Blackhawk Christian used stifling interior defense to jump out to an early lead and cruise to the 2019 class A state championship over Barr-Reeve.

 

The Braves jumped out to a 15-4 lead as sophomore forward Caleb Furst was a one-man wrecking crew inside, denying 6’8 Keegan O’Neill three times in the first quarter and garnering five rejections in the first half. Blackhawk Christian, which came into the game with the state’s top-ranked offense at just under 80 points per game, was able to run off of turnovers and misses to generate easy offense.

 

Barr-Reeve got a boost to start the second half as leading scorer Gabe Gladish hit a pair of jump shots to get the Vikings going, but Blackhawk Christian quickly halted that spurt and would double up the score on Barr-Reeve by the midway point of the third period. The lead for the Braves would reach 25 at the end of the third.

 

Barr-Reeve put together a run in the fourth quarter to get the deficit down to 14 points, but could not creep any closer. Frankie Davidson (20 points, 12 rebounds) and Caleb Furst (16 points, 10 rebounds) notched double-doubles for the Braves, who shot 50% from the field and outrebounded the Vikings 36-26. Davidson, heading to the University of Indianapolis, made it look easy by getting to the basket whenever he wanted.

 

Blackhawk Christian gets their first state championship in boys basketball and will be moving up to 2A next year due to the tournament success factor.