By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
INDIANAPOLIS – True high school basketball fans love to wax romantic about the game. We speak of great coaching, great strategies, or heroic efforts. We do not like to acknowledge the simple fact that 90 percent of the time, talent will prevail.
Yet that was the case in the Class 2A state championship game March 28 at Conseco Fieldhouse. Unranked Brownstown brought a great game plan to the battle. The Braves were coached superbly and gave tremendous effort. Yet No. 2 Fort Wayne Luers was by far the more talented team.
That was more than enough to allow Luers (23-4) to defend its 2A state title with a 67-49 victory that was closer than the score indicates.
Speaking of talent, how good is Deshaun Thomas? The 6’7” junior guard – the state’s scoring leader at 31.7 points a game and Indiana’s second-leading rebounder at a 15.7 clip – is good enough to have scored 34 points and grab 15 rebounds on the state’s biggest stage in what everyone acknowledges was not one of his better performances.
That is pretty darn good.
“Thomas is the best high school player I’ve seen – he’s incredible,” said 11th-year Brownstown coach Dave Benter. “There’s not really anybody in the state that can control him.”
Brownstown (20-7), the 2A state runner-up five years ago, brought a deliberate style to the floor, and it worked well early in the contest. The first official timeout came with 3:53 left in the opening quarter and the score tied 1-1. The next two minutes, however, revealed the theme of this contest.
Luers hit a 3-pointer and turned two steals into quick baskets, and in a flash the score was 10-1. The Braves began the long road back by scoring the final four points of the period, but they still trailed 10-5 after eight minutes.
“Brownstown came in and played a solid game,” said fifth-year Luers coach James Blackmon, the former Marion and University of Kentucky standout. “They came out with the box-and-one, and I thought that was a good defensive strategy. Our thing was to come out and try to control the tempo.
“In that first quarter, they controlled the tempo. But our guys did a great job of adjusting. Then we did a better job of getting in the passing lanes, created some easy steals, and were able to up-tempo the ballgame.”
The deliberate pace and Brownstown’s tightly packed zone defense seemed to stagnate the Luers offense in the second quarter. The Knights were forced to fire from beyond the 3-point arc on most occasions, and they shot poorly (a measly 1 for 11 in the opening 16 minutes). That was enough to allow Brownstown and talented 6’6” senior center Blaze Ayers to slowly creep back into contention.
The Braves twice cut the lead to two during the period and trailed only 24-21 at intermission. You could begin to feel the anticipation that perhaps one of those romantic upsets was in the offing.
“In the first half, I thought we played at the pace we needed to,” Benter said. “We controlled the tempo, and I thought we had them a little frustrated at halftime.”
It became more than anticipation early in the third quarter when Brownstown grabbed a one-point lead at 25-24 with 5:40 left in the stanza. The Braves had dominated play for 14 minutes and erased the initial Luers blast.
Unfortunately for the southerners from Jackson County, another surge was coming.
Luers responded to the threat with a 7-0 run fueled by two steals on the defensive end. This time, Brownstown was unable to stem the tide as Thomas began to dominate.
He found the range from the field and also managed two huge offensive tip-ins in the remainder of the quarter. By the end of the period, Luers had expanded the lead to 17 points. With a 24-6 barrage in just less than six minutes, it was clear evidence that the Fort Wayne squad simply didn’t have to work as hard to score points.
Talent prevailed.
“I talked to the guys about things we could control and can’t control,” Blackmon said. “I told them we couldn’t control whether the ball may or may not go in for us. But we could control our effort and composure.
“Even though the shots didn’t drop early, I thought they were really hustling and doing things for us to win that ballgame.”
Brownstown fought valiantly, but the Braves threatened at no point in the final quarter. The pace quickened and allowed Luers to display its potent open-court attack. The 18-point final margin was evidence of the second-half beatdown the Knights delivered.
“You have to make shots,” said Benter, whose team finished just 17 of 54 (32 percent) from the floor. “We missed a lot of shots that we’ve been making in the tournament. But some of that credit goes to Luers – they sometimes get you playing at a pace with their quickness that you’re not used to.
“Their quickness … you can’t simulate that in practice. I haven’t coached a kid in 11 years as quick as their slowest starter, probably.”
Six-foot senior guard Lawrence Barnett joined Thomas in double figures for Luers with 12 points, while 5’9” sophomore guard Ken Mullen added 10 points and broke the 2A championship-game record with four blocked shots.
Ayers led Brownstown with 18 points, including a stellar 12-of-13 effort from the free throw line, while 6-foot junior guard Ryan Shoemaker added 10. The Braves were severely hampered by the combined 19-percent shooting (6 of 32) from the starting trio of Ayers, 6’3″ sophomore guard Spencer Allman, and 6’7″ junior forward Taylor Wischmeier.
So can Thomas, who now sits in 11th place on the state’s all-time scoring list with 2,254 points, break Damon Bailey’s state scoring record of 3,134?
“This is reachable,” Blackmon said. “There are records breaking on a daily basis. Each game, we talk about another milestone as far as a record.
“If we continue to play like this next year, it’s something I think he can accomplish.”
Hoosier Authority spoke with Luers coach James Blackmon immediately following the game. His comments are in the video player on this page.
Brownstown’s Ayers named Mental Attitude Award winner
Following the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Brownstown’s Blaze Ayers as the winner of the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award. Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, will present a $1,000 scholarship to Brownstown in the name of Ayers.
The award, named in honor of Arthur L. Trester, the IHSAA’s first commissioner who served the Association from 1929-44, is presented annually to a senior participant in each classification who was nominated by his principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability.
Ayers ranks 32nd in his class of 156 and has been a four-year member of the Booster, Letterman’s, and Sportsman’s Clubs. The son of Earl and Arlene Ayers of Brownstown will also participate in the HBCA All-Star Game, was elected as All-Mid-Southern Conference, and is a three-year letter winner in the sport.
Ayers is a 4-H vice-president and a reserve grand champion in construction. He’s also active with youth groups and heavily involved with St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, where he has worked food stands and bake sales.
He plans to attend either Hanover College or Indiana State University and major in business.
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