David Hardin flies above the challengers in the Dunk contest at the Indiana Ohio All Star Classic.
Evan Gustin attempts to block Trenton Copsey’s shot from under the basket in their second match of the season.
The cross-state All-Star Basketball Classic, sponsored by Parkview Sports Medicine, rivalry took place at the Antwerp High School on Saturday, April 18 with schools from all over Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana, sending their top seniors from the basketball season over to this final game. This was started last year by Antwerp Athletic Director, Drew Altimus.
It was the Hoosier side of the court that took an early lead in the first game. The girls handily won against the
Tearra Lapsley scores for Indiana.
Ohio team 36-32. The Ohio team came back from their deficit but not enough to win the game. The top scorer of the game for the Indiana Superstars was Sharon Balsinger from South Adams. The top scorer for Ohio was Julia Thatcher of Lincolnview High School, also with 12. The games were each two 18 minute halves instead of four quarters.
Other star girl players from Indiana included Amanda Hunter from Bellmont HS, Jenna Beer from Leo, Dionne Tanner from New Haven, Tearra Lapsley from New Haven, Kendra Graber, Vickie Cook and Camika Leggett – all from Woodlan.
Ohio All-Star Players included Mackenzie Riggenbach from Crestview, Lindsey Motycka from Crestview, Rachel Schroeder from Hicksville, Brayton Straley from Hicksville, Julia Thatcher fro Lincolnview, Hanna McCleery from Lincolnview, Erin Morrow from Van Wert, and Alexa Dunlap from Van Wert.
Between games was the 3-point contest and Julia Thatcher and Mackenzie Riggengach from Ohio competed with Julia competing against Kendra Graber and Jenna Beer. It ended up that Jenna Beer won the contest with 12 the first round and nine the second.
The boys 3-point match began with Corbin Linder from Wayne Trace and Justice Dowdy from Lincolnview and Adam Davison from Leo and Elija O’Hara from Woodlan. Justice scored 15 in his 30 second time period while Adam scored 11. In the final, Justice fell apart and could only score 7 while Adam posted 14 more.
David Sinn runs over David Hardin to score a layup.
The dunk contest was very good! David Sinn from Wayne Trace and Trenton Copsey from Antwerp represented Ohio. Indiana was represented by David Hardin of Leo, Caleb Tierney from Bellmont and Bradley Scott of Heritage. Both Ohio and Indiana were represented well by their teams. The best was of Leo and it was David Hardin. He had some amazing dunks (see the pictures). His last had the crowds for both sides standing and was described by Jason Landers as an “Alley-oop Tomahawk Dunk.” It was simply amazing.
The boys basketball game began after the dunk contest completed. From the beginning, the Indiana all-stars kept their lead and the game finished with a close 74-70 win by the hoosiers. Top scorers for the boys were Adam Davison with 22 and David Hardin with 26, both of Leo. It’s quite understandable why Leo had a such a great season this year. Ohio’s top two scorers were Treston Gonzales (18) of Paulding and David Sinn (14) of Wayne Trace.
It was an incredible night for the last basketball game for these boys high school careers!
