It will be a region rumble of sorts when the Indiana high school boys basketball championships are held next Saturday in Indianapolis.

For the first time since the IHSAA scrapped its traditional single-class basketball tournament for the 1997-98 season, Northwest Indiana will send multiple teams to the championship round.

Bowman Academy in Class A, Wheeler in 2A and Lew Wallace in 3A will play for state championships at Conseco Fieldhouse, following their semistate victories Saturday.

Bowman Academy earned a spot in the school's first state finals by beating Monroe Central 89-79 at Huntington North High School.

Wheeler earned only the second team state finals appearance in school history with a 68-61 victory over Southwood in the Class 2A semistate at Jefferson High School in Lafayette.

Later in the day at Lafayette, Wallace made up for losing in the semistate in 1996 by beating Fort Wayne Elmhurst 57-47.

CLASS 3A

Lafayette Jeff Semistate

Lew Wallace 57, Elmhurst 47

CLASS 2A

Lafayette Jeff Semistate

Wheeler 68, Southwood 61

CLASS A

Huntington North Semistate

Bowman Academy 89, Monroe Central 79

STATE FINALS

Saturday At Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

Class A

Bowman Academy (23-1) vs. Barr-Reeve (24-3), 9:30 a.m.

Class 2A

Wheeler (26-1) vs. Park Tudor (15-10), 11:45 a.m.

Class 3A

Lew Wallace (19-4) vs. Washington (22-3), 5 p.m.

Class 4A

Warsaw (23-2) vs. Indianapolis North Central (24-3), approx. 7:15 p.m.