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Park Tudor held Hammond Bishop Noll scoreless over the final 4 ½ minutes and gained a come-from-behind 43-42 victory over the state's last remaining unbeaten team in the Class 2A title game.

The Panthers scored the final six points of the game and took their first lead since the first quarter when Trevon Bluiett hit from underneath and added a free throw with 1:22 remaining. Bishop Noll failed to connect on its last four field goal tries.

It was the first state championship for coach Ed Schilling's Panthers, who last year fell in the final game to Wheeler. Park Tudor, ranked fourth by the Associated Press, finished 26-2 and ended the year with 14 straight wins. The championship victory was the only close one of the tournament for the Panthers, who outscored their six previous opponents by an average of 16.2.

Bluiett led Park Tudor with 21 points and eight rebounds. Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell contributed 14 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals for the Panthers.

Bishop Noll led by nine, 16-7, early in the second quarter but lost most of that edge as Ferrell scored eight points over the final 5:38 of the period. The Warriors held Park Tudor to 25.9 percent shooting (7-of-27) in the first half but parlayed their tough defense into only a 24-21 lead at halftime.

Coach Drew Trost's Warriors, ranked No. 2 by the Associated Press, finished 26-1. Adonis Filer scored a team-high 19 for Bishop Noll while grabbing seven rebounds. Ronnye Beamon Jr. collected 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

POST-GAME COMMENTS

Park Tudor Coach Ed Schilling
“What a terrific performance from our guys, when you fall behind by nine points and crawl back versus a 26-0 team.  I take my hat off to these guys for their competitiveness.”

(On being 2-16 from 3pt line and still winning) “That does not surprise me with these guys.  They’ve been able to take what the defense has given us all year.  If one area wasn’t working then we made adjustments.  That’s a tribute to their basketball IQ.”

(On the physical play) “They were as athletic and bouncy as any team we played and the best off the dribble.  The competition we have played has been very helpful to us to make adjustments.”

(On returning to the finals) “Our theme going into this game was unfinished business.  Last year the last possession didn’t go in – this time we came up with it.  We were fortunate to finish the unfinished business, now we have new business.  Many times it’s harder to repeat so we’ve got some new business to take care of and it will start here pretty soon.”

“I’ve coached at the high school level, college, and the NBA and I have never had a team more consistent and focused on improvement than these guys.”

Hammond Bishop Noll Coach Drew Trost
“At the last timeout, we knew that they would overplay Adonis [Filer].  We wanted to get it to [Ronnye] Beamon inside to finish – it was right there, but it didn’t go our way.”

“We didn’t handle their defensive pressure well at the end.  But we had a shot that rimmed out – to win the state championship, what else could you ask for.”

“Both teams played hard.  Their pressure zone rattled us at the end.  Obviously we had an excellent season.  We lose three seniors, but we’ll be poised to come back here next year.”

“It was an amazing season; we got the last shot we wanted – that is exactly what we drew up in the huddle.”

“[Trevon] Bluiett got almost all of his points in the second half.  He and (Yogi) Ferrell are players.  They made plays at the end getting into our interior and making nice passes.  We didn’t do as well as we have all season with finishing [the play].  There were definitely some shots around the basket that we normally make.  It didn’t seem to go our way today.”

“We’re still the first team (from Bishop Noll) to play in the state championship game.  No doubt it was great to see our fans and the Bishop Noll community unify around us and really support us.”