By Rex Kirts
South won the state basketball championship as a team, and all who played were honored by word or trophy at the season-ending banquet Sunday.
Also, all were treated to an extremely well done, comprehensive poem of praise by Martha Holmes, wife of coach J.R. Holmes.
Senior Darwin "Dee" Davis, Jr. came way with a ton of hardware, including the B-Man award voted on by the players. Davis and senior Spencer Turner were the Captains.
Davis leaves with two state championship rings, as does Turner. Both were named to the all-Conference Indiana team this year.
Career-wise, Davis is No. 1 on the South list in assists with 417, No. 2 in 2-point field goal percentage at 61 per cent and the No. 3 scorer with 1,306 points. Counting his freshman year at North, Davis has 471 assists and is the No. 3 career scorer in Monroe County with 1,582 points.
In all of Holmes' 29 years of coaching at South he's never had anyone win the season 2-point field gial percentage award, the 3-point percentage award and the total percentage award, but Davis did it this year. He hit 59 per cent on 2s, 41 per cent on 3s and 52 per cent on all shots.
In addition to his shooting, Davis led in scoring with 606 points (21.6 average) assists with 159 and steals with 67.
Turner led in free throw percentage this season with 85 per cent and finished high in three career categories. Heis No. 3 all-time in free throw percentage at 85, No. 4in scoring with 1,234 points and No. 5 in 3-point percentage at 42.
Turner also owns one other distinction: having the lighting system changed in the gym because of him. He liked to come in early before school and shoot, and early in his career he depended on Holmes, who also gets to school early, to turn on the lights in the gym. Instead of always having to do this, Holmes installed an automatic system in which the lights come on by the motion of people walking in the gym.
Senior Desmond Marks won the rebounding award with 176 and the blocked shot award with 16.
The Sixth Man award was shared by senior Alex Forney and juniors Michael Bower and Trae Washington. The Defensive award was shared by seniors Joey Forney and Ben Stowell. The Mental Attitude award selected by Holmes was shared by seniors Alex Forney, Gabe Hull and Aaron Binford.
Joey Forney won a blanket for winning eight letters in his career, getting them in football and baseball besides basketball.
It was another historic year for the Panthers, who went 26-0 two years ago to win the state champioonship, becoming only the 12th team to go unbeaten.
This year's team was 26-2, the past four years South is 94-5. The seniors finished 48-0 at home for their varsity careers, and the Panthers won 53 straight regular season games until losing in the Hall of Fame Classic to Center Grove in double overtime. They later reversed that loss with a win over Center Grove in the regular season.
It was a senior team with eight seniors and a veteran staff led by Holmes, who was in his 41st year of coaching overall.
The Panthers won their fourth straight Conference Indiana championship and had a great tournament run that included a win over highly regarded Indianapolis North Central in the semistate. They beat Kokomo in the championship game at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
In addition to seniors Davis, Turner, Marks, Stowell, Joey Forney, Alex Forney, Hull and Binford and juniors Bower and Washington, varsity members included Dustin Utley and Kyle Dugan.
