Lawrence North on the verge of basketball history

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jack Keefer's not much of a history buff. What happens to his Lawrence North team for a couple of hours Saturday night means a lot more to him than what happened to Oscar Robertson and Indianapolis Attucks a half-century ago.\nStill, if the top-ranked, unbeaten and heavily favored Wildcats manage one more victory over Muncie Central -- another team loaded with history and tradition -- they'll have their third straight Class 4A championship. It would also match Attucks' state-record 45-game winning streak, one of the great milestones in the history of Indiana high school basketball.\n"I'd be very proud, I'm sure," the Lawrence North coach said.\n"But we don't talk about how many games we've won in a row or anything like that," he said. "Will we be significantly disappointed if Attucks still has the record if we lose? No. Will we be disappointed if we don't have the state championship? Yes. That's what we're striving for."\nThe Wildcats (28-0) have been unstoppable -- almost unchallenged -- winning by a state-best average of more than 21 points a game. Seven-footer Greg Oden has been constantly double- and triple-teamed, yet he's averaging 22 points, 10.5 rebounds and an incredible 74.1 field goal percentage. Guard Mike Conley, like Oden an Ohio State recruit, is averaging 16.3 points and 4.1 assists.\nThe supporting cast of Damian Windham, Brandon McDonald and Qadr Owen has stepped up when needed, too. And playing in Marion County and in the tough Metropolitan Conference, Lawrence North has faced some of the stiffest competition in the state, including three wins against second-ranked Pike and two each against No. 6 North Central, Indianapolis Arlington, Carmel and Bloomington South.\nAs a team, the Wildcats are shooting 55 percent to their opponents' 36 percent.\n"Anytime you throw that ball up, there's a chance," said Keefer, trying to minimize Lawrence North's status as favorite. "It just takes two or three guys to hit a bunch of threes on you to beat you ... It doesn't take much to change the complexion of a game, so we go into every game just as scared to death like everybody else."\nMuncie Central (20-5) has won a record eight championships, but last year's appearance in the finals was its first since it won the tournament in 1988. Oden was 14-of-19 from the field and scored 29 points in Lawrence North's 63-52 win, and coach Matt Fine lost all five starters from that team.\n"Obviously, we didn't do very well with the big boy last year," Fine said. "We're certainly going to have more emphasis -- not that we didn't last year -- but we're going to make sure our kids are surrounding him and try to make somebody else beat us"