Tired or not, Fort Wayne Canterbury's Cavaliers picked up the pace after a close call and went on to beat Vincennes Rivet 42-35, claiming their fifth girls state championship in six seasons.
A late rally by the Patriots whittled Canterbury's 16-point lead to 35-36 with just minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of Saturday's Indiana Class A girls basketball state final, but the defending Cavaliers finished the game on a 6-0 run.
"That's when I said that we've worked too hard to let being tired take over," said Canterbury head coach Wayne Krieger. "It was a situation where we got tired, but we have enough pride in these kids and they were able to pick it up."
Cavaliers forward Kindell Fincher had17 points and 19 rebounds. Guard Darby Maggard had 11 points for the champions.
Class 2A: Tori Schickel had 18 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Evansville Mater Dei Wildcats to a 62-42 win over the Eastern Greentown Comets.
Beth Fischer contributed 14 points and seven rebounds as Mater Dei won its second straight championship.
Brittany Neeley had 16 points and Allison Oyler had 12 points, all from 3-point range, for the Comets (23-4). It was the team's first state finals appearance.
Mater Dei didn't want the Comets to do what the Wildcats accomplished last season — win the title in their first girls basketball championship game.
The Wildcats (28-2), scored on a 3-pointer by Spahn at the start of the game and they led the rest of the way.
Class 3A: Sydney Shelton had 29 points and six rebounds to lead the Mt. Vernon Marauders to a 61-47 win over the Hamilton Heights Huskies.
Erica Moore had 14 points and 15 rebounds and Rachel Houck had nine for the Marauders (23-4), who made their second straight state finals appearance.
Kiley Walters had 13 points and Dakota Weatherford had 12 to lead Hamilton Heights (23-3), who made their first trip to the state finals.
The Marauders went on a 16-7 run in the first quarter. The Huskies made a run in the second half, but it wasn't enough. The Marauders pulled away and Houck hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to make it 47-28 and to put the game out of reach.
Class 4A: Sammy Dillman's 3-pointer broke a tie game with 1;34 remaining, leading Bedford North Lawrence to a 54-51 win over Fort Wayne South.
Dillman. who scored just five points, hit the 3-pointer from left side to break a 48-48 deadlock.
Dominque McBryde and Alexa Bailey each scored 19 points to lead the Stars.
Ariana Simmons scored a game-high 21 for the Archers.
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