The County Line
It was like the good old days of Indiana high school basketball Friday evening at the still-awesome 60-year-old Carmel High School gym named in honor of former coach Eric Clark. The place was rocking as the game between No. 1-ranked defending state champion Warren Central and No. 2 Carmel played out in front of an estimated 4,400 highly partisan fans.
Some folks say that with all the other entertainment opportunities, basketball is not what it used to be. But, on this night, for this game, it was like the old days.
I’m not a sports writer, just a fan at what amounted to a community event like most high school games used to be. I liked the one-liner that the public address announcer used for many years before a CHS home game. He would say, “In 49 states it’s just basketball, but this is Indiana.” How true.
Friday night most seats appeared to be taken and some folks were standing around the rim of the bowl-style arena. At tipoff, the crowd was excited to say the least, most of them looking for Carmel to avenge a six-point loss to Warren in last year’s state championship showdown.
The game may not have lived up to expectations in that Carmel won by 17 points in a contest that many expected to go down to the last moment. But emotions ran high as fouls were called aplenty, including three technicals on Warren.
The home crowd roared as their Greyhounds led wire to wire in a good old fashioned duel of giants.
These teams could meet again next month for the state championship as they did last year. That’s far from a certainty. Both will have to make it through tough sectionals, then a regional and a semi-state before there can be a rematch at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. But, if they are the two best teams in Indiana as the polls say, why not?