There are some mixed feelings for the Lewis Cass Kings when it comes to being assigned to the Berry Bowl for Saturday’s Class 2A Logansport Semi-State.
On one hand, the Berry Bowl is just a 10-mile bus ride from Cass High School. It’s also a gym the Kings are well familiar with.
But on the other hand, Logansport is one of Cass’ main rivals and the Kings don’t have a great history in the Berry Bowl as far as a win-loss record goes. Although they do have some big wins there over the years and have fared relatively well there recently.
The Kings are just two wins away from reaching the State Finals. Unranked Cass (19-7) plays No. 2 Wapahani (25-1) in the noon semifinal Saturday. No. 7 Gary 21st Century (21-5) plays No. 3 Fort Wayne Blackhawk (24-3) in the 10 a.m. semifinal. The final is set for 8 p.m.
“I’m really stoked,” Cass senior guard Haden McClain said. “It’s a quick drive for sure. The Berry Bowl’s a great place to play at. It’s got a lot of seats, good energy and good atmosphere.”
Senior forward Luke Chambers was not as enthusiastic about the Kings’ semi-state site.
“I’m not a fan of the Berry Bowl,” Chambers said. “I don’t play well in there but my teammates like it. I do like that our whole community will be able to be there and cheer us on.”
Back in the single-class basketball days the Kings won three sectional titles at the new Berry Bowl in 1978, 1981 and in the final year in 1997.
In the pre-consolidation days, Young America won a sectional title in 1920, Walton in 1921 and Washington Township in 1949 at the old Berry Bowl.
In addition, Young America had a sectional win over Logansport in 1922 before a loss to Cutler in the final. Galveston had a sectional win over Logan in 1949 before a loss to Washington Township in the final. Galveston had another sectional win over Logan in 1955 before a loss to eventual champion Royal Center. Cass had a sectional win over Logan in 1991 before a loss to eventual champion Caston in the new Berry Bowl.
In more modern times, the Kings have won three of the last four Cass County Tournaments. Coach Johnson is 5-2 at the Berry Bowl during his Cass career, including 1-1 this season against Class 4A Logansport. Johnson is 2-2 against Logansport at the Berry Bowl and 3-0 against non-Logansport teams. Prior to Johnson, the Kings hadn’t defeated Logansport in the Berry Bowl since 2003.
“Obviously over the last four years we’ve had ups and downs at the Berry Bowl,” Johnson said. “But we’re super excited. You can’t complain about being 10 miles away from where you’re playing in a semi-state game. The Berry Bowl is a great place.
“The amazing part about it is in Cass County we’ve got all these schools in Cass County and they’re all very willing to root for whoever is there, especially this time of year. We know that Cass County is going to show up in full and our community has been incredible supporting us and following us. So we’re really excited about how those things come together.”
Senior guard Tyson Good is a four-year varsity player for the Kings and has played in all seven of those games in the Berry Bowl.
“I like playing in there a lot,” Good said. “I heard Luke saying he doesn’t like it, but I’m excited.”
Chambers said he hasn’t shot well in the spacious Berry Bowl.
“The free throws is where I always notice it the worst,” he said.
But he has played in the Berry Bowl five times to his opponents’ zero.
“That’s advantage us, so that’s good,” he said.
The other semi-state options were Michigan City, Elkhart and Lafayette Jeff.
“The drive I did not want,” Chambers said, “but for me shooting-wise I didn’t want the Berry Bowl. But I’ll take it.”
Perhaps Chambers and the Kings will dial in Saturday at the Berry Bowl. They have been dialed in of late, having won eight games in a row as they’re playing their best basketball at the right time.
“I think we’re at a good level right now,” McClain said. “We need to keep going up though from there. We’ve been talking about how we need to play our best game. We still haven’t played our best game yet. It’s yet to come. We just need to keep on playing and have that confidence we’ve been having these past couple games and keep going.”
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