By Mike Myers
Once again, the basketball at the Washington Regional may well be the best played anywhere in the state on Saturday, as four of the state’s top 11 Class 3A squads will converge at the Hatchet House.
No. 6 Washington (19-3) will face 10th-ranked Corydon Central (19-5) at 10 a.m., followed by No. 8 Sullivan (23-2) taking on No. 11 Boonville (18-5) at noon for a berth in the 8 p.m. championship game.
In the first game, the Hatchets will face the one team in the regional field Washington hasn’t played this season. Gene Miiller’s squad has won both at Sullivan (66-31 on Dec. 19) and versus Boonville at home (70-45 on Jan. 29), but the Hatchets haven’t played coach Jamie Kolkmeier’s Panthers this season. Miiller, however, saw Corydon play over the summer months and in a 70-55 loss to Boonville on Dec. 30. Both coaches say the contest will be a contrast in styles.
While the Hatchets feature one of the tallest lineups in the state with leading scorer (20.4 ppg) and rebounder (10.3 rpg) Cody Zeller, a 6-10 junior center, and 6-7 junior forward Robert Pittman, the Panthers don’t have a single player on their roster taller than 6-2. Kolkmeier says his team relies on an up-tempo style peppered with plenty of outside shooting.
“We have good overall team quickness. We can pressure the ball a little bit. We like to get the ball up and down the floor. We have good 3-point shooters. We’ve really lived by the 3-point shot this year at times,” said Kolkmeier, whose team has hit double digits in 3-pointers made multiple times this year. “When we’re good, we’re a good half court man-to-man defensive team. We struggle, of course, against size at times. Obviously, that’s not what you want to hear when you’re going to play against Washington.”
Corydon, which is in the regional for the first time since 2004, starts four guards and a forward, and the Panthers are led by the 18.5 ppg of junior guard Brandon Dunaway, who enters the regional just 11 points shy of 1,000 for his career. Also scoring in double figures for Corydon are senior guard Garett Ross (14.5 ppg) and junior forward Seth Rennirt (10.9 ppg).
While Miiller has at least nominal exposure to Corydon he admits, “I don’t know a lot about them.” Miiller says being familiar with Corydon’s style of play and its personnel is important given the defensive nature of his squad, which is holding opponents to just 43.4 ppg this season — by far the lowest of any team in the regional and the eighth lowest figure overall in the state.
“It matters to what you want to do defensively because we’re kind of a defensive-oriented team. It does matter on who we play and how they play,” said Miiller. “I know they’re a perimeter-oriented team. They have three kids that can shoot the basketball very well. They use the dribble drive to get to the basket. Even their two biggest kids are 6-2 and they play on the perimeter.”
Sullivan v. Boonville
The second game features a pair of teams which haven’t tasted regional competition in some time. Sullivan last cut down the sectional nets in 2003 at the Hatchet House when the Golden Arrows were in the Sectional 31 field. Boonville’s title drought has been even longer as the Pioneers’ last sectional crown came in 1984.
For his part, Boonville coach Steve Altstadt hopes his squad plays better than it did in the Pioneers’ last visit to the Hatchet House.
“We kind of laid an egg that night. Washington’s pretty good of course, too, but we didn’t play with a lot of confidence that night,” said Altstadt. “The kids have played well, (and) that’s the only game we’ve been out of. We’ve had five losses. In four of those losses we had the lead in the fourth quarter.”
Boonville is led by junior forward Ryan Helfert and his 18.3 ppg and 6.7 rpg. Altstadt also starts his senior twin sons, Preston and Brad, in the backcourt.
Washington and Vincennes Lincoln are the only common opponents for Sullivan and Boonville — the Alices defeated Sullivan 62-39, while the Pioneers claimed a 58-52 win over Lincoln — so neither team is very familiar with its semifinal opponent on Saturday. For Sullivan, its season has been a bit of surprise as the youthful Golden Arrows have just one senior on their roster. Moore thought Sullivan would be a year away from this type of success.
“We’re still a young team. We have a lot of sophomores; we’ve won a lot of close games. It was a miracle finish on Saturday,” Moore said, referring to a last second shot that gave Sullivan a 55-52 sectional championship game win over Brown County.
“It’s been a great season.”
Sullivan is led in scoring and rebounding by sophomore Rhett Smith (17 ppg and 9.5 rpg), whose mother, Maria (Stockberger) Smith was a 1985 Indiana All-Star from Sullivan. Guard Dreyson Boyd, the only senior on the Sullivan roster, averages 16 ppg and is a 92 percent shooter from the free throw line.
