Five teams travel to state tournament

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - On Saturday, March 6 the Indiana Girls' Basketball State Finals will be in Fort Wayne for the first time.

Scheduling conflicts prevented Indianapolis from hosting the championship. Fort Wayne won a bid to host the tournament at the Memorial Coliseum. IHSAA officials said they were impressed with what Fort Wayne had to offer.

"We think this is a good venue for us," IHSAA Commissioner Blake Ress said. "We're pleased Fort Wayne was interested and bid on it and I think it's going to be a great event."

Three Fort Wayne teams: Canterbury, Bishop Luers and Concordia will have home court advantage as they fight for state titles.

The road to Fort Wayne is a little longer this way than it would have been to Indianapolis for five teams heading to the finals: Merrillville, Ben Davis, Rushville, Austin and Vincennes. The move came as a disappointment at first for some schools but coaches from Rushville and Austin said that was short lived.

"You're in the state finals. You really can't complain that much and if they told us we had to walk here, we'd be walking here," Austin Head Coach, Jared Petersen said.

Austin's team and fans will travel around 200 miles for the final games on Saturday. Petersen and other coaches agreed that the extra distance will not stop fans and family from attending the games.

"Our community is pretty crazy right now," Petersen said. "It's a small town community but it is pretty pumped up for it."

Rushville Head Coach, Melissa Marlow said that community is equally as excited.

"The fans [are] coming. The band is coming. The cheerleaders are coming... It's great," Marlow said.