1985 IHSAA State Championship: Marion 74, Richmond 67
Marion High School, ranked number one in the polls most of the year, became the sixth unbeaten team to go all the way with a 74-67 victory over
Richmond in the
Indiana High School Athletic Association 75th
Boys Basketball State Finals
Tournament windup on March 23,
1985 at
Market Square Arena,
Indianapolis.
For
Coach Bill Green, it was his fourth state championship, placing him in a tie with three
Hall of Famers --
Marion Crawley,
Everett Case and
Glenn Curtis.
Green won his first state championship with Indianapolis
Washington in
1969, and followed it up with three more at Marion in
1975,
1976 and 1985. Green is the first in
Hoosier Hysteria records to coach two unbeaten teams to a state championship. This year's Marion ball club swept all 29 games on the way to Market Square Arena, and his 1969 Indianapolis Washington crew closed out with a
31 -0 record.
Lefon
Bowens tallied 21 points, sophomores
Jay Edwards and
Lyndon Jones 18 each, as Marion jumped out to a 24-8 first quarter lead and stayed in front the rest of the way.
The Giants grabbed control at the outset, hitting 14 of their first 16 field attempts. Their .
596 shooting average was a record for the championship game.
Richmond bounced back in the second half to trim the margin to 7 after trailing 41-30 at the half and 48-45 going into the fourth period.
Todd Graf was the top scorer for the
Red Devils with 20 points.
Both John Brown and
Dennis Williams scored 16 each.
Marion advanced to the championship game with a lopsided 76-52 win over
Southridge in the afternoon; and Richmond downed
East Chicago Washington 85-79, with .
604 shooting from the field.
Jones topped Marion's scoring with 23 points while 6'8-1/2" junior
Andy Nass had 19 for the Raiders who had a standout 23-4 record without a senior on the roster.
Brent Hampton came off the bench with a strong 23-point effort to pace Richmond against East Chicago Washington. Brown scored 18 and Todd Graf 16 for Coach
George Griffith's Red Devils. For Richmond, it was the first trip to the final four since
1953 and the first time ever in the championship game.
Maurice Thornton's 22 points topped East Chicago Washington, but the Senators simply couldn't dig their way out of an early 20-10 first quarter
hole. Richmond took a 22-6 record into the final game against
North Central Conference rival Marion, and it was just the second loss in 26 outings for the two-time East Chicago
Washington state champions.
The Executive Committee unanimously selected Todd Graf from
Richmond High School as the recipient of the
Arthur L. Trester Award for
Mental Attitude.
A total of 394 schools and 4,
666 boys participated in the state series program.