MARTINSVILLE — Parke Heritage boys basketball coach and Athletic Director Rich Schelsky may need to start building a bigger trophy case. Saturday night Parke Heritage defeated Northeastern 51-37 for the Class 2A Regional title and for the second straight year and third time in six seasons, advanced to next week’s semi-state.
For the second straight week, Parke Heritage (23-5) held their opponent below 40 points as they held North Putnam to a season-low 34 points. The 37 points by the Knights was their second-lowest total of the season. The Wolves jumped out to 12-3 lead in the first quarter, but by the time halftime rolled around it was a 21-19 lead for Parke Heritage. What was the difference was the Wolves third quarter where they scored 23 points to build a 44-31 lead going into the final eight minutes. Schelsky pumped the breaks with his offense in the final eight minutes as the Wolves got to get some more net cutting practice for a second straight week.
“There’s only a few schools in the state of Indiana who have experienced this level of success like we have the last 3-5 years,” Schelsky said of the second straight Regional title and third semi-state appearance. “We’re not supposed to be doing this all the time and this is a real humbling time for us to see what we’ve accomplished. I’m super proud of our kids and our entire community. There’s not a better feeling than getting to cut down these nets and when an opportunity presents itself, you have to answer the door and these guys have done it the last two years.”
The game with the Knights was a re-match of last year’s Regional Final and for the second straight year it was the same result. Parke Heritage was able to use their size and strength to bully the guard-heavy lineup of Northeastern. The Wolves secured 13 offensive rebounds and grabbed 32 total compared to just 16 for the Knights. It also allowed Schelsky’s team to attack the paint where his team went 17-33 (51.5%) from two.
“I’ve put two things on the board in our pre-game all tournament and one of them is go make plays that impact winning,” Schelsky said. “What makes this group special is that right there. Some of the things they do out there won’t show up in a box score. That’s really the theme for this group and when we do those things, we’re very hard to beat.”
BT Luce led all scorers in the championship win for the Wolves with 16 points and drilling four threes. Freshman Carter Crum added 13 points and eight rebounds with Treigh Schelsky scoring 10. Renn Harper added eight and both Max Dowd and Kyle Harpold scored two each. For the game Parke Heritage shot 21-45 (46.7%) from the floor and 4-12 (33.3%) from three along with going 5-9 (55.5%) from the free-throw line. The Wolves turned it over just 11 times to go along with their 32 rebounds.
Northeastern ends its season at 18-8 and was led by Landon Scarrette’s 11 points. Samuel White added 10, Wesley Hunt six, Trennan Vanlandingham scored five, Michael Henry II three, and Logan Seal two. In their final game of the season the Knights shot 13-32 (40.6%) from the floor, 5-18 (27.7%) from three, 6-12 (50%) from the foul line and turned the ball over 12 times to go along with their 16 rebounds.
A season ago the Wolves fell in the opening game of the semi-state. Now back in the same spot they were in a year ago, this team wants to make amends for last season.
“It’s going to a big challenge, but that’s how it’s supposed to be this time of year,” Schelsky said. “Last year I think we were just happy to get there, this team believes that they belong there now and we’re in the conversation. We’re going to have to have a great weekend next Saturday and the opportunity to play for a state title is right in front of us.”
