Jack Benter Dominates in Winning State Championship
A State championship has been a long time coming for the Brownstown Central boys basketball program. Coach Dave Benter has spent 26 years as head coach at Brownstown and had twice made the state finals in 2004 and 2009, only to come up short. Just last season they reached the semi-state championship game before losing to Linton-Stockton a step short of a return to the state finals.
In 2024, behind Purdue commit Jack Benter, Dave’s son, they finally got there and won the big prize.
Benter had 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists as No. 1 ranked Brownstown won the state title Saturday afternoon in Class 2A over No. 2 rated Wapahani 55-36. It was a highly anticipated game between the top two teams in the state’s final poll, and Wapahani had earned its way to Indianapolis with a blowout win over No. 3 Tipton in the regional and defending state champion Fort Wayne Blackhawk in the semi-state. Isaac Andrews led them at 24.6 points per game as one of the state’s top scorers, but they struggled all game.
After Andrews gave them a brief 3-2 lead Benter helped Brownstown jump out in front 12-3 with a couple of nifty assists. Chace Coomer connected on a pair of threes during the run and Brownstown was never really threatened from there. Brownstown led 18-7 after a quarter and 31-14 at halftime when Benter beat the buzzer with a long three-pointer.
Wapahani had a 10-0 run in the third to cut the lead to six at 34-28 and missed a couple of threes that would have cut it even further, but Brownstown got the final four points of the quarter to lead 38-28 into the fourth. The Braves then put the game away with a 7-0 surge midway through the fourth quarter.
Benter finished the game 9 of 18 from the floor and 2 of 4 from three. He also had a nifty cross court behind-the-back pass along the baseline to Micah Sheffer for a corner three with 4:56 left that put Brownstown up 46-31 and effectively ended the game.
With 46 seconds left Benter was subbed out to a huge ovation and gave his father a hug on the sidelines as both had finally made it to the top.
Here is what Benter had to say after the win.
Check out True Fan Pricing with our new partner Autograph! Download the App here and use code: boilerupload
Boiler Upload is an affiliate partner with Homefield Apparel, a premium collegiate apparel brand based in Indianapolis. They feature licensed vintage designs for over 150 different colleges and universities from the Colorado School of Mines all the way to most of the Big Ten. This, of course, includes Purdue. I can speak from experience that their Purdue line is fabulous, including the awesome 1967 Rose Bowl retro tee. Visit Homefield and use code BOILERUPLOAD for a discount on their unique designs.