half to open the second half, and it continued to work wonders with another 7-0 run with around four minutes to go in the final quarter to extend the game to a nine-point lead. The Tigers' juggernaut opted for a run of their own, led by seniors and three-star recruit Dezmon Briscoe (who recently reopened his recruitment as he decommitted from Iowa after the dismissal of now former Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery) and Chris Hurt on a 9-0 run to naught the game up at 50. The final few minutes of the matchup felt eerie. It wasn't an offensive masterclass, it was a defensive prize fight. Neither the Tigers nor the Huskies shot above 20% and 44% from three and the field overall, respectively. The crowd is on their feet, and Gainbridge Fieldhouse is as loud as it has been all day. Shrewsberry has the ball with just under a minute to go, cross-cross, step, shot, back-iron. But don't breathe yet, as the 6'4 Koniecnzy leaves the ground from three feet in front of the rim to throw down an exclamation point of a yam over the Tigers. An incredible sequence that required every person involved to be in the right spot at the right moment, the crowd exploded as the senior took all the momentum from the Tigers with just 52 seconds to go. 52-50, the game was far from over; however, a missed shot on the other end allowed for 54% free-throw shooter Brashaun Woods to hit two on the other end of the court with just a few seconds to go. The Tigers' Kayden English was able to find the bottom of the basket on the other end to bring up the Tigers' final breath, but it was too little, too late as Shrewsberry iced two more free throws to defeat the Tigers 56-52 and claim the Huskies first state championship in program history.
The historic Tigers had quite the run themselves to the state championship game. The farthest they've made it since their run to the state championship game in the 2018-2019 season, they managed to claw their way through one of the more difficult 3A South brackets in recent memory. Wins over top 10 teams like Brady Koehler (Notre Dame commit) and the Indianapolis Cathedral Fighting Irish as well as the season-long favored New Palestine Dragons proved as much as both teams were in contention for top 3A favorites throughout the entirety of the year. Unfortunately, what the Tigers ran into was a Huskies team that was peaking at the exact right time. It was a team built on letting the stars operate the offense and picking up on opponent mistakes on the defensive end that had not lost a game since early February. Even with a quiet first half and overall scoring game from a player like Koniecnzy, he picked up the rest of the piece to turn in a complete game that was used to lift the Huskies to the title.
What we saw was not only a team finding its rhythm at an ideal time, it was a coach who knew it was their time. Coach Eric Gaff was only in his fourth season at the helm and made due after falling ever so short in the state championship last season. The Huskies are now the 18th team to ever lose the state championship one year, then make and win it the next season. It is Coach Garr's first ever varsity head coaching job, and he made inheriting a 21 win Huskies squad with a multitude of graduating seniors into a state champion look easy.
South Bend Saint Joseph will have four graduating seniors this year, including the studded backcourt of AJ Boone and Koniecnzy. This core off to the next level of basketball was essentially Coach Gaff's first team he was able to guide throughout the entirety of their high school careers, and if the Huskies can maintain solid talent and development for the underclassmen, expect to see Coach Gaff and the Huskies atop the 3A (maybe 4A?, maybe...) class for quite awhile.
The Red Devils should have Never Been Counted Out
"He's biased!" you say, as the guy who never played regulated basketball at any school level tells you what an unbelievable past four years the Red Devils of Jeffersonville have had. "Yes," I respond, "I am."
Luckily for you, dear reader, the biases and deconstruction of this Red Devils team will be saved for a future piece. As for now, all you'll be reading is the analysis of a David that seemed to have conquered Goliath (although, if you've been following this Red Devils team for the past five months, it shouldn't have).
The intensity in Gainbridge Fieldhouse was palpable as fans struggled to find a closer seat to what felt like the biggest game in recent state championship history. The unbeaten, dominant, seemingly unstoppable Fishers Tigers made their way to center court to try to repeat as Class 4A state champions, a feat that had yet to be accomplished that decade. Standing in their way was the team just under two hours south of where the players stood at center court, the Red Devils of Jeffersonville. After falling just a single point short the season before against the Ben Davis Giants in the semi-state championship game, the Red Devils had rebounded incredibly well, especially after the return of senior Tre Singleton in late December from a broken bone in his foot.
The Red Devils, even without Singleton, were an incredible team. Led by 3rd year head coach and Jeffersonville basketball legend Sherron Wilkerson, the roster featured studded talent all around from the likes of division 1 players such as Wright State commits Michael Cooper and PJ Douglas. Combine that with fellow seniors such as University of Indianapolis football commit Raijon Laird as well as Hanover commit Shawn Boyd, and a heaving of role players to fill the gaps, this team was no joke. A rough start to the year without Singleton is what catapulted the underdog mantra that followed the Red Devils throughout the season. The team held a record of just 6-5 heading into late January, with, granted, all losses coming to incredible teams this season in Pike (coached by Pike legend Jeff Teague in case you didn't know), Noblesville, Silver Creek, Greenfield-Central (a three point loss against the likely Indiana Mr. Basketball and Uconn commit in Braylon Mullins), as well as Lawrence North, a team the Red Devils know very well as they defeated Azavier Robinson and the Wildcats the previous season in the opening round of semi-state action. Singleton made his season debut in the second half vs Greenfield Central, where he looked, well, fine. You can tell he and the coaching staff were (rightfully so) cautious with his foot and would be playing in limited minutes. It was a decent enough outing, and it was good enough for a return game. The season shifted on January 17th, when the Red Devils handled the Highlanders of Floyd Central well and took full control of the season, not giving up a single loss for the rest of the regular season (with one very close call vs Carter Kent and the Jennings County Panthers). The Red Devils cruised through sectionals in Seymour, handling fellow state contender New Albany for the second time that season handily. Regionals featured the Red Devils controlling an overmatched Evansville Harrison team. New Castle was the next stop, the exact time and place their season ended the year previous in a heartbreaking loss to the Giants of Ben Davis in the second round of semi-state. This time around, the Red Devils were matched with then 2nd-ranked Mount Vernon, with the winner playing the Lawrence North Wildcats after they handled Terre Haute North in the first game of the day. Up to that point in the season, the Red Devils and the Marauders put on the game of the season, as the Red Devils rallied from down double digits in the fourth quarter to defeat Luke Ertel (three-star Purdue commit, this guy is incredible) and Mount Vernon. The rematch with Lawrence North came six hours later (I watched the first half of Arkansas-St. Johns, then promptly fell asleep in the car for an hour) which featured a close battle that ended up with a Red Devils victory after an unbelievable back-and-forth "who's got the ball?" closing few minutes. For the first time since 1995, the Red Devils were headed back to Indianapolis.
While we look at the resume of the Red Devils and see a powerhouse on paper, the team lining up on the other side was a different breed. The Fishers Tigers were on a 43-game win streak entering the final game of the 2025 boys basketball season. The Red Devils hadn't lost since January, the Tigers hadn't since January 2024. The Tigers boasted not a very heavy senior roster but an incredibly deep and talented core to go with it. The Tigers featured six players who have a route to continue basketball post-high school, and one Division 1-level football commit as well. The sophomore core of Cooper Zachary (offers to Eastern Illinois and Kent State) and Jason Gardner (the second-ranked player in the 2027 class for Indiana), who blend to form the best (not could be, the best) underclassmen backcourt in the state. The seniors fill out the rest of the basketball recruits. There's Millen McCartney, the 6'3 guard committed to Indiana Wesleyan. Nathan Baker, the tallest on the Tigers' roster at 6'7, committed to play at Taylor University. Guard JonAnthony Hall, committed to playing football at Stanford University. Finally, the second leading scorer on the team, Justin Kirby, committed to play at Miami (OH). The most impressive stat you'll hear from this Fishers roster is that the leading scorer for the team is four-star Jason Gardner, at just 14.5 points per game. A team that ended the season averaging 73.3 points per game did so with four different players averaging double figures. Coach Garrett Winegar did not try and construct a team designed to out-star opponents (he ended up doing so anyway); he constructed a unit to dominate opponents. There isn't much to highlight when it comes to this Fishers season as, you know, they didn't lose a game. It was a dominant season for the Fishers, with their two closest games of the season coming from the Indiana Hall of Fame Classic (the same exhibition which featured the Red Devils falling to Lawrence North then defeating Warsaw), where both Warsaw and Greenfield Central took them down to the wire (a three-point and six-point win, respectively). The Tigers dominated fellow state championship contenders such as Noblesville, Mt. Vernon, and Lawrence North (all by double digits) in the regular season and breezed through the Northern side of the 4A bracket, including a near 30-point victory against quite possibly the best Crown Point team in program history.
The Tigers were rolling (sprinting, if you will) and didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. The Red Devils were at the peak of their powers and couldn't seem to lose even if they tried. It was Indianapolis' finest facing off against possibly the best Southern Indiana squad since Romeo Langford and the Bulldogs nearly a decade ago, and it was all to be decided at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
In front of a crowd of 14,000+ fans, the ball was tipped and found the hands of the Tigers. Heavy pressure was the initial strategy for both sides, as both coaches knew what it would take to gain an early advantage. The South side of Gainbridge Fieldhouse explodes when Jeffersonville junior Elijah Cheeks displays his excellent court awareness by finding his way to the rim away from the ball to position himself for an easy under-the-basket lay-in. Fishers seemed to have correctly identified a weakness of the Red Devils, as they forced three turnovers in the first quarter and used them to take an 11-8 point advantage in the opening quarter of the matchup. Welcome to the second quarter, after a scoring barrage from the Tigers, who now lead 18-14, it's time for the Shawn Boyd show. The senior guard for the Red Devils saw his season cut prematurely the year prior, chin splints sidelined him for the entirety of the playoff run. The senior made his return at the beginning of the season and managed to be a mainstay in the rotation throughout the year. The first ripple came after Boyd found his spot three feet behind the trey arc and hit nothing but net. The juice fueled the Red Devils, who got a second straight stop, and who else but Boyd finds his way to the same spot he released the previous spot, and the result was like clockwork. The run ended when Boyd, this time, found his spot within the arc to conclude the half with eight points to his name (he would go on to finish with 11, and finish 3-3 on the night from long range). The half wraps with the Red Devils in full control with a 30-24 lead as Singleton finishes the half with 11 of his own. Fishers quickly cut the lead down to just three at the beginning of the second half when the Red Devils began to return the favor. It's now a seven-point lead for the Red Devils when the scoring slows down for both teams. Three turnovers from the Tigers are what cause a not-so-comfortable nine-point lead with just a few minutes remaining in the 3rd. I say that because over the course of just over a minute remaining in the 3rd quarter, the Tigers pick up the pressure and tempo to cut the lead to just three as they go on a 6-0 run to end the period. With a classic brewing on high heat, the quarter begins with the usual Singleton affair. The senior has been outclassing whoever is stuck with him on the block the entire night and continues to do so throughout the fourth. He begins with a quick six primarily because of what the Red Devils have done so well since his return, letting offense and the game operate around their big guy. The momentum begins to shift for the Tigers, as Gardner Jr takes matters into his own hands and scores five straight for the Tigers, who regain their first lead since the first quarter of play. The second go-to guy for the Red Devils all season was Michael Cooper, who makes a tough finish to tie the game at 60 a piece. Kirby, on the other side, fails to convert on a layup, with the ball somehow ending up in possession of the Red Devils. Singleton breaks away and finds the ball in his hands, hot-step, set, shot... in-and-out. Overtime.
Overtime is as tense as you would expect. Not a single seat in either team's section is taken as everybody is on their feet. The tip commences with the Red Devils controlling the ball. Both teams trade their own three-point runs to even it all out at 63 apiece. Cooper for Jeffersonville once again forces his way to the paint and is able to get a shot off before the whistle, sending him to the line. 65-63, Fishers' timeout. 1 minute and 16 seconds to go. The Tigers break their huddle and find their way up the court. The team does what they do best and controls the ball in a way that even a Jason Kidd would be proud of. The offense is set, seconds are ticking away, and a 3-pointer finds the bottom of the basket for the Tigers, 66-65. 37 seconds remain, and the Red Devils control the basketball. These were the two best teams in the state playing to each other's weaknesses, where the Tigers almost made the Red Devils pay after the struggle for the ball near midcourt. It mattered none, as the clock ticked under 40 seconds, none other than Elijah Cheeks finds his way to the basket once more and finishes after a dime from Tre Singleton. Lead, Jeffersonville. The Tigers did as much as they could in the remaining few seconds, but it didn't seem to be. Two missed jumpers from Gardner, both followed by offensive rebounds, set up for what was to be the final shot of the match. Fishers would be inbounding in front of their bench with just over 2 seconds remaining. This was it, this would be the shot that would decide the state championship. The team is set, and the whistle blows. The Tigers send players in all directions, but they're going towards their senior, McCartney. The guard receives the ball, takes one step right, and turns his body towards the basket three feet behind the 3-point line in absolute deafening silence, where the shot falls just short. 67-66, the Red Devils were state champions.
Celebration ensues, of course, but the pandemonium began far before March 29th, 2025. A Red Devil team that just two short seasons ago got blown out by 50 by Indianapolis Cathedral in the opening game of the Sherron Wilkerson (coaching) era was now able to call themselves state champions. A valiant effort from the Fishers Tigers who, let's face it, will near-100% be in the same situation a year from now as they were this just a week ago from writing this, come up just short against what some could argue was the team of destiny. You could pull it from a Disney movie (no, not one of those straight-to-DVD rips you'll find in a Family Dollar bargain bin) how this team was constructed and how it completed its journey throughout the lifetime of this core. This state championship was a long time coming for the Red Devils and the community of Jeffersonville. This wasn’t just Jeffersonville’s year. It was their story.
For more from The Hardwood Tribune, follow the hyperlink or follow on Instagram: @hardwoodtribune.
