IHSAA basketball Sneakers for Santa roundup: Some of Indiana's best in one gym on one day

BROWNSBURG – Seven games are in the books at Saturday’s Sneakers for Santa Shootout at Brownsburg High School. A roundup of the day:

Indiana high school basketball roundup: Central Indiana scores, stats (Dec. 2)

>> Ben Davis 58, Kokomo 51: A sizeable crowd watched two of the top Class 4A teams slug it out into the fourth quarter before the second-ranked Giants pulled away.

Kokomo star Flory Bidunga, a 6-10 junior, fouled out with 2:22 left, finishing with 16 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Auburn coach Bruce Pearl was in attendance for Bidunga, who finished with five dunks.

Ben Davis (5-0) shot only 32.2% from the field, but 6-9 senior Zane Doughty finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots and junior K.J. Windham added 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting from the 3-point line.

Kokomo (1-2) rallied to take a 48-46 lead early in the fourth quarter. But a Shaun Arnold dunk on a breakaway put Ben Davis ahead to stay with five minutes left. Sheridan Sharp finished with eight points, eight rebounds for five assists for the Giants, who won close games against Southport and Pike earlier in the week.

“We came out and tried to pick it up because we’ve been in a little slump,” Sharp said. “The Southport game we didn’t really play together as a team. We wanted to get that back tonight.”

Patrick Hardimon added 11 points and six rebounds for Kokomo, which was without senior guard Shayne Spear due to an injury.

>>Cathedral 64, Centerville (Ohio) 58: It was the Jaron Tibbs show in the final game of the night. The 6-4 senior and Purdue football recruit scored a career-high 33 points to lead the Class 4A top-ranked Irish to a victory.

Tibbs scored 19 points in the first half to stake the Irish (4-0) to a 34-30 halftime lead and did not slow down in the second half. He was 6-for-7 from the 3-point line.

“Jaron Tibbs is one of the best players in the state of Indiana,” Cathedral coach Jason Delaney said. “He’s been overlooked the last couple of years, but he came back as our leading scorer, rebounder and leader in assists and steals. That’s how good he is. He’s just not flashy. He doesn’t do the highlight dunks everybody sees, but he’s one of the best in the state of Indiana.”

Indiana recruit Gabe Cupps was impressive for Centerville as a floor general and finished with 25 points to lead his team.

>>Brownsburg 73, Heritage Hills 50: Kanon Catchings scored 14 first-quarter points to propel Class 4A fifth-ranked Brownsburg to a 23-point first-half lead as the Bulldogs improved to 4-0.

The 6-7 Catchings played in front of his future coach, Purdue’s Matt Painter, and scored 11 of Brownsburg’s first 17 points. The Bulldogs led 26-7 in the first minute of the second quarter and were up 21 points at halftime.

“I think all of them are doing a great job and he’s one piece of what we’re doing, obviously a big piece,” Brownsburg coach Steve Lynch said of Catchings. “He’s playing his role really well and working really hard to score the basketball without taking bad shots. He shares the ball and he’s doing a lot of other things really well. A big reason for our success is we have a lot of guys just playing within themselves and working to be good at what they do.”

Heritage Hills’ 6-7 sophomore Trent Sisley scored 30 points to lead the Class 3A Patriots. Elhadj Diallo added 18 points for Brownsburg.

>>Linton-Stockton 64, Heritage Christian 52: Class 2A top-ranked Linton-Stockton jumped out to a 15-point halftime lead and never looked back as senior Landon Webb scored 24 points and Central Florida commit Joey Hart added 21.

“He’s really good,” Linton-Stockton coach Joey Hart said of Webb. “He’s a college basketball player. He’s got some Division II interest, some NAIA interest, but he gets the double whammy sometimes because he plays with a high-profile player and he plays at a smaller school.”

Myles Colvin led Heritage Christian with 23 points. Painter was in attendance to watch Colvin, the future Boilermaker.

>> Zionsville 62, Gary 21st Century 59: Nick Richart finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds for Zionsville, but the 6-9 senior and UNC-Charlotte recruit made his biggest play on defense, blocking a shot in the final seconds to protect the Eagles’ two-point lead.

Richart’s block helped Zionsville (2-2) finish off a perfect weekend after Logan Imes buried a last-season 3-pointer in overtime Friday for a 43-40 win over Westfield. Imes finished with 20 points in Saturday’s win over Gary 21^st Century.

“You love getting two wins in a weekend,” Zionsville coach J.R. Howell said. “I don’t care what the situations were – the kids got two wins.”

Zionsville led almost the whole way and appeared to have a comfortable nine-point lead with three minutes left. But Gary 21^st Century, ranked No. 9 in Class 2A, kept pushing, especially on drives by senior guard Ashton Williamson, who finished with 20 points. A 3-pointer by freshman Terrence Hayes Jr. pulled the Cougars within 27.2 seconds remaining.

“(Williamson) is a phenomenal player,” Howell said. “He’s a great athlete and he’s so quick. Mitchell Maguire did a great job on him for three-fourths of the game. But when they get down 10 with about three minutes to go, they went into attack-the-rim mode. That’s what he can do and he was effective at it.”

Williamson had a chance to tie the game late. Gary 21st Century trailed 61-59 when the senior drove the lane with less than 10 seconds remaining. But Richart rotated over and tipped Williamson's driving shot.

Zionsville hosts Lawrence Central Friday and plays in the Forum Tipoff Classic Saturday against Class 4A third-ranked Penn.

Gary 21^st Century 9 14 14 22 - 59

Zionsville 13 20 11 18 - 62

Gary 21^st Century (3-1) – Hayes 8, Williamson 20, Floyd 13, R.Cast 4, Moss 14.

Zionsville (3-1) – Imes 20, Snively 9, Louiso 7, Richart 20, Mitchell 6.

3-pointers: Gary 21^st Century 7 (Hayes 2, Williamson 2, Moss 2, Floyd), Zionsville 5 (Imes 3, Snively, Louiso)

>> Beech Grove 55, NorthWood 51: It was a four-quarter battle between defending Class 3A state champion Beech Grove and NorthWood, the team currently ranked No. 1 in 3A.

Cam Brown scored 14 points to lead four Beech Grove players in double figures and the Hornets (3-1) went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 44 seconds to fend off NorthWood (3-1).

“A game like this really helps raise our level,” Brown said. “There’s no pressure on your back because you’ve already been through all of it. When we’re out there, we’re just like ‘OK, let’s go after it.’”

NorthWood, which made the 2 ½-trip Saturday morning after beating Triton 75-37 Friday night, was led by 18 points from 6-6 senior Ian Raasch and 13 from senior guard Cade Brenner. The Panthers led by four points with 5 minutes left before the Hornets came back, going ahead on a baseline floater by Jeremiah Tate with 3:15 left.

Jaleel Edwards had 11 points for Beech Grove. Tate and Jeremiah Alexander each added 10.

Beech Grove 11 14 11 19 - 55

NorthWood 14 11 14 12 - 51

Beech Grove (3-1) – Edwards 11, Tate 10, Alexander 10, Brown 14, Horen 7, Muffler 1, Byrd 2.

NorthWood (3-1) – Wolfe 9, Ian Raasch 18, Brenner 13, Tyler Raasch 8, Bontrager 1, Payne 2.

3-pointers: Beech Grove 7 (Edwards 2, Alexander 2, Brown 2, Horen), NorthWood 6 (Wolfe 3, Brenner 3)

>> North Central 79, Bloomfield 52: Class A top-ranked Bloomfield stayed with North Central for much of the first half, but the 4A Panthers’ defensive pressure wore down the Cardinals in the second half.

Sophomore Papi Rivera scored 21 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead North Central (3-1), which was coming off a 65-52 win over Tech Friday night. Joey Brown scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half for the Panthers.

Bloomfield (3-1), which defeated Shakamak 71-42 Friday night, trailed just 20-16 at the end of the first quarter and 39-27 at halftime. But North Central quickly pushed the lead to 20 points in the third quarter and was never seriously threatened in the second half.

Freshman Blake Neill had five 3-pointers and 19 points to lead Bloomfield. Peter Combs, a 6-8 senior, added 16 points and senior Justin Beard had 12 points on four 3-pointers.

Mason Lewis added 10 points for North Central.

Bloomfield 16 11 9 16 - 52

North Central 20 19 27 11 - 79

Bloomfield (3-1) – Beard 12, Neill 19, Ross 3, Sherrard 2, Combs 16.

North Central (3-1) – Martin 5, Williams 7, Galadima 2, Bell 4, Woodson 9, Jewell 4, Brown 15, Lewis 10, Rivera 21, Baker 2.

3-pointers: Bloomfield 9 (Neill 5, Beard 4); North Central 8 (Rivera 3, Lewis 2, Martin, Woodson, Brown)

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school basketball: Sneakers for Santa scores, highlights