As the Brownstown Central Braves and Wapahani Raiders made their way to the 2A finals, two of the longest tenured coaches in the state have had this expectation all year.
For head coach Dave Benter’s Brownstown Central squad — led by his son and Purdue commit Jack Benter — a 27-4 record and 18 straight victories had their eyes set on bringing the first championship back to Brownstown since 1931.
“I am going to start working really hard before I go [to Purdue],” said Jack Benter. “We have a great recruiting class, and they return a lot of guys from this year. I will have to go in there to fight for a position.”
As for Matt Luce’s Raiders, it was a 26-2 record led by Isaac Andrews in hopes to get to their first state championship appearance in school history.
The game got off to a blistering start for the Braves as junior guard Chase Coomer drilled three long-distance shots to help give a 18-7 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
The Braves continued their impressive scoring blitz as they shot 55% from the field including 16 points from Benter.
Even with the impressive play from Andrews in the first half for Wapahani, the Raiders had no answer as the teams went into the locker rooms with a 31-14 Brownstown Central lead.
“We play with so much pace offensively that if we did not get off to a good start we could be stuck for a 32-30 game,” coach Benter said. “We felt that we were the better offensive team, and we wanted to establish a lead early so that they were forced to play the way we play.”
In what initially looked to be a game that was in contention to challenge Frankton’s record for largest margin of victory in the 2017 2A championship game over Crawford County, Andrews willed Wapahani back with a monstrous third quarter to make it a 38-28 ball game entering the final stanza.
“I have seen Isaac Andrews make those shots for a long, long time,” head coach Matt Luce said. “To cut it to six points after a not-as-well-planned first half, but to make adjustments and fight back shows the grit and the heart of our time.”
Despite the blistering quarter for the Raiders, it just was not enough as Benter finished with 25 points, six rebounds and four assists as the Braves pulled ahead in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.
The father-son pair that propelled the Braves to victory will cement head coach Dave Benter’s legacy in his 26th year with the program after falling short two previous times in 2004 and 2009.
“I think it is really special,” Jack Benter said. “We have a bunch of guys from the ‘04 and ‘09 teams on the staff. Just to win one for my dad and the guys I grew up playing with, means a lot to us.”
For a team that challenged themselves over the summer and during the season with victories over 4A teams in Brownsburg, Jeffersonville and Carmel — who got the best of both 4A finalists — coach Dave Benter is confident in his team in a single class setting.
“There is an expectation to win,” Benter said. “Our guys do not care who they play. If we go back to single class, this team [still] has a chance to be playing here today.”