Tyler Ward had to admit, it was all just a blur. But for a moment, the Heritage Hills junior gained clarity.

It was a bit of soul-crushing irony at the end of the Southridge boys basketball team’s first-round Class 3A sectional matchup.

Jasper boys basketball coach John Goebel was fairly certain his players could follow a scouting report and win a game. What he wasn’t sure about is whether his guys could insulate themselves from all the talk.

Photos of the Jasper, Southridge, Forest Park, Northeast Dubois and Heritage Hills boys basketball sectional teams.

Throughout the progression of each basketball season, someone or something usually emerges as a pleasant surprise. This season is no different.

Tyler Begle developed an inkling that this was going to be “the” team.

Southridge senior Cody Thompson had known classmate Chad O’Bryan since almost first grade, but it wasn’t until almost seven years later that Thompson said he witnessed the real O’Bryan on display.

Last Tuesday in Ferdinand, after the Forest Park boys basketball team dispatched Gibson Southern in its regular-season finale, there was a sense of giddiness around the Ranger confines.

A team’s journey rarely travels along a straight path. And if any team could lay claim to being the Magellan of high school hoops, it's been Northeast Dubois over the past few seasons.