Lafayette Central Catholic led wire to wire but it was a battle all before the Knights could subdue Union (Dugger) 82-70 and claim their second Class A state championship in three years March 25, 2000 in the first IHSAA Boys Basketball state championship game at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The overall depth of Lafayette Central Catholic (23-5) finally proved too much to overcome for Union (Dugger), who received a heroic 35-point performance by senior guard Brody Boyd in his final high school game. Boyd scored 16 points in the third quarter to rally the Bulldogs, who had trailed by 18 points midway through the second quarter and 44-33 at halftime.

Boyd, the state leading scorer the past two season, closed his outstanding career with 2,632 points. Only Damon Bailey (3,134) of Bedford North Lawrence and Marion Pierce (3,019) of Lewisville rank higher on the state's all-time scoring list.

Boyd, who scored 28 of Dugger's 39 second-half points, broke the Class A championship game record.

After a fast-paced first quarter, Lafayette Central Catholic led 25-18. The Knights extended the edge to 38-20 before Boyd led a Dugger comeback that put the Bulldogs back in the hunt at halftime.

A Boyd three-pointer put Union (Dugger) with 61-58 in the fourth quarter, but that's as closed as the Bulldogs would come down the stretch.

Sophomore forward Tyler Best led Lafayette Central Catholic with 21 points and 11 rebounds, followed by sophomore center Russell Trudeau with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Complementing Boyd for Union (Dugger) was senior center Josh Wittgren with 11 points, 10 offensive rebounds (14 total) and two blocked shots.

Clark Golish of Union High School of Dugger was selected as the 2000 Class A recipient of the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award by the IHSAA Executive Committee.

A four-year varsity player, Golish has been the unsung hero for the Bulldogs during an outstanding 1999-2000 season. He averaged 18 points and nine rebounds a game this season, and moved his career scoring total to more than 1,000 points. Golish contributed nine points and eight rebounds in the Class A state championship game. He also has participated in football and baseball during his high school career.

Academically, he ranks in the top third of his senior class. He is a member of the National Honor Society and the school's student council.

He intends to attend the University of Southern Indiana and pursue a career in medicine.

Farm Bureau Insurance, the corporate partner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association, presented a $1,000 scholarship to Union High School in the name of Golish.

" The first half we didn’t rebound the way we like to. We try to block out when a rebound comes along and they tipped it out."

"What hurt us early in the game, our other players hit some shot. We thought we could live off that. That was fools gold."

ON PLAYING AGAINST A DOUBLE-TEAM DEFENSE: "I’ve seen two or three people coming at me, but they were bigger and stronger."

ON CONSECO FIELDHOUSE: "This is the best place for Indiana basketball."

"It fees nice to be honored like that. It lifts my spirits up a little bit."

"The difference was in the first half when we got up 38-20 with 4 minutes to go in the half."

"We drove to the basket and took it strong to the hole. We were able to get a lot of inside shots even though we got a couple of them blocked."

"We played great defense on Boyd in the first half. He is the most incredible player I’ve seen. He hit some shots that most players couldn’t take."

"We kept going inside and tried to get them in foul trouble. "

"We are proud of the fact we are the first team to win at Conseco Fieldhouse and we were the first team ever to win in class basketball."

"Our kids let one slip away last year. I was proud of the fact this year’s team worked hard and hard the dedication to come back."

"We knew they would have to go out and have a phenomenal second half to beat us. Even though we let them get back into the game we were able to hold them off. Even thought we didn’t hit as many free throws as we would have liked."

"We like to get the ball the break. The last two years we played against teams that like to slow the pace but we knew Dugger liked to play up tempo and that helped our game two."

" Our main objective was trap him (Boyd) every time he got the ball. In the first half we did a good job. The second half they did a lot of ball screening and he was hitting from 30 feet. I’ve never seen that before."

Lafayette Central Catholic's 82-70 win over Union (Dugger) set many Class A State Championship Game records. In all, 31 records were set, 24 team marks and seven individual records were broken in the contest.

Union (Dugger)'s Brody Boyd connected on six 3-point baskets, tying the mark set by Jeff Poisel of Ben Davis against New Albany in 1996. Boyd's 16 three-point attempts set a new standard, breaking the old mark of 14 tries held by three players, most recently by Poisel in 1996.

Boyd also set the Class A championship scoring record with his 35-point performance, breaking the record held by Dan Schukraft of Lafayette Central Catholic against Bloomfield in 1998. In all, Boyd set five Class A individual records, along with his three-point record-tying efforts.

Also setting individual records were Tyler Best of Lafayette Central Catholic with five assists, breaking Bill Bogan's record set in 1998. Clark Golish of Union (Dugger) had a record five steals, surpassing the previous record of two, held by eight players.

Since the adoption of the multiple-class tournament format in 1998, Lafayette Central Catholic is the first school to win two state championships.