New Haven Bulldogs Upset West Lafayette 64-49, Win Logansport Regional Title

Ben Werth gave West Lafayette everything he had. The senior guard shot 11-of-17 from the field, drained five threes on 10 attempts, and finished with 30 points in a Class 3A regional final at the Berry Bowl in Logansport. It still wasn't close.

New Haven's Bulldogs, entering Saturday's 1 p.m. tipoff at 19-7, pulled away from the 22-4 Red Devils in the second half and walked out of Logansport with a 64-49 victory and the regional title. The margin was 15 points. West Lafayette, which had not won a regional championship since 1989, came back to Logansport for the fourth straight playoff appearance and left empty-handed again.

The Bulldogs were built for this moment. New Haven carried three players averaging double figures into the regional final: junior guard Tarvar Baskerville at 15.0 points per game, senior guard Jadrien Ezell at 10.8, and 6-foot-5 forward Daylen Jackson at 10.5. That kind of distributed scoring puts enormous pressure on a defense to guard multiple threats simultaneously, and West Lafayette could not contain it. Baskerville, who shoots 53 percent from the field and averages 2.4 steals per game, had already demonstrated his ceiling two weeks earlier, dropping 32 points in the sectional final win over Marion. Junior point guard Lavell Ledbetter, averaging 6.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, quarterbacked the operation.

West Lafayette had its own weapons heading into the game. Whitlock, a senior, had battled through an eye injury sustained in the first-round win over Western and was back creating penetration with his first step and handle. Sophomore forwards Calvin Snyder and Jaece Vogt had both elevated their games down the stretch of the season, with Vogt growing more consistent from the perimeter and Snyder developing into a legitimate post threat with improved hands and balance. None of it was enough to compensate for what New Haven brought athletically.

The Bulldogs controlled the second half and turned a competitive game into a double-digit defeat. Werth's output made the final score look more respectable than the game actually was. When one player accounts for more than 60 percent of your team's points in a 49-point loss, the balance of power was never really in question.

West Lafayette's 37-year regional title drought continues. New Haven is moving on.