Cathedral Cruises Into Class 3A State Final With Two Semistate Wins

Cathedral needed two wins in one day to reach the Class 3A state final, and the Fighting Irish made it look routine at Seymour High School on Saturday, dismantling No. 2 Princeton 85-64 in the noon semifinal before outlasting top-seeded Silver Creek in the 8 p.m. semistate title game.

The Princeton game was effectively over before it started. Senior guard Zen Coomer hit a few long threes early to give the Tigers a short-lived lead, but Cathedral completely took over from there. Princeton, which entered with a 23-4 record, simply had no answer for the Fighting Irish's quickness, struggling at times to even get off shot attempts due to the intense perimeter defense. Cathedral shot the ball very well throughout, making the most of its superb ball movement, and the 21-point margin of victory did not flatter them.

Senior guard Julien Smith led the way with 22 points, and head coach Jason Delaney made clear afterward that Smith's performance carried the full weight of his experience. "He does a lot of things," Delaney said. "He's a veteran guy. He's close to a 1,500-point career scorer. So, he has that dynamic to him. I thought he played a really great game this morning." Braylon Pippins added 14 points and Keaton Aldridge contributed 11 as Cathedral spread the scoring across its upperclassmen core.

Silver Creek had set up the evening matchup by rolling past Roncalli 67-44 in the 10 a.m. semifinal, the other Indianapolis school in the field leaving Seymour without a state tournament berth. The Dragons entered as the No. 1 seed and had finished the regular season atop the Class 3A rankings, making their meeting with No. 3 Cathedral the marquee collision of the day.

When asked how Cathedral planned to game plan for that nightcap matchup, Delaney offered little tactical detail and instead delivered a one-liner: "Pray before we go out there."

Whatever the pregame prayer contained, it worked. Cathedral outlasted Silver Creek in the semistate final to punch its ticket to the Class 3A state final, completing a day that required beating the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds back to back at a neutral site.