4A Regional Recap

<p>4A Regionals have wrapped up and we had a big day of high school hoops that went on in the state of Indiana. Let us dive on in and take a look at some highlights of Saturday’s night of hoops.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><b>Regional 1 </b></p> <p>Regional 1 was pretty one-sided from the start. In the morning games we saw [player_tooltip player_id="569313" first="Blake" last="Wesley"] and South Bend Riley knock off Valparaiso 44-36 followed by an absolute beatdown from Gary West to Elkhart as they beat them 68-34. That led to a, for the most part, fairly close Regional 1 final game between Riley and Gary West which saw Gary West winning that game 58-43. Riley fought as hard as they could the entire game and even led at few times throughout. However, the stacked Cougars squad of [player_tooltip player_id="963905" first="Mason" last="Nicholson"], [player_tooltip player_id="769653" first="Jalen" last="Washington"], and others just found a way to get it done. Gary West will now move on to play Carmel in Semi-State on Saturday.          </p> <p><b>Regional 2</b></p> <p>Regional 2 was easily the most stacked and exciting Regional of the day. Let’s start off with the biggest upset of the day which saw Carmel defeat undefeated Homestead 60-49. Carmel just played great defense and senior PG [player_tooltip player_id="963940" first="Connor" last="Gioia"] stepped up and made some huge plays down the stretch to complete the upset. The next morning game saw Lafayette Jeff survive a tough [player_tooltip player_id="870219" first="Jalen" last="Jackson"] led Fort Wayne Carroll team 52-46. That led to an outstanding final game between Carmel and Lafayette Jeff that saw Carmel beat Jeff by just one point, 50-49. That game was just a battle and senior SF [player_tooltip player_id="783143" first="Brooks" last="Barnhizer"] did everything he could to keep Jeff in the game. In the end however, Carmel’s [player_tooltip player_id="874131" first="Brian" last="Waddell"] made some clutch free-throws to give Carmel the huge win. Carmel travels to Lafayette to face Gary West in Semi-State.  </p> <p><b>Regional 3</b></p> <p>Regional 3 was an intense Regional with a ton of high profile players. The opening games started off with [player_tooltip player_id="830575" first="DJ" last="Hughes"] and Lawrence North defeating [player_tooltip player_id="529593" first="Jayden" last="Brewer"] and Ben Davis 58-44. Through 3 quarters Ben Davis kept it close but by the time the 4th quarter hit, [player_tooltip player_id="870213" first="Chris" last="Gunn"] and squad were just too much for the Giants to keep up with. The next game saw Plainfield beat Mount Vernon 61-52. Although this only ended up being a single digit win from Plainfield, Mt. Vernon just really never got into this game as senior PF [player_tooltip player_id="874172" first="Ian" last="Scott"] was just way too much for Mt. Vernon to handle. In the final game, Lawrence North beat Plainfield 43-39. Nobody really gave Plainfield a real chance that they would win this game but man did this team fight until the very end. Lawrence North is just at an entirely different level and they will go on to play Bloomington South at Semi-State.            </p> <p><b>Regional 4</b></p> <p>Seymour has been the place to be this post-season and the opening games for Regional 4 proved that yet again. The first game was a thrilling back-and-forth game which saw Bloomington South survive the talented [player_tooltip player_id="769655" first="Will" last="Lovings-Watts"] Jeffersonville team, 51-50. Following that was an even more exciting game that saw [player_tooltip player_id="783155" first="Owen" last="Dease"] and Evansville Reitz defeat [player_tooltip player_id="874190" first="Landin" last="Hacker"] and Center Grove in overtime 63-61. The Regional final however, was a little anticlimactic as Bloomington South beat Reitz in a somewhat surprisingly blowout, 49-51. Bloomington South has been one of the hottest teams in the State and they are continuing to prove doubters wrong. They will have their toughest challenge yet as they will need to go through Lawrence North to make it to the State Finals.   </p>