Westview Warriors Reach Class 2A State Championship for 4th Time

The NECC champion Warriors advanced to state in Class 2A for the fourth time ever, getting there the hard way: defeating Fort Wayne Luers 69-48 in the Class 2A north semi-state final after beating Lapel 65-62 in the semifinals earlier Saturday.

Led by senior guard Kaden Grau, who averages 18.5 points per game, and junior guard Austin Schlabach, who scores 19.7 per game, the Warriors defeated No. 7 Gary 21st Century, 63-59, to win their seventh regional title all time and later outlasted No. 9 Lapel, 65-62, to open the Muncie Central Semi-State. Junior guard Daniel Yoder, averaging 11.7 points per game, converts 40 percent of his 3-point attempts, just behind Grau, who buries long-range jumpers at 51 percent efficiency.

Westview last played in the state finals in 2014, falling to Park Tudor. The Warriors won back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2000. Twelve years is a long time in Indiana high school basketball, and the players who have lived through this run know what it means. "Toward the end of the season, when you don't really notice it," Schlabach said. "You're just going one game at a time, and you look back at it, and we always had the potential to be here."

The numbers back that up. Westview, ranked third in Class 2A, hadn't lost since December 1 at 4A No. 6 Northridge, a 68-56 defeat, while averaging 65.96 points per game. The Warriors entered the title game with a speedy, guard-heavy lineup that rattled off 26 straight wins to return to state.

The opposition at Gainbridge Fieldhouse is stiff. Parke Heritage has the defensive prowess to challenge, allowing just 43.10 points per game, which ranks ninth best in Class 2A and 19th overall. It is the second time Parke Heritage has made the state championship game; the Wolves are looking for their first state title after their only other appearance in 2021, where they lost to Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian. According to IHSAA, a win would make Parke Heritage the first state champion in any sport in school history.

Coach Chandler Prible is not intimidated by the stylistic challenge the Wolves present. "The good part about going on a run this long is we have seen a lot of different things and been able to weather the storm through whatever it was, so we've got several different ways that we could guard that (post)," he said. "We'll be able to bounce through a few different things to try to make it tougher on them. I think our guys will be ready to adjust." At Monday practice after the semi-state sweep, Prible took the wider view: "We're really kind of clicking on both ends right now. Defensively, we're rebounding well which leads to our transition, and we get the ball moving on offense, and we can be pretty tough to guard."

Both programs have been building toward this opportunity, with Parke Heritage posting a 94-25 record the last four seasons compared to Westview's 82-24 mark over the same stretch. But records are context; what matters Saturday is execution at Gainbridge.

Grau, a senior who has watched his program's tradition up close, framed it plainly: "Westview has a long tradition of winning. So it's only going to make it better to add to that legacy. That's all we want to do. There's no community I'd rather do it for than bring it home to Topeka and Shipshewana."

A school-wide pep rally Wednesday sent the team off with the kind of noise Topeka reserves for moments like this, with red and white visible across town. Prible told his players to soak in the setting: "Embrace the moment, you get to be in Gainbridge, which is a huge place. Very few people get to say that they've played there before, so enjoy that moment, play like it's your last because it is for this season."

Schlabach, whose 19.7-point average has been the engine of Westview's offense all season, kept the mission simple: "It would mean everything to win because of the amount of support that we get. To bring that back for the community and to be in the history books, it'd mean a lot and something I always dreamed of doing."

Westview takes on Parke Heritage in the Class 2A state final at approximately 12:45 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The game streams via pay-per-view on IHSAAtv.org.