Here are some different aspects to think about. More style than equipment, but in fact the different style means different equipment is preferred too.

Three people, trainguy the OP, pumpkinbrat and juleskarney have all posted high school basketball shots. They are all using Nikon cameras with APS-C cropped sensors and using focal lengths from 35 to 50mm, with trainguy going for a zoom and the others with fixed focal lengths. As might be expected, they all tend to shoot from an area very near the basket and right on the floor.

I can't really tell except with pumpkinbrat because he describes what he is shooting, but it looks as if everyone is to some degree shooting a team as much as just one player.

My experience is a little different. I shoot one specific player, and most of the time ignore all others. I'm not looking for team shots at all! I also shoot with full frame cameras. That does make for an advantage in being able to use much higher ISO's. I usually don't go higher than ISO 10000, but that's less of a problem than a DX camera at ISO 6400 as there is just about exactly 1 fstop difference in dynamic range from DX to FX sensors.

The above is a picture of Julia Kim in 2011. In a couple months she will graduate from college, but 2011 was her senior year in high school. Alaskans love basketball, and Barrow teams are always contenders. In 2011 the Barrow Lady Whalers probably fielded the best female HS basketball team ever in Alaska. In the State finals they won all games by scores of 2:1 or better.

This image was made with a Nikon D3S and an 80-200mm f/2.8 with a 1.4X teleconverter on it. 260mm, f/4.5 (stopped down from a maximum aperture of f/4), 1/250 shutter speed and ISO 10000.

Obviously I am not trying to freeze all motion! And since this young lady was a whiz at ball handling and only so-so at scoring, the middle of the floor was much more interesting, and being a couple rows up in the stands was a good vantage point.
Four years after the first shot, younger sister Cynthia Kim (who graduates this year as a Junior) is wearing number 10. She is a play maker and terrific on defense, but also not great at scoring. Hence under the basket is more interesting, but not up close.

This was shot with a Nikon D800, a 24-120mm f/4 lens at 82mm, f/5, shutter speed 1/125, and ISO 6400.

Again the intent at the time this image was shot was to get more motion blur (trying to pan with her and blurring the background). It didn't happen with this image, but that's the reason for the 1/125 shutter speed.

This team is also the top rated team going into the State finals this week, and will probably do well.

As can be seen the style of photography, or the intent, can make a lot of difference in what equipment is the best choice.

Thank you for the kind words.

I use Nikon full frame cameras. Basically full frame has a 1 fstop advantage over a APS-C sensor. So a D7100 at ISO 5000 is about the same as a D800 at ISO 10000.

But whatever camera and whatever high ISO, the biggest point is to nail exposure. That means let the spectral highlights such as light sources and reflections be over exposed. For that matter a lot of other things can be over exposed too. For example in one gym that I shoot in (the pictures are in this gym) there is a balcony and there are flags and posters hanging from it. They get more light than the gym floor, so when the players are properly exposed any of those items showing in the frame will be over exposed. Who cares!

Then, in post processing there is another trick. Set the black level high enough to block out, as totally black, anything that doesn't matter. That will eliminate detail in the cloths that spectators are wearing, as an example. But it will also block out a lot of noise.

Shoot in RAW, and post process.