On Saturday, April 3rd, the Carmel Greyhounds traveled to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to take on the Lawrence North Wildcats for the 4A State Championship game! With the state tournament ending early last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the uncertainty of the finale of the current season, the Hounds and Wildcats were itching to get back to Bankers to see who could take it all home. Previously, the Hounds defeated the Wildcats in the regular season at Lawrence North with a score of 63-49, without senior Brian Waddell. The Hounds went into the game with a record of 25-2 and were on a 9 game winning streak, while the Wildcats held a record of 28-2! It was the Hounds and the Wildcats and it all game down to this for the title!

The game began with the Wildcats going out on a 6-0 run to have the advantage over the Hounds! However, after a quick timeout, Carmel was able to go on an 11-2 run gaining the lead with a score of 11-8 at the first media timeout! After more back and forth action, the Hounds were able to close out the first quarter with a score of 11-8!

During the second quarter, both senior starters Brian Waddell and Connor Gioia came alive to help maintain the lead for the Greyhounds! Halfway through the second quarter, the Hounds were ahead with a score of 18-16! Gioia was able to knock in his second three of the night with 2 minutes to go, giving the Hounds the upper hand advantage, and allowing Carmel to shoot from 50% from the three point range! Going into the locker room, Carmel was leading over Lawrence North with a score of 23-22! The halftime stats were as follows: Brian Waddell was the leading scorer for the Hounds with 10 points, and 4 rebounds! Carmel had 11 rebounds, as Lawrence North only had 5! Carmel’s field goal percentage was 50%, while Lawrence North’s was 61%!

With the final half left to play to see who would be victorious with the title, the Hounds came out ready to close the game! Junior Peter Suder was able to put in back to back layups to increase the lead to 29-25! Here came Waddell too! After a major dunk, the Hounds continued to maintain a steady lead throughout the entirety of the third quarter! As the third came to a close, Waddell had 13 points, Suder and Gioia had 6 with the score being 32-27 in favor of the Hounds!
With one final quarter of the season to play, the Wildcats were not done yet! IU commit CJ Gunn was able to help pull his team over the hump and gain the lead in the fourth! The score was 33-34 in favor of the Wildcats with 4 minutes left to go! However, Waddell was not about to let the title slip away from the Hounds as he was able to drill in a three! With continuous back and forth shots taken by both teams, at the end of regulation, the game was tied at 38! 

As the game headed into overtime, Gioia was the first one to hit another 3 and put the Hounds up 3 with 2 minutes to go! However, Lawrence North had an answer with a layup! On the other end of the floor, junior Charlie Williams was fouled and went to the line for 2 with 2:57 to go! Carmel was up by one point! But, Lawrence North was able to tie it up again! Junior Josh Whack went to the line with 1:17 to go and was able to make both of his free throws! As time went on, Gioia was fouled and went to the line for a 1 and 1 but was unsuccessful at connecting his first attempt, but Suder was able to snatch the rebound! Within 30 seconds, Whack was fouled twice and was able to knock in four more free throws! With 31 seconds left in overtime, Carmel was ahead by four, but Lawrence North was able to counter Whack’s FT and hit a three! Waddell then went to the line and was able to get two more! With 27 seconds to go, Carmel was ahead by three! Lawrence North went down the floor and had an open look but missed their three attempt! Carmel was able to grab the rebound, and Whack would be fouled one final time in the game! The Carmel Greyhounds would go on to win the game with a score of 51-46, marking them the 4A State Champions!

WHJE would like to congratulate the Carmel basketball team on a tremendous season! We would like to shout out the seniors on a fantastic four years and wish them the best of luck next year! The Greyhounds would end the season with a record of 26-2, a 10 game win streak, a #25 national ranking, and obtain the title as Back-to-Back State Champions! Congratulations, Greyhounds!

Photo credit to Jim Inskeep!