Indiana girls edge Ohio, boys fall in Border Wars split at Saint Francis

Swynn Jackson’s MVP performance helped Indiana’s girls survive Ohio 86-85, a one-point finish that gave the 30th Nancy Rehm Border Wars Classic its sharpest edge at Saint Francis’ Hutzell Athletic Center. The boys game turned the other way fast, with Ohio rolling to a 127-102 win in the nightcap, leaving the annual showcase with a split that said as much about the current state of Indiana high school basketball as it did about one April afternoon in Fort Wayne.

The girls result carried extra weight because it came with recognizable names and real recruiting value. Jackson, a Fort Wayne Northrop graduate and IU Indianapolis commit, was named girls MVP after helping Indiana hold off a team built from seniors across Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio. In a game decided by one possession, Indiana’s senior class showed it could still match up with one of its closest border rivals under all-star pressure, a useful marker for a state that has long sold itself on depth, toughness and guard play on the girls side.

The boys game offered the sharper contrast. Ohio’s 127-102 win was a runaway by any standard, and Willie Foster, a Northern Kentucky commit, earned MVP honors for the visitors. The score suggested Ohio controlled the pace and kept the offensive pressure on Indiana for most of the afternoon, a reminder that elite out-of-state competition can expose a gap when the game gets loose and the possessions pile up. For Indiana, the boys result was less about one bad showing than about the challenge of measuring the state’s top seniors against a roster with enough firepower to turn an exhibition into a shootout.

That contrast is what makes Border Wars more than a postseason showcase. The girls side still looks like the stronger argument for Indiana’s all-star reputation right now, especially with Jackson producing on a stage that doubles as a recruiting shop window. The boys side, by comparison, left room for debate after Ohio’s decisive margin.

The event also honored the infrastructure behind the girls game. Bellmont head coach Andy Heim received the 2026 Nancy Rehm Award, which recognizes efforts to expand and grow women’s sports. Heim guided Bellmont to its first girls basketball state championship this season, finishing 25-3 and giving the showcase a home-state success story to pair with the all-star results. At 30 years in, Border Wars still has a clear purpose: identify the names, the classes and the programs shaping Indiana basketball next.