Kingsmen, Dragons Claim Semistate Titles
The Penn girls basketball program is headed to a familiar place.
The Argos girls basketball program is headed to new territory.
Both outstanding teams will represent the area in the State Finals come next Saturday in Indianapolis.
Penn claimed a Class 4-A semistate championship at Carroll on Saturday, while the Dragons made history with a Class 1-A title at Crown Point.
The No. 4 Kingsmen topped No. 2 Homestead 50-45 to earn the program’s third trip to the State Finals in the last five years.
No. 6 Argos routed Tri-Central 60-30 to win the program’s first-ever semistate championship.
Camryn Buhr scored 19 points and Claire Carlton added 11 as Penn prevailed. The Kingsmen improve to 27-2, while Homestead finishes at 26-3.
Argos rolled to a 16-2 lead after the opening period in dominating their semistate contest. Courtney Dunlap canned 28 points to pace the Dragons, who are coached by former Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball coach Gary Teel.
Argos improves to 24-3, while Tri-Central ends its season at 17-12.
South Bend St. Joseph and Oregon-Davis both saw their outstanding seasons end on Saturday with semistate losses.
No. 3 St. Joe dropped a 60-40 final to powerhouse Heritage Christian in the Class 3-A semistate tussle at Carroll. No. 2 Heritage Christian, which won the last two Class 2-A state titles before being moved up to Class 3-A this year, outscored the Indians 15-2 in the third quarter to take control.
Daly Sullivan and Nicole Konieczny each scored 13 points to pace St. Joe, which finishes at 25-2. Heritage Christian improves to 25-4.
Oregon-Davis dropped a 75-63 final to No. 4 Lafayette Central Catholic in the Class 2-A North Semistate game at Crown Point. The top-ranked Bobcats, who lost to LCC in the state tournament last year, got 37 points from star senior Lexi Minix.
OD finishes its season at 26-3, while LCC moves on at 24-5.
Argos will play Jac-Cen Del in the Class 1-A state title game next Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in the first session at 10:30 a.m. The Class 2-A game will then have LCC versus Covenant Christian. The night session will pit Heritage Christian versus North Harrison in the Class 3-A title game at 6 p.m. with Penn then playing No. 1 and defending state champion Columbus North (27-1) in the Class 4-A finale.