Friday night IHSAA basketball: Danville, Avon into Hendricks County championship

LIZTON — A nearly full house looked ready to party for the first three minutes of Tri-West’s game against Class 3A top-ranked Danville on Friday night in a Hendricks County tournament semifinal.

The Bruins led by five points. Danville called timeout.

“We just had to discuss that we needed to pick up our defense,” said 6-7 senior and Indiana football recruit Evan Lawrence. “If we stop them on defense, it will generate our offense.”

Danville did stop Tri-West, basically the rest of the half. And that was that. The Warriors (11-0) cruised 53-38 and into the championship on Saturday at 8 p.m. against Avon, a game that will be played at Danville.

Lawrence was a big part of Danville’s win, finishing with 13 points and 15 rebounds. Jace Scrafton, a 6-6 junior, sparked the Warriors after the slow start, hitting a fadeaway jumper as the first quarter ended to cap a 10-0 run. Danville carried that momentum into halftime, outscoring Tri-West 25-5 to end the half and take a 14-point lead into the half.

“I think it was mainly lack of competing,” Tri-West coach Jay Doane said. “We could have been a lot tougher, I think. We’re a good shooting team but when that doesn’t happen, you have to find other ways to score and other ways to affect the game, which we didn’t do.”

Lawrence called Scrafton, who finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, “the MVP of the game.” Lawrence and Scrafton are Danville’s leading scorers on the season, but it is a balanced team, as it showed Friday. Sophomore point guard Eli Tricker had 12 points on 6-for-9 shooting and senior Lukas McMahon added eight. Owen Collier had seven points off the bench.

“I thought we did fine on (Lawrence),” Doane said. “He’s a really good player. He’s really tough. We tried to make it hard on him and get the ball out of his hands as much as we could.”

Danville has not played Avon (9-3) yet this season. The Warriors’ most-recent county championship came in the 2015-16 season.

“I think that we’re all super unselfish,” Lawrence said of the reason for Danville’s success this season. “If you look at the points per game of our players, they are all fairly balanced. Some nights people have it going, and we just get them the ball more. As long as I crash the glass, my points will come.”

Tri-West (9-2) saw its eight-game winning streak snapped. The Bruins, who were led by eight points and seven rebounds from 6-8 junior Wes Ward, will play Plainfield in the third-place game at 4 p.m. at Danville. Brownsburg will play Cascade in the fifth-place game at noon.

Other takeaways and notes from Friday night’s action:

Avon wins another wild one

After a missed shot by Plainfield in the final seconds, Avon junior Rohan Pearson scored on a running 35-footer at the buzzer to give the Orioles a 51-48 win in a semifinal game.

Pearson hit the game-winner on a drive against Brownsburg at the end of the third overtime on Wednesday in a 57-56 victory.

Avon is 9-3 going into Saturday’s game at Danville, just one win from last year’s total in a 10-14 season. The Orioles have not posted a winning record since going 13-10 in 2019-20.

Jack Benter returns but Brownstown Central falls

Purdue recruit Jack Benter returned to action for Brownstown Central after missing last week’s Hall of Fame Classic at New Castle due to a sprained ankle. Benter was restricted to about 20 minutes and scored 21 points, but Jennings County rallied at home behind 30 points from junior Carter Kent for a 69-61 win.

Brownstown Central (9-4) has another difficult matchup on Saturday at home against Jeffersonville.

Braylon Mullins goes for 39 in win

Greenfield-Central junior Braylon Mullins put up 39 points as Class 4A No. 8 Greenfield-Central knocked off visiting Mt. Vernon 64-51 in a Hoosier Heritage Conference game.

Mullins, one of the top recruits in the 2025 class, came into Friday’s game averaging 24.5 points per game for the Cougars, who improved to 11-0.

Undefeated teams stay that way

∎ Class 4A top-ranked Fishers improved to 12-0 with an 87-65 win over Pike.

∎ Class 4A second-ranked Lawrence North (10-0) pulled away from a one-point game after three quarters for a 62-47 win at Warren Central.

∎ Class 4A third-ranked Westfield (7-0) rolled to a 64-38 win over Yorktown. The Shamrocks host Carmel on Saturday night.

Other notes

Zionsville Maguire Mitchell scored 32 points in Zionsville’s 65-64 win over Brebeuf Jesuit. Butler commit Evan Haywood had 25 points for the Braves … Jeffersonville defeated rival New Albany 65-57 in front of a packed house. … New Palestine knocked off Class 3A second-ranked Delta 62-54. … Class 2A No. 2 Tipton stayed undefeated with a 91-74 win over Maconaquah. … Hamilton Southeastern’s Donovan Hamilton had 23 points in the Royals’ 79-63 win over Lawrence Central. … Ben Davis knocked off North Central 68-54. Both teams will play in the Marion County tournament next week.

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

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball: Danville, Avon move into Hendricks County finals