Chambers, Good headline All-Loganland boys basketball team
Apr. 29—Luke Chambers and Tyson Good took their games to a new level this season and in turn helped lead the Kings to the Final Four in Class 2A.
Chambers hit the weight room and turned himself into a go-to player in the post. Good played the best basketball of his four-year varsity career down the final stretch.
Chambers and Good are the Pharos-Tribune's 2023 Loganland Boys Basketball Co-Players of the Year.
"In my personal opinion they were one of the best 1-2 combinations in the state, especially at the 2A level," Lewis Cass coach Kyle Johnson said. "They're two guys coming in basically 6-5, 6-6 and just drew a lot of attention. They drew so much attention, Tyson from the guard position and Luke from the big position, I was so proud of them both, they were willing to accept whatever the game brought. If they brought heavy focus on Luke, Tyson was just an animal. When they tried to put a lot of attention on Tyson, Luke did the same thing, was a beast inside. The two of them in the tournament run were just incredible."
Good, a 6-foot-6 senior guard, is a repeat selection as the Player of the Year. He was glad to have some company this year.
"I think it's really cool. I'd rather it be me and Luke than it just me this year," he said. "We have been playing since I was in sixth grade and I came over to Cass. I feel like every year we've just gotten better as a team and me and Luke have kind of been able to lead guys and I think this year we actually lived up to our potential somewhat, so it was good."
Good averaged 15.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.5 apg and 1.5 spg his senior season. He shot 43% from 3-point range and 72% from the foul line.
He finishes his career with 1,325 points and finishes second all-time in school history behind only Ted Kitchel's 1,602 points.
Good played the best basketball of his career in this year's tournament run. He scored a season-high 25 points in the semistate championship game against Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian. He hit five 3-pointers and scored 22 in the semistate win over Wapahani. He also scored 22 in the regional championship win at North Judson.
"It was kind of just adrenaline, in the moment, I always like games with bigger crowds and more pressure," he said. "I just feel like it pumps me up more, it helps me play better. I felt like it was good to kind of go out with a bang."
After being a part of 13-win teams in each of his first three seasons, the Kings went 20-8 this year.
"When coach Johnson came I think it kind of switched our mentality from none of us guys if you would have asked us two years ago would have said we had any shot at winning the state championship," Good said. "And then we get around a good coaching staff that beats it into our mind that we can actually do this. It was honestly kind of crazy at the end of the year we all just looked at each other and we're like, 'dude, we're one game away from going to the state championship.' We didn't even realize it in the moment, we were just playing."
Some Kings fans were questioning the fairness of the best team in Fort Wayne by quite a wide margin being a Class 2A private school. Blackhawk went on to beat Linton-Stockton the next game to win its third state title in the last five years.
"I think you play whoever you play," Good said. "In Indiana there used to be no class basketball so I really don't believe in them not being a 2A school. But they were a great team and they came out and played hard and we just couldn't really match them."
Good had options to play college basketball but said he does not plan to attend college and plans to pursue an electrician apprenticeship to become an electrician.
Chambers, a 6-5 center, was an All-Loganland first-team selection a year ago when he averaged 11.3 ppg and 7.5 rpg. He upped those averages to 15.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg this season and shot 63% from the field.
His improvement was one of the reasons why the Kings were able to turn a lot of close losses last year into wins this year.
"I thought it was completely an upgrade from last year when we lost a lot of those games that we wanted to win. This year we were able to finish the games," he said. "We came out really physical most of the games and just played to the true tradition of Lewis Cass basketball."
Chambers said the biggest difference he made from his junior to senior year was improving his strength.
"I played a lot over the summer with the same group for six, seven summers in a row and that's how I worked on a lot of my post moves. But here recently I decided I can't be good at post moves if you aren't strong so I really tried to focus on the weight room because that's how I was going to be able to dominate on the court. Ever since then it's pretty much paid off," he said.
Chambers' best game in the tournament came against Wabash in the sectional final when he had 26 points and 12 rebounds in a five-point win in a game the Apaches just didn't have an answer for him inside.
But he and his teammates often battled foul trouble throughout the tournament run but the Kings were still able to reach the semistate final. Chambers still nearly posted double-doubles in most of the games despite having to sit for chunks of time. Not only did the Kings battle foul trouble, they had to erase second-half deficits in most of the tournament games.
"I think the front part of the season prepared us because we had settled down, because a lot of those games where we got down eight, 10 points, we understood that we had done this before, we were capable of it," Chambers said. "After that the rest just took care of itself. The run was insane for playing that well and putting everything together for that little bit at the end of the season is something that we'll all remember."
Johnson said the tournament run should help future Kings teams as well. Chambers and Good left their mark with the Cass basketball program.
"To see their progression the last four years has been amazing," Johnson said. "They both have had very different progressions. Tyson has been a starter since he was a freshman and Luke Chambers looked like a little twig when he was a freshman. It's just amazing to see Luke has grown and Tyson has found a way to stay consistent and walk out being the second leading scorer all time in Lewis Cass boys basketball. They've been neat kids to coach. The first 1,000-point scorer I've ever got to coach and it was neat watching that journey."
Chambers will play football on a full-tuition scholarship at NCAA Division-II University of Indianapolis.
The following are capsules of the rest of the 2023 All-Loganland boys basketball team:
Jacob Taylor, Logansport
The 6-5 junior led the area in scoring at 16.9 ppg and added 4.8 rpg.
The Berries went 8-16, which was a five-win improvement from the previous year. The Berries had a stretch where they won three straight games in a row against McCutcheon, Lewis Cass and Twin Lakes. Taylor's play was a key to the jump in wins.
"I thought he improved a great deal this year, took a leadership role for us in the scoring column," first-year Logansport coach Matt Lange said. "He did a lot of stuff better than he had last year. I'm proud of him, I'm proud of how far he's come. He's one of the hardest workers that I know. He's always first in the gym, last out. He had a really good year."
The Berries will return four starters next year. They had a five-win improvement this year despite not having a full squad for almost the entire year, as Grayson Long and Jeremiah Miller both missed chunks of time due to injuries sustained during football.
"If we were healthy all year we were probably looking at instead of an eight-win season we're probably at 11 or 12 and it looks a little bit different when you're at 11 or 12 because you're sitting around .500," Lange said. "You just never know if you get those guys with a little chemistry together because with Grayson and Miah, they didn't play the previous year, so you get more chemistry that can turn into more wins that you didn't expect."
Drew McKaig, Pioneer
McKaig, a 6-1 guard, posted big numbers his junior season for the Panthers with 15.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 3.0 apg and 2.8 spg.
The Panthers' 5-19 season was highlighted by late road wins over Winamac and North White.
"I thought Drew had a good year," Pioneer coach Darren McKaig said. "It was a little bit of a rebuilding year for us and he had to do some things he wasn't used to doing. He played some point guard at times and guarded all five positions on the court. I think his value was not easy to tell just in one aspect of the game but he did a lot of things really well for us."
John Malchow, Winamac
Malchow, a 6-2 guard, also put up big numbers his junior season, averaging 14.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 2.1 apg.
The Warriors went 9-16 under first-year coach Cameron Bennington, which included a 9-8 finish after an 0-8 start. Bennington recently took the Western job.
He said Malchow played through an ankle injury all season that cost him a couple games early in the year but still put up big numbers.
"He had a couple games where he really put us on his back and he was scoring at will. And in those games he was also creating for other teammates and he had two or three games where he flirted with having a triple-double and he had one game where he had a 32-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist game. I think he impacts winning in a lot of ways," he said.
Second team
Caleb Sweet, Pioneer
Sweet stepped up for the Panthers his senior season and averaged 12.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg and 1.8 apg.
"Caleb had a really nice year. I think his scoring more than anything, he was able to put the ball in the basket whenever he was open," coach McKaig said. "He was a really reliable shooter, led our team in field goal percentage (48%) and 3-point percentage (40%). He really stepped up for us this year."
Caleb Stinson, Caston
The Comets had to replace five starters to graduation this year. Stinson posted a big junior season in his first extended varsity minutes, averaging 11.5 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 3.0 apg and 1.6 spg.
Caston's 8-15 season included a sweep of Pioneer and wins over Culver, West Central, Northfield, North White and North Miami.
"Caleb's a game-changer with the speed and athleticism he brings," Caston coach Carl Davis said. "He has the ability to create his own shot. He had some games this year where he really stepped up and did a great job of attacking off the dribble and he was one of our top guys in assists as well and just did a great job of distributing the ball when help did come. He gives you a really dynamic player. I think he ended up second on the team in rebounds as well from his guard position. So he's just somebody who did a lot for us on both sides of the ball."
Cain Schanlaub, Caston
Schanlaub, a 6-5 senior, gave the Comets a big presence in the post and averaged 11.3 ppg and 5.2 rpg. He shot 57% from the field.
"It's been fun to see his growth over the past few years," Davis said. "I thought he made a huge jump between his junior and senior year. He put a lot of time in and worked really hard. I thought he was just somebody that as the season went along he got better and better and gave us a low post scoring presence. He rebounded really well the second half of the year and gave us that guy who was just really efficient every time we got the ball to him."
LJ Hillis, Cass
Hillis, a 6-4 junior, was a key to the Kings' success and averaged 10.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 1.7 apg.
"LJ was that third cog in what I thought was a three-man monster trio," Johnson said. "The unselfishness in LJ is just incredible. If he was scoring well, great, the only reason he did it was because he decided that he knew it would help his team. He would do anything, he would score very little, he would score a lot if need be. He would play defense on one of the best players oftentimes, just a great all-around player.
"Really down the stretch he hit some big, big shots for us. One big shot in the Wapahani game followed by a Haden McClain shot. He was just a great person to coach, very coachable and he's just the example I want everybody to look up to of being a Lewis Cass Basketball King."
Haden McClain, Cass
McClain particularly stepped up offensively during the Kings' tournament run, when he shot 10 of 19 from 3-point range (53%) which included several timely shots. He averaged 7 ppg and 3.5 apg through the six tournament games and 4.4 ppg and 2.4 apg for the season.
"Haden McClain, another guy, his growth, he went through high school basketball the way most players are going to go through," Johnson said. "He played on the freshman team and then the JV team, not starting as a junior on the varsity, earning a spot. Then just absolutely becoming a monster of a player, a great defensive player, a guy that dove on the floor, took charges. He ended this year being almost a 50% 3-point shooter (47%). That's just a testament to how hard he worked, a guy that led with determination and resiliency and it was just kind of contagious throughout the team is he was going to do whatever it took not to lose. I think everybody else took that same attitude."
Third team
Talon Zeider, Caston
Zeider was a sharp-shooter his junior season for the Comets and averaged 10.6 ppg and 1.9 spg. He made 61 3-pointers at 36%.
"Talon does a great job stretching the defense," Davis said. "He's a threat from anywhere on the floor shooting the basketball and somebody who got better attacking the basket as well and not being one-dimensional. We're excited to see his continued growth in that area and defensively he led us in steals, has a good nose for the basketball and uses his length to disrupt teams."
Brendan Hines, Winamac
Hines stepped up his junior season and averaged 9.4 ppg and 2.4 apg.
"Brendan had a really good year," Bennington said. "He started off kind of slow, I don't know that Brendan really had a role and we didn't probably clearly define his role well enough. But once we started to really give him a defined role, he really did a good job of buying into it he became a knock-down 3-point shooter for us. Having him on the floor and that threat of him shooting 3s we were able to put him and John in a lot of two-man games and he opened up things for John a lot because people couldn't help off Brendan when he was knocking down 3-pointers.
"His overall 3-point percentage on the year probably doesn't reflect how well he shot the ball down the stretch because he struggled early. Brendan got tremendously better from the start of the year to the finish and I think he's one that's going to take an even bigger step next year."
Jayse Bentle, Winamac
Bentle is the third Warrior junior that made the All-Loganland team. He averaged 8.5 ppg and 1.6 apg this season.
"Jayce is a raw athlete on the basketball court, but Jayse has one speed and it's 110 mph at all times," Bennington said. "When he makes a mistake he makes it fast. Even when he messes up he makes a hustle play. He willed himself to get buckets at times and when he wants to be a good rebounder he can. He's another kid that we need another full offseason here to hone in some skillwork and things like that. But from a standpoint of being an athlete and playing really hard, Jayse really kind of fits that bill."
Isaac Russell, Logansport
Russell was a scoring threat his junior season for the Berries and averaged 7.4 ppg and 1.6 apg.
He had some scoring explosions, which included 22 points against Pioneer, 19 against Kokomo and 17 against Oak Hill.
"Isaac had a good year," Lange said. "I thought teams probably keyed on him a little bit more because he had such a good sophomore year, so that probably kept his scoring down because they were looking at him to be a point scorer. But I thought he had a good year overall. He did some different stuff this year than he had in the past on the positive side. I thought he was a great defender for us and did what we asked him to do. He had a good year."
Keaton Lewellen, Cass
Lewellen continued his strong senior season of athletics for the Kings.
He was their sixth man during their tournament run and averaged 5.8 ppg and 3.3 rpg for the season.
"Keaton Lewellen, I'm as proud of him as I am any player on our team because he had a great summer and started the majority of the time about half the season and we changed up the starting lineups, I think it helped us a little bit with him coming off the bench and his spark, what he could create," Johnson said. "He was a guy that you had to account for, 6-6, athletic, and I think he continued to grow. He's just another guy that's willing to do whatever it takes for the team.
"His attitude and behavior speaks volumes in my world because he was willing to accept the role coming off the bench as the sixth man. We did that with him throughout the tournament and we couldn't have been successful without him. I just loved coaching him and watching his progression just like Haden's progression through all the levels of basketball and becoming a champion as a senior."
Cooper Smith, Logansport
Smith did a lot of the dirty work for the Berries and also had some double-figure scoring games, which included 19 points against Winamac, 12 against Kokomo, 11 against South Bend Adams and 10 against Maconaquah. He averaged 6.0 ppg and 4.7 rpg for the season.
"Cooper is just one of those kids you love to have on your team," Lange said. "He does what he needs to do or what he's asked to do. I just call him a blue-collar guy. That's the way we're moving this team towards is more of a blue-collar type and he's the perfect role model for that. I thought he had an unbelievably good year, quite a bit more than what we expected out of him so I thought he did a very good job."
2023 All-Loganland boys basketball
First team
Luke Chambers, Cass
Tyson Good, Cass
Jacob Taylor, Logansport
Drew McKaig, Pioneer
John Malchow, Winamac
Second team
Caleb Sweet, Pioneer
Caleb Stinson, Caston
Cain Schanlaub, Caston
LJ Hillis, Cass
Haden McClain, Cass
Third team
Talon Zeider, Caston
Brendan Hines, Winamac
Jayse Bentle, Winamac
Isaac Russell, Logansport
Keaton Lewellen, Cass
Cooper Smith, Logansport
Honorable mention: Cass — Trey Johnson; Caston — Colby Pugh; Logan — Chrisanthony Del Valle, Izak Mock; Pioneer — Brayden Erickson.
