BENNETT'S MINUTES: Moore sets pair of state FT records

Officially stakes claim as state’s leading scorer

Saturday officially closed the book on Jalen Moore’s outstanding senior year in high school basketball, even though the Clovers had been eliminated from the state tourney the previous weekend.

Moore entered Saturday with a one-point lead over New Albany ‘s Romeo Langford in the race to be the state’s leading scorer, and led Langford by 90 points to keep his spot with the third-highest individual scoring season in state history.

Both of those number held up, as Langford had 35 points in the Bulldogs’ last-second loss to Warren Central to “drop” his average to 35.4 points per game. Moore finished with 36.8 per game.

For the single-season totals, Moore had 1,031 for the season and Langford finished with 976.

Additionally, thanks to the fine folks at hickoryhusker.com it was learned that Moore had also broken single-season state records for free throws made and attempted in a season.

Moore made 321 of 374 free throws (86 percent) for the season.

The previous record for free throws made in a season was set by New Castle’s Steve Alford, who made 286 in his senior year of 1982-83.

Bill James of Scottsburg was definitely a player I have never heard of who knew how to get to the free throw line. James held the previous mark of 358 attempted free throws in the 1968-69 season. James also ranks third on the list, with 317 attempts in the 1967-68 season, while Alford is fourth with 303 in his senior year.

College interest in Moore is picking up a bit, as Division I schools Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Furman have now begun making contact.

After watching a bunch of different teams play in the NCAA tournament over the weekend, and seeing small players such as 5-6, 132-pound point guard K.J. Maura of Maryland-Baltimore County, I still have no doubt that Moore can play at that level. Whether it’s directly out of high school or after a time in junior college is up to the coaches. If they think he can help them right now, they’ll take him. If not, then they won’t.

Hoop odds and ends

• Had an interesting time on Saturday at the semistate games at Washington.

Indianapolis Scecina, the team which eliminated Cloverdale the week before in the regional championship, was a smaller but much quicker team than Forest Park.

In what I termed on Twitter as “coaching malpractice,” the Crusaders inexplicably did not start using their speed advantage until midway through the fourth quarter. They cut into the Forest Park lead, but could never get over the hump.

Scecina started the game in a 2-3 zone to feel out Forest Park, which isn’t an awful idea. The Crusaders then switched to man-to-man for a while, which Forest Park was able to dissect with its spread offense and sharp back cuts.

Besides winning the game, Forest Park also won the crowd battle for the day. The closest team among the four who played there that day, the Rangers easily had about 4,000 fans in the 7,070-seat Hatchet House.

Most of them left after their game to return to Ferdinand for a pep session, and Danville and Evansville Bosse did a solid job of filling the stands but not to Forest Park’s level.

The Bosse-Danville game was also a matchup of distinctly opposite teams in terms of personnel and style. Danville’s Alec Burton continued to be unstoppable underneath, but picked up his second foul early in the second quarter. It was clear that he said something inappropriate in his disappointment at committing a foul, but it was not directed toward a referee or opponent. He was given a technical foul, which gave him three personal fouls and sent him to the bench.

The Warriors shot poorly from both the free-throw line and the 3-point arc, and those deficiencies proved to be their downfall. Bosse standout Mekhi Lairy, Evansville’s all-time leading scorer headed to Miami (Ohio), was outstanding as usual.

• So, the state finals this weekend shape up to be interesting as well. Only one private school made the final eight, which is always great to see considering the huge advantage they have.

Here is a brief look at each game:

Morristown (27-2) vs. Southwood (25-3) in Class 1A – While Lafayette Central Catholic won three of the first six class state titles in 1A, whoever wins this matchup will be the 18th different champion in the past 18 years.

Morristown is led by senior standing Hayden Lankgabel, who will play for Marian next year. He is currently the 24th-leading scorer in state history with 2,170 points. Interestingly enough, his brother Dylan (a 2012 Morristown grad) also racked up more than 2,000 points during his career.

Southwood is the fourth-highest scoring team in the state with 77.39 points per game.

My pick: Morristown.

Forest Park (25-4) vs. Oak Hill (25-5) in Class 2A – Forest Park has the 40th-best defensive team in the state this year, allowing just 46.38 points per game. Oak Hill has the 43rd best scoring average at 65.40 points per game.

My pick: Oak Hill.

Evansville Bosse (25-4) vs. Culver Academies (22-6) in Class 3A – The teams met in December in the Bosse Holiday Tourney, which Bosse won 74-64. Culver beat top-ranked New Castle to reach the state finals.

Lairy is the 20th-leading scorer in state history and has paced the Bulldogs to the state’s top-scoring offense with 83.34 points per game. Culver allows just 45.54 points per game on average.

My pick: Culver.

Warren Central (31-0) vs. Carmel (21-7) in Class 4A – It’s not very often that two teams from the same conference reach the state title game, but these two Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference teams know each other well.

Warren Central won a 66-65 home game with the Greyhounds in February. The Warriors are trying to pull off a rare feat by sweeping both basketball state titles after their girls won the crown last month.

Warren Central’s David Bell, one of the state’s top football players, hit the game-winning basket in the semistate. Carmel’s 6-10 John Michael Mulloy has already committed to Butler.

My pick: Warren Central.