Kelston Haden typically comes off the bench for Griffith.
But with the way the senior guard was spearheading the Panthers’ defense, he earned the opportunity to start the second half of Saturday night’s Class 3A Kankakee Valley Regional championship game.
Haden’s performance against Mishawaka Marian guard Jair Rodgers was instrumental in Griffith’s 41-24 victory, the Panthers’ second straight regional title.
Haden shadowed Rodgers everywhere he went. When Rodgers came off screens, the Panthers trapped aggressively before recovering.
Haden helped limit Marian’s senior to seven points, well below Rodgers’ season average of 21.4. Rodgers had 19 points in the Knights’ 55-51 semifinal win over Twin Lakes.
“We watched him the previous game and we noticed everything that he does,” Haden said. “He’s a left-handed finisher, and our coaches told us to push him right. I did that as much as possible and tried to contain him as much as possible.
“It’s a challenge every game. My goal is to stop every team’s best player. My team depends on me for that.”
Haden was not alone in his efforts.
The Panthers (25-3) led 17-1 after the first quarter. The Knights (22-5) missed all seven of their shots.
“You don’t plan on that,” coach Gary Hayes said of Griffith’s 17-1 lead.
Tremell Murphy had 20 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. He had eight points, four rebounds and three blocks in the first quarter, after going scoreless in the first quarter of the Panthers’ regional semifinal win over Northwestern.
“We just wanted to come out with all our energy, and that’s what I did,” Murphy said. “I took advantage of my size inside.”
Griffith led 24-12 at halftime. And when the second half began, Haden was on the floor.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Hayes said. “Kelston was locking No. 2 (Rodgers) down, so just go with it. When you have guys like Martin Schiele and Kelston Haden, he hasn’t run into that kind of speed too much this year.”
Schiele added eight points, after the senior guard had 10 of his 17 points in the first quarter in the semifinals against Northwestern.
Continuing to hold a double-digit lead midway through the third quarter in the final, the Panthers slowed down the pace. Their patient offense all but eliminated Marian’s remote chance to mount a comeback.
“We took the air out of the ball, and that’s something we usually don’t do,” Hayes said. “But by then, we knew it was a possession game, and we decided at halftime that if they were still in their zone, we’d spread them out.”
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Griffith will play in Saturday’s semistate against Marion (21-7), which won the Marion Regional with a 66-62 win over NorthWood.
The time and location — either Huntington North or Lafayette Jefferson — is scheduled to be announced Sunday.
The Panthers won a semistate title last season before losing in the Class 3A state championship game.
“We’re still not done yet,” Haden said. “We have two more games left, and we want to win them both.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff