State Finals: Culver Academy vs. Bosse
Bosse came into the game as the favorite after previously defeating Culver 74-64 earlier this year. Bosse may have been a little too confident as they trailed after the first quarter 22-8 and at one point in the second quarter by 22. That deficit was not something they couldn’t over come as Bosse then went on a 15-2 run to close the half with a nine point deficit. Bosse would hold the momentum at the end of the half and Coe out firing on all cylinders in the second half.
Bosse cut the gap to three early in the second half but then went cold again. It was 32-29 before Bosse’s offense shut down again. They went the last 6:22 of the third quarter without a point and trailed by 10 going into the final frame. Bosse came out defensively tough but couldn’t reel it in. They put Culver in the double bonus early on and after a technical foul with four free throws, Culver had the lead back up to 17 with 5:23 left in the game. Bosse didn’t really inch much closer as Culver went on a tear shooting the ball the rest of the game as they were getting easy run out baskets at the rim and they kept knocking down their free throws. Culver just stretched it out and didn’t allow Bosse to get anywhere close to them taking the easy win 64-49.
Best Offensive Player: Mekhi Lairy (Bosse)
Lairy started off the game very slowly as he turned the ball over five times in the first half. He turned it on in the second quarter though scoring 15 first half points with 11 of those coming in the second quarter. Lairy is able to get to the rim despite being so small and can knock down the jumper with someone in his face. He showed great skill in getting his shot off over the taller players and he was able to easily score on almost anyone. He finished with 28 points on 9/19 from the field.
Best Defensive Player: Ethan Brittain-Watts
Brittain-Watts was guarding De’Angelo Ware, the third leading scorer for Bosse and held him to four points in the game. That was instrumental in the win because Ware is a really solid offensive player and can get points in a hurry. In this one, Ware wasn’t able to drive to the basket with any type of consistency. He held Ware to a 1/6 shooting performance and really helped his team win this game.
Biggest Surprise: Bosse’s inability to score the ball
Bosse leads the state in points a game and in this one they just simply couldn’t score the ball. They shot just 34 percent from the floor and couldn’t keep the ball in play. They had 18 turnovers which led to 26 points for Culver. You could have expected that Bosse would have scored more than 50 points in this game but they didn’t and that killed them. They just could not get into the flow of the offense.
Top Performers:
Culver Academy:
Ethan Brittain-Watts – 20 points, 7 rebounds
Deontae Craig – 14 points, 7 rebounds
Trey Galloway – 14 points, 5 rebounds
Evansville Bosse:
Mekhi Lairy – 28 points
Jaylin Chinn – 10 points
Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Final |
Culver Academy | 22 | 32 | 39 | 64 |
Evansville Bosse | 8 | 23 | 29 | 49 |