North finished 28-1, the lone setback a Jan. 11 overtime loss at Anderson’s famed Wigwam that gave the Cougars confidence they could compete against any team anywhere. Jeremy Sinsabaugh, North’s senior swingman who would become the Final Four MVP, was ill that night in Anderson. The host Indians, possessed of an ultra-quick backcourt in Eric Bush and Tyson Jones, still needed overtime to prevail. The Cougars had some subsequent close calls. City rival South took them to overtime in the sectional final. North trailed Terre Haute South by double-digits at the regional before winning by 10 and squeaked past Vincennes Lincoln by a bucket in the semistate opener.

But nobody could beat the Cougars when it really counted. There was individual talent capable of excelling at the next level. Kueth Duany cradled the ball at the end as Syracuse won the 2003 NCAA title. Classmate Djibril Kante starred for Indiana State squads that beat Indiana’s Hoosiers in 1999 and 2000. But Duany, Kante, Sinsabaugh, twin forwards Ryan and Matt Reed, point guard and coach’s son David McKinney, guard Mario Wuysang and the balance of the squad fit together seamlessly and palpably at the prep level.

They were an ethnically diverse bunch. Duany’s parents hailed from Sudan, Kante’s dad from Mali. The Philippines and Malaysia were represented in family backgrounds, as was Nigerian royalty. All the Cougars grew up in Bloomington and, as with many other Hoosier kids of the era, watched Saturday morning cartoons, ate McDonald’s and played hoops.
“Hell, we’re the only foreigners on the team,” Matt Reed quipped about himself and his brother during the Final Four press conference. “We’re from Unionville.” Unionville had once possessed its own high school and scored a famous upset of host Bloomington High School in the 1966 sectional – a game that inspired a University High student in the stands named Angelo Pizzo to write his screenplay for “Hoosiers.”
So the old tournament format died.
But the 1997 North Cougars did not.


With an enrollment classifying it 3A the following season, Delta entered the state title game 24-4, having survived a 57-56 thriller over LaPorte in the afternoon’s semifinals while North had a more comfortable 50-43 win over Kokomo. Coach Paul Keller’s Eagles boasted a capable and very quick backcourt of Petey Jackson and Billy Lynch, while North, which would be classified 4A the following season, had more size and depth up front.

For the first time in state finals history as far back as records could determine, a team was held scoreless for an entire opening period.
But North only scored seven points itself, so its lead was still relatively modest at the initial quarter break. But if it took the whole first quarter for North to score seven points, it only took a 1:10 stretch of the second period for another 7-0 burst featuring a Sinsabaugh 3-pointer. By the time Wuysang ripped home another 3 and Ryan Reed followed with a 15-footer, it was a 12-0 run.

Any hopes Delta had for a rally died early in the second half. After Jackson began the third-quarter scoring with two free throws for the Eagles, Sinsabaugh scored on a baseline drive and sank a 3 to ignite a 9-0 North run. Sinsabaugh’s steal led to a Wuysang no-look pass to Ryan Reed for a layup during that stretch. When a nifty wrap-around pass from Kante produced another bunny for Reed, the Cougar lead was 20 at 39-19.

Junior forward Duany scored 15 of his co-game-high 17 points after halftime to help keep the Eagles grounded. Ryan Reed matched Duany’s 17 points, overall, and the balanced Cougars also got 14 points from Sinsabaugh and eight each from Kante and Wuysang. North shot .574 from the field (27 of 47), made almost half its 3-point attempts (5 of 11) and nailed 80 percent of its free throws (16 of 20). With McKinney capably running the point, the Cougars finished with more steals (five) than turnovers (four.) It was championship-caliber stuff, fully worthy of a team that will go down in history as the last true all-inclusive Indiana state boys’ basketball champ.

свернуть