Lewis plays in third straight state championship game

Marked Tree senior Landon Lewis has done something not many high school basketball players get to do in their career, play in three straight state championship games. As a sophomore, Lewis and the Indians finished as runners-up to County Line in the Class 1A State Tournament, as a junior the team won the Class 1A title beating Nevada and this season the team finished as ?? with a win/loss over Earle.

“It feels awesome coming back three years in a row to Hot Springs to play in a state championship game. That is something every basketball player in Arkansas dreams of,” Lewis said.

Lewis has been a versatile player the last three years for the Indians. “My role this year was the same as last year, being versatile all over the floor, being aggressive on defense, and taking and knocking down those wide open shots,” Lewis said.

“It will be special and significant to have another title attached to last year’s title and next to our runners-up title because it shows that my team never gave up and found ways to improve our mistakes and to better ourselves,” Lewis said about how special a back to back title would be. “It will also be more special to have another title this year due to the fact that we had a more challenging season this year and still made it to state. Winning a title in the 2025 season will show what we are for real and how bad we wanted it,” Lewis added.

Lewis said the runners-up season was a good run for the team. “I’d say the runners-up season was a good run that we shouldn’t have lost but it also built us up for the next season. We fixed the little mistakes and came together as a team,” Lewis said. “Last year’s state title win was all about basically not wanting to have that same feeling we had the year before, it basically a revenge tour coming into that season and making a mark around the 1A. This year would be all about proving a lot of people wrong that didn’t think we would make it here and because of how slow we started off in the beginning of the season,” Lewis added.

Leading by example is the type of player Lewis sees himself. “I’d say I’m more of a lead by example player because being a senior on the team and having a little of underclassman getting a good amount of playing time,” Lewis said. “I took on the role of letting them know how fast the game goes and what and what not to do as they learn,” Lewis added.