By RICHARD TORRES
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – The defending state champion Fishers Tigers haven’t lost a game since last January, and that trend didn’t end for the state’s top-ranked Class 4A team on Friday night.
Down 3-2 momentarily to 4A No. 4 Noblesville (2-1) at The Mill, the Tigers (3-0) put together a 14-2 run in the first quarter and a 10-2 rally late in the second quarter to build an insurmountable lead en route to a decisive 74-40 win.
The Tigers won 13 straight games on their way to claiming the program’s first-ever state title this past March and have opened the 2024-25 campaign a perfect 3-0 to stretch their streak to 16.
“I felt like in the summer and fall at times, we weren’t as locked in as we needed to be. A little bit stagnant at times and a little bit complacent, so it’s really been something as a staff we’ve been harping on, we’re not going to let this be the end of Fishers basketball,” Fishers head coach Garrett Winegar said. “We have to keep growing, and I really feel like since this season has started our guys have responded.”
The marquee matchup marked both teams’ Hoosier Crossroads Conference opener, and the Tigers seized the early standings advantage behind a trio of double-digit scorers while shooting an impressive 73 percent overall.
Senior Justin Kirby paced the Tigers with 19 points on 8 of 8 shooting, including a 3-for-3 performance from 3-point range. Sophomore Jason Gardner finished with 15 points, and senior JonAnthony Hall had 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting with four rebounds. Kirby posted a team-high five rebounds.
Sophomore point guard Cooper Zachary added six points, two assists and a steal. Gardner had four assists.
The Millers trailed 16-5 late in the first quarter, but they sliced the deficit to six points by the end of the frame on an Adam Fine dagger 3-pointer before the buzzer, 18-12.
Another 3-pointer by junior Justin Curry II brought the Millers within two possessions, 21-17, in the second quarter, but the Tigers surged ahead to lead by 23 points in the third quarter and 30-plus by the fourth.
“Sometimes after winning state, it takes until after Christmas until you feel everybody is locked back in, but I give credit to these guys for doing what they needed to do to get back in focus and get back to preparation to get better,” Winegar said.
“We say every day, we’re most dynamic together and the together part is we don’t care who scores. We have a lot of guys on this team capable of going for 25 or 30 points, and to their credit, they don’t care. They want to win. They love their teammates. They want to find the best shot, and they’re willing to give up good shots for great shots.”
The Millers shot 45 percent as a group and were 4 of 13 from 3-point range. Fishers converted 12 of 17 jumpers from beyond the arc.
“We had a couple of turnovers to start the game, and we were able to cut it to six, but you just can’t turn it over against them,” Noblesville head coach Scott McClelland said. “There were way too many, and then we couldn’t score in the half court. We just couldn’t score at all, and then you magnify that by the fact that we didn’t guard anybody, but I think it’s a great example of how all that stuff magnifies. Not only does it affect your defense, but it affects your offense.”
Junior Baron Walker scored a team-high 15 points for the Millers, followed by Fine with six points. Curry II had five points, and senior Aiden Brewer chipped in four points.
“They just did a really good job of taking us out of what we wanted to do, and they just have a lot of weapons,” McClelland said. “They can play, and they just popped us. There’s not a lot to say. They just kicked our tails all night, and we didn’t adjust or handle it very well. We just have to get back at it and learn from this and kind of go from there.”
The Millers host 4A No. 6 Carmel next week on Friday before traveling to Southport to face 4A No. 2 Jeffersonville on Saturday, Dec. 14.
The Tigers cap their back-to-back weekend at 4A No. 16 Mt. Vernon (Fortville) tonight before heading to Southport on Saturday, Dec. 14 to play 3A No. 1 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks.
“We talk about expecting to win, and once you actually win, you really start to feel confidence in that, and we have five seniors back. All of them got minutes last year, two sophomores that played a ton as freshmen, so you have seven guys back from the state championship team,” Winegar said. “That’s pretty rare to have. Obviously, we lost some key pieces, but those guys almost have a year-and-a-half of experience. In close games and important games, conference games, rivalry games, they can lean on that experience.”
