Ben Davis has done a lot of winning but Saturday in New Castle was a night to remember.

NEW CASTLE – When the months, years and decades pass, we start to forget the details. Our brains, especially as we age, can only hold so much information. Some of those memories remain clear as crystal, others fade and are forgotten entirely.

But even if the details are often gone to history, we can usually remember how a moment made us feel. Saturday night, at about 9:21 p.m. at New Castle Fieldhouse, as I watched Mark Zackery IV block a last-second shot — no, swat a shot — out to halfcourt to send Ben Davis to the Class 4A state championship, there was little doubt to me how this moment would be remembered.

IHSAA basketball state finals: Matchups set, see who will play for titles

“Perseverance,” Ben Davis interim coach Corey Taylor said. “It’s what we’re all about.”

This game, specifically the last 72 seconds of Saturday’s 52-51 win over Jeffersonville for the Class 4A semistate championship, was about finding a way. Some way. Any way. There is a sign hanging in the tunnel at New Castle Fieldhouse leading to the locker rooms of former North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano with his famous quote after he was diagnosed with cancer: “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”

That was this game. Tip your hat to Sherron Wilkerson and his team. Jeffersonville is deserving of a spot in the Class 4A championship. Junior guard Michael Cooper is one of the best players in the state — don’t let anyone tell you different. Tre Singleton, a 6-8 junior who had 25 points and 15 rebounds in the Red Devils’ 62-60 comeback win over Lawrence North earlier in the day, is a load. Another junior guard, P.J. Douglas, can go. Senior guard Jeremy Rose made big shots and big plays all day.

All of those players, backed by Jeffersonville’s awesome crowd, had the defending Class 4A champions on the ropes. Last year, it seemed so easy. Ben Davis had the best team by a considerable margin. The Giants rolled through tournament games, winning by 16, 30, 21, 10, 23, 28 and 12 points. Undefeated state championship by TKO.

There were no games like this one on Saturday night. Jeffersonville, with less than three minutes to go, had a six-point lead and the ball. Ramone Enis, one of those Ben Davis’ unheralded seniors, got a steal and a three-point play to cut the deficit to three points.

But Jeffersonville seemed to right the ship, taking a 48-43 lead with 1:12 left on a free throw by Singleton. But another Ben Davis’ senior, Justin Harrington, who had not taken a shot to that point, drilled a 3-pointer. Then he corralled a steal but missed the chip-shot layup. As they walked down the court, senior K.J. Windham wrapped an arm around his shoulder and told him to flush it. And he did, too, bouncing in another 3-pointer to cut the Jeffersonville lead to one point with 50 seconds remaining.

Harrington told me later Windham told him what he “needed to hear” after the missed layup.

“I told him he was about to get the ball back on the next possession,” Windham said. “I told him, ‘You have to be ready. You can’t take yourself out of the game.’”

Wise advice. The Ben Davis stars, Zackery and Windham, did the rest. Zackery drove coast to coast to tie the score with 33.7 seconds left. He missed the go-ahead free throw. But on the Jeffersonville possession, Windham got the steal at midcourt and was fouled with 7.2 seconds left. He made the second of the two free throws.

On Jeffersonville’s final possession, Zackery swatted the last-second shot. The five-star defensive back, who has a top four of Notre Dame, Michigan, Cincinnati and Florida, was not going to let it come down to chance. He sailed out to the 3-point line and redirected the ball in the other direction.

“I’m not sure I’ve seen a kid at this level be so poised,” Wilkerson said of Zackery. “That was the thing I recognized about him today. That was the first time I’ve seen him in person. The kid never gets rattled. He’s always poised and under control … when the game is on the line, he has another gear.”

Champions have another gear. They also have players like Enis and Harrington. They might not be the headliners, but they fill roles and are ready when their number is called. That goes for Taylor, too. He did not expect to be in this position, moving from assistant to interim coach when Don Carlisle was suspended weeks before the start of the season (he has been cleared to return for next season).

I caught Taylor after the game as he was about to take a seat on the bench for a quiet moment amidst the celebration.

“I think it’s about staying ready,” Taylor said. “When your number is called, like I tell the boys, your number is called. A week before tryouts was mine. I didn’t have a lot of time with the guys, but I knew what we were made of. I knew we had potential. I knew what our backcourt had, and we had JV guys who would take some time to get there. It’s been tough at times. But we managed through it all and I like where we are.”

I’m pretty sure Taylor meant “where we are” going into the state finals. But looking around on the floor at New Castle on Saturday night, it could have also applied to that scene. There were tears and smiles, high fives and hugs. Nobody in purple seemed in a hurry to leave. The details will fade with time, but that feeling of accomplishment at New Castle will be a memory forever.

More on what learned from semistate Saturday (we’ll have plenty more coverage in coming days on the state finals, which will be played March 30 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse):

Jeffersonville will be a team to watch next season

It was a crushing blow for Jeffersonville to come so close to a state finals berth and not be able to see it through. You could feel that frustration from Wilkerson on Saturday night but also the reality the Red Devils will go into next season as one of the favorites in Class 4A. Rose will graduate but the Red Devils will return almost the entire team.

“Hopefully it’s going to build us some momentum,” Wilkerson said. “I think it’s always tough after you made a run like this, and you fall short of the goal. It’s exhausting, it’s emotionally draining. We’ve got to let our guys heal up and let them enjoy what they accomplished.”

Frustration for Lawrence North

Lawrence North appeared poised to put some of its late season struggles aside and play Ben Davis for a spot in the Class 4A state finals. But the Wildcats let a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter slip away in a stunning 62-60 loss to Jeffersonville in the second semistate game at New Castle.

After the game, the Wildcats, who were ranked No. 1 or 2 for much of the season, still seemed stunned. Coach Chris Giffin will lose senior guard Kobi Bowles, and shooters Miles Good and Myles Baker. The bulk of the team should return, though Giffin was not quite ready to look ahead.

“It’s so hard to get back, just to here,” Giffin said of the semistate. “We obviously had bigger goals but when you start talking about next year, you have to start over. You never know, too, who is coming back and who isn’t. You kind of have a high school portal like you have a college portal. We’re very proud of this group. We had five seniors who all contributed in some way. They are all great kids, but we’ve got some holes to fill. In theory, we have a lot returning.”

Center Grove falls behind, can’t catch up

Center Grove came to New Castle with a 15-game winning streak. But in the span of four defensive possessions on the first semistate game at New Castle against Ben Davis, the Trojans were quickly fighting an uphill battle.

Center Grove (21-5) appeared to weather the storm, briefly, but could never catch up in a 75-49 loss to the Giants. Coach Zach Hahn was disappointed his team quickly got out of its element. Center Grove will graduate eight seniors, including its top five scorers.

“We didn’t play very well and a lot of it probably had to do with Ben Davis,” Hahn said. “(Zackery) is probably the best athlete in the state. He dictates the pace and the tempo they want to play at. I thought we didn’t handle that very well. They have two really, really good players and their role players are gifted athletes. Their role players stepped up and made big plays for them early that kind of built that lead.”

Elsewhere around the state …

∎ Top-ranked Fishers had a long trip to Elkhart and, arguably, two tougher games than expected in the north 4A semistate. The Tigers took out Crown Point 48-37 in a controlled pace and pulled away from Fort Wayne Wayne for a 69-61 win at night. The two weeks off should be a benefit for Fishers’ senior Keenan Garner, who gutted out two games on an injured ankle.

∎ Attendance for the state finals should be pretty good, I think. Scottsburg is going to bring a whole lot of fans after the Warriors took out Evansville Bosse (58-45) and Guerin Catholic (70-54) in the Class 3A semistate at Seymour. Brownstown Central and Wapahani in Class 2A should also bring a big crowd.

'This year, it was a business trip.' Scottsburg gets semistate revenge on Guerin Catholic.

Warriors turning up the heat. 'It’s an exciting time again for Scottsburg basketball.'

∎ I was a little surprised to see top-ranked Brownstown Central get two tough games at Seymour. Park Tudor had a shot to win at the end of a 50-49 loss to Brownstown at Southport and Park Heritage gave the Braves a tussle in a 66-56 game on Saturday night.

'I got an IV and some rest.' Sick Purdue recruit Jack Benter scores 38 in semistate win.

∎ Another surprise was at the Hatchet House in Washington, where it was not necessarily stunning to see Bethesda Christian advance, but the lopsided scores were surprising. Bethesda rolled to a 53-35 win over Greenwood Christian in the first game and jumped all over Barr-Reeve early in a 63-38 win at night.

∎ Two teams — Wapahani and South Bend St. Joseph — needed overtime to reach the state finals. Wapahani pulled away for a 60-49 win over Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian in the 2A semistate at Lafayette Jeff. South Bend St. Joseph needed three overtimes for a 44-41 win over Delta in the 3A semistate at Logansport. That game after South Bend St. Joseph put up twice as many points in an 88-80 win over Peru in the early game.

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

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA basketball semistate: Night to remember for Ben Davis, more