Will Lawrence North Provide Major Test for Bishop Luers Star?

It will be interesting to see which Lawrence North basketball team shows up this weekend when Class 2A No. 4 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, led by high-scoring Deshaun Thomas, comes calling for a 4 p.m. game on Saturday.

Will it be the team that won eight of its nine first games? Will it be the team that came within four points of Class 4A No. 2 North Central in the semifinals of the Marion County Tournament? Will it be the team that was taken to the woodshed eight days later by North Central in shocking 99-55 ending, the worst defeat administered to a Jack Keefer team in his 34 years at the Northeast side high school? Will it be the team that scored only 33 points but limited Fishers to 30 points on Jan. 29? (That’s the lowest score among Class 4A boys schools that I can recall in recent memory.)And will the four-time state championship coach and his veteran staff be able to devise a successful game plan to either stop or at least slow down Thomas, a 34 scorer who joins North Central’s Terone Johnson Jr. as the top two candidates in the running for the coveted Mr. Basketball honor?

Regardless of what happens, the interest should be at fever pitch, locally, statewide and nationally (ESPN will be there). The 6-foot-7 Thomas, who hopes to lead Luers to a third straight state championship, has most basketball buffs watching the box scores weekly to see how close the Ohio State-bound southpaw is to the all-time Indiana high school scoring record.Bedford North’s Damon Bailey, as most know, graduated in 1990 points with 3,134 career points.

Thomas, who averaged 30.3 points as a junior, has upped his average to 33.9 this season. He’s scored 542 points this season and needs 339 points to pass the former Bedford North Lawrence standout as the Indiana high school basketball scoring king. Luers has five remaining regular-season games, and the Knights could play as many as seven games in the state tournament unless they draw a bye in the sectionals, then that total would be one less game.

Still, if my math is correct, he would need to average 28.25 points per game for 12 more games to break the record in the State Finals, or 30.82 points for 11 games. Based on his current streak, there’s a good chance Thomas will break the record. Plus, the Knights figure to be tournament ready, ready for another long run. They play eight big schools, and no 2A schools during the regular season. They have three 4A opponents yet to play, including Lawrence North. Two of their six losses have come against 3A Fort Wayne schools Dwenger and Elmhurst, and Class A No. 1 Bowman Academy, which is unbeaten and pretty much looks like a shoe-in to win state.

Yeah, the Eagles are that good. And we may discover that Luers, despite those losses, is pretty good, too, maybe too good for the rest of Class 2A.

Trying To Pass Bailey

The following list of the top all-time Indiana high school basketball scorers among both boys and girls shows how many have tried, but so far none have been able to catch or surpass Damon Bailey, Indiana’s legendary Wonderboy.

How They Stand

1. Damon Bailey, Bedford N. Lawrence (1990): 3,134

2. Shanna Zolman, Wawasee (2002): 3,085

3. Marion Pierce, Lewisville (1961): 3,019

4. Stephanie White, Seeger (1995): 2,869

5. Deshaun Thomas, Bishop Luers (2010): 2,796

6. Skylar Diggins, S.Bend Washington (2009): 2,790

– Compiled by Mark Morrow

Mark Morrow is an online columnist for VYPE High School Sports Magazine, Central Indiana. He can be reached at mediamarko@sbcglobal.net or by leaving a comment.