South Bend Saint Joseph boys basketball advances to 3A semistate title game with win over Peru

LOGANSPORT — South Bend Saint Joseph held off a late Peru rally for an 88-80 win in the IHSAA Class 3A boys basketball semistate semifinal Saturday at Logansport High School. The Huskies (19-9) advance to the championship game at 8 p.m. against Delta, who beat Fairfield, 54-45, in the second semifinal.

“It’s semistate, so know it’s going to be a dog fight,” said Saint Joseph head coach Eric Gaff. “Coming in, we knew it’d be a tough one, but our team really showed how tough they can be. It was a fun game.”

Saint Joe never trailed in the game. It led, 44-31, at halftime and 58-51 through three quarters. The lead was at eight, 77-69, with 1:59 to go before the Tigers (16-11) put in one last late surge.

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Some big shots by Peru, coupled with struggles at the free-throw line by the Huskies, led to the Tigers cutting it to 78-75 with 48.5 seconds left. A quick foul led to two made free-throws from Saint Joe junior Chase Konieczny to extend the lead to five.

Peru missed a ‘3’ on its ensuing possession and Nick Shrewsberry grabbed the rebound for the Huskies and was fouled. The 6-foot-4 guard sank both foul shots, putting the game out of reach.

Jayce Lee’s dunk at the buzzer put an emphatic note on the game. He finished with a team-high 24 points. Konieczny added 19 points, Shrewsberry 18, freshman Elijah King 13, senior Jerry Barca five and sophomore Braylen White two.

“It’s one of the reasons we’re here," Gaff said. "If you shut down one guy, we have three others that can step up for us. I thought Elijah King was huge for us inside with his scoring, Shrewsberry hit some big shots, and Chase and Jayce were steady all the way through.”

Turnovers cost Fairfield in semifinal loss to Delta

Sixteen Falcon turnovers compared to six for Delta proved to be the difference in a 54-45 loss for Fairfield.

“If you’re going to beat a really good team, you’re going to have to have attention to details,” Fairfield coach Derek Hinen said. “We didn’t today. It was just things here and there where we weren’t quite as locked-in as we needed to be. There’s not a lot of margin for error when you play great teams.”

The Falcons only led once, going up 3-2 early before the Eagles scored seven unanswered. Fairfield (20-7) didn’t let the game get away until late, though, trailing, 11-9, after the first quarter, 21-18 at halftime and 31-26 through three.

D’Amare Hood scored 26 points and Jackson Wors 13 to power Delta to its second-straight semistate championship game appearance. They lost to NorthWood in last year’s 3A finale.

For Fairfield, Mitchell Miller and Carson Smith had 12 points each and Tyson Frey 10 to reach double-digits. Brant Garber added five, Brooks Custer four and Noah Mast and Elijah Miller two each.

“I have tons of pride for those guys graduating, and being able to put together a pretty historical season at Fairfield — winning the conference tournament championship, winning sectionals and regionals,” Hinen said. “It doesn’t happen a lot at Fairfield, so those guys should be really proud. A 20-win season doesn’t happen a lot at Fairfield. There’s a lot of things to look back and reflect on.”