High school basketball: Cathedral dominates previously unbetean Chesterton to capture Indiana Class 4A state title

Talk about spoilers. Cathedral (Indianapolis) went wire-to-wire to defeat Chesterton 65-31 Saturday night to capture the Indiana Class 4A state title and ruin the Trojans' bid for an unbeaten season.

The win was historic in multiple ways for the Fighting Irish of Cathedral (26-6) as they became the first private school program to win the Class 4A state title. Jason Delaney was also the first head coach to win Indiana state championships at three different schools. He previously won at Waldron in 2004 and at Arsenal Tech (Indianapolis) in 2014.

Cathedral took control immediately with a 10-0 run to open the game before extending its lead to 22-10 after the first quarter, 36-21 at the half and 49-27 at the end of three quarters. The Fighting Irish opened the final period on a 15-0 run before cruising to the impressive victory.

Much like they were the entire season, the Fighting Irish used a balanced attack as Jaron Tibbs (15 points), Jaxon Edwards (14), Xavier Booker (13) and Tayshawn Comer (11) each finished in double figures.

An experienced and cohesive group, all five Cathedral starters averaged double figures this season — Comer (16.4 points, 6.4 assists), Tibbs (13.1 points, 7.0 rebounds), Booker (12.4 points, 6.6 rebounds), Edwards (10.8 points, 5.9 rebounds) and Jake Davis (10.3 points, 4.6 rebounds).

Despite losing in the program's first state championship game appearance, Chesterton (29-1) exceeded all expectations after receiving zero votes in the Associated Press' preseason IHSAA Class 4A rankings. The Trojans were ranked atop those same rankings for much of the season.