Hall of Fame Classic – Evening Recap

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For Indiana High School Basketball fans there is a sort of annual pilgrimage to New Caste, Indiana in between Christmas and New Year for the Hall of Fame Classic. This event brings four of the best teams in the state to The Largest and Finest High School Fieldhouse in the World for a great day of basketball. This season the lineup feature four Class 4A Top 10 teams in Fishers, Greenfield-Central, Jeffersonville, and Warsaw. After spending the morning at the Phil Cox Memorial Tournament in Kokomo, Prep Hoops Indiana made it to New Castle for the third place and championship games at the Hall of Fame Classic. Let's recap the evening's two great games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Jeffersonville 51 Warsaw 44</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Warsaw gave Fishers all they could handle in the morning semifinal and took Jeffersonville down to the wire as well, but unfortunately the previously undefeated Tigers dropped both games on Saturday. Northwestern signee [player_tooltip player_id='1388408' first='Tre' last='Singleton'] made his return to the Jeffersonville lineup for the first time this season in their loss to Greenfield-Central earlier in the day, but he did not dress for this third place matchup. However, the Red Devils were able to secure a quality win without their 6'8" star. They withstood a second half barrage of three-point shots from Warsaw to come away with the 51-44 victory and third place finish at the 2024 Hall of Fame Classic.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wright State signee [player_tooltip player_id='1297093' first='Michael' last='Cooper'] finished with 19 points and 6 rebounds to lead Jeffersonville. [player_tooltip player_id='2622021' first='Jacob' last='Wilkerson'] added 9 points and 6 rebounds. In the loss for Warsaw, senior wing [player_tooltip player_id='2391213' first='Brandt' last='Martin'] scored 18 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. He had a very good showing in both games at the Hall of Fame Classic. [player_tooltip player_id='1529288' first='Robbie' last='Finlinson'] added 9 points on 3-5 shooting from deep.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Fishers 85 Greenfield-Central 80</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This matchup lived up to the hype. Two of the best teams in the state of Indiana faced off in the Hall of Fame Classic championship game and turned in one of the best contests of the season. Fishers delivered haymaker after haymaker, but Greenfield-Central simply wouldn't go away. In the first quarter it was [player_tooltip player_id='2140345' first='Cooper' last='Zachary'] who was on fire from beyond the arc. Then, in the second period, [player_tooltip player_id='1297069' first='Justin' last='Kirby'] took over. Those two would go on to combine for 11 made three-point shots. Overall, the Tigers connected on 13-23 from beyond the arc. However, Greenfield-Central was there every step of the way. They shot 9-18 from three-point range and 62.5% overall, but came up just short 85-80.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sophomore guard [player_tooltip player_id='2267046' first='Jason' last='Gardner Jr.'] finished with 20 points and 9 assists while Miami (OH) signee [player_tooltip player_id='1297069' first='Justin' last='Kirby'] shot 6-9 from deep and also scored 20 points to tie for the team-lead. Sophomore guard [player_tooltip player_id='2140345' first='Cooper' last='Zachary'] added 18 points and 7 assists for the Tigers. As a team, Fishers assisted on 25 of 31 made baskets. As for Greenfield-Central, it was UConn signee [player_tooltip player_id='1296984' first='Braylon' last='Mullins'] who led all scorers with 33 points. He also finished with 8 rebounds. Senior guards [player_tooltip player_id='2485685' first='Boston' last='Willard'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1306153' first='Michael' last='Johnson'] each played very well scoring 18 points and 17 points respectively.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->