IHSAA Sectional 8: Westfield stuns Carmel with late rally; Jalen Haralson carries Fishers

CARMEL – Seth LaRavia had a text message waiting for him when he picked up his phone Tuesday night in the Carmel locker room.

“Let’s goooooo!” read the message from older brother, Jake LaRavia, the former Lawrence Central star and last year’s first-round pick of the Memphis Grizzlies. “You’re so tough boi!”

An older brother’s affirmation is always nice.

LaRavia, a 6-5 junior, made two shots in Westfield’s 43-40 Class 4A Sectional 8 first-round win over Carmel. The second, a shot fake and reset 3-pointer from the right wing with 1 minute left, gave Westfield a 41-40 lead to cap a furious fourth-quarter rally and send the Shamrocks to the sectional semifinal Friday night against Noblesville.

“I knew I had a 6-8 guy coming at me so if I would have shot that shot, he would have blocked it,” said LaRavia, who finished with six points on a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers. “I had to do a pump fake, get around him and just shoot it.”

Did he know it was good? Not really. Not at all.

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“I thought I was going to airball it bad,” he said with a smile. “I thought it was short. But I’m glad it went in.”

So is all of Westfield, which knocked off Carmel in last year’s sectional championship for its first sectional title in program history and end the Greyhounds’ seven-year run of sectional titles.

In addition to LaRavia, the Shamrocks (16-7) had a couple of other heroes in senior Alex Romack, who put the team on his back in the fourth quarter, and junior guard Trey Buchanan, who played with a high ankle sprain he suffered a week ago against Frankfort and drilled a massive game-tying 3-pointer before LaRavia’s heroics. Buchanan then knocked down both ends of a 1-and-1 with 15.8 seconds left.

“He was a game-time decision,” Westfield coach Shane Sumpter said. “He was in tears in here at halftime and what do you know? He hits a helluva 3 and two big free throws. Just a gutsy performance. I think we’ve seen that from a Westfield player before.”

Sumpter was referring to last year’s IndyStar Mr. Basketball, Braden Smith, who tore through the sectional last year despite playing on a foot that required surgery. Without Smith and without Cam Haffner, now playing at Eastern Illinois, Westfield was a little overlooked going into this year’s sectional.

And that appeared to be an accurate assessment going into the fourth quarter. Carmel (15-8), which handled Westfield by 11 points in the regular-season meeting in early January, led 33-24. But the 6-5 Romack then went to work, scoring six points on a 9-0 Westfield run (LaRavia hit a 3 during that span) to tie it at 33.

With Carmel star Sam Orme and fellow senior Jared Bonds with four fouls apiece, Romack was able to find his way to the basket, finishing with a game-high 20 points.

“I just knew we had to come out with a fire and a higher level of intensity from the rest of the game,” Romack said of the fourth quarter. “We didn’t have time to mess around anymore. We just had to get it done.”

Orme finished with 13 points in his final game for Carmel and sophomore Alex Cuoto added 11 for the Greyhounds. Spencer White added eight points. Orme picked up two fouls in the first 3-plus minutes of the game.

“Officiating is the officiating,” Carmel coach Ryan Osborn said. “We have to be able to adjust. Everybody battles it. But at the end of the day we shot 28% in the second half and they shot 72. You don’t win those games. It’s unfortunate. It’s not a defining moment for our kids, but it’s an opportunity to get better.”

Carmel got a final look on a 3-pointer from Couto in the left corner but it was contested and short. Bonds got the rebound and attempted a rushed 3 but it was deflected and time ran out.

“I think there’s a lot of belief in our school now,” Sumpter said. “Our culture has totally changed. We come into these games and our guys believe they can win no matter what it says on their jerseys. They believe we can win.”

Jalen Haralson leads Fishers

In the second game, Fishers (14-11) rode the hot hand of sophomore Jalen Haralson to a 68-49 victory over rival Hamilton Southeastern into Friday’s semifinal against Zionsville.

Haralson scored 21 of Fishers’ 24 points in the first half (HSE led 25-24 at halftime) and finished with 33 as his teammates picked it up in the second half.

“I thought in the first half most of the other guys were a little nervous,” Fishers coach Garrett Winegar said. “All those guys are in this moment for the first time. They are in a sectional environment for the first time and in the Sectional 8 environment for the first time against your rival. We told them the team that gets back to ‘zero’ the quickest is going to win this game.”

Fishers got a big lift from Taden Metzger in the second half as the junior went 4-for-5 from the 3-point line and finished with 12 points. HSE (7-18) was led by Donovan Hamilton’s 12 points. Reph Stevenson and Braeden Totten each added 11 points for the Royals.

Fishers knocked off Zionsville 52-45 two weeks ago with a big fourth-quarter rally. Westfield defeated Noblesville 48-43 back in mid-December.

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA basketball: Westfield, Fishers advance in Sectional 8 at Carmel