HS girls hoops passes halfway mark, boys reach Week 4
The high school girls basketball season has passed the halfway mark and the boys enter Week 4. An interconference girls game highlights tonight’s schedule while the Triton boys are on upset alert despite the far better record. Here are capsule previews for those two games plus six others involving area teams taking place Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Tuesday tussles Glenn @ Plymouth (girls)
NLC meets NIC when area rivals Glenn (8-4) and Plymouth (5-5) meet tonight at The Rock. The Lady Falcons won both of their games last week and were five-point winners over the Lady Pilgrims a year ago. Plymouth has been held to 40 points or less in each of its last three games, albeit against tough competition. Glenn and Plymouth have three common opponents this season. Both defeated Triton and lost to Tippecanoe Valley. Against Bremen, Glenn won by four and Plymouth lost by 11. The feeling here is another five-point differential tonight - but by who?
Bethany Christian @ #13* Triton (boys)
Class 1A No. 13* Triton’s (4-0) perfect start seems like a guarantee to continue tonight when winless Bethany Christian (0-5) visits the Trojan Trench, but the Trojans cannot overlook the Bruins. In fact, the reputable John Harrell website is predicting a 55-44 BC win. Why? Part of it is strength of schedule. The combined records of Bethany’s opponents is 14-8 (Triton’s is 2-16) and three of the losses were by six points or less; two of the losses were to ranked teams. BC won this match-up by 11 last year. Do both winning/ losing streaks continue tonight or is that first win/loss for each in the cards?
Bremen @ Lakeland Christian (boys)
Bremen (3-1) surpassed last year’s win total with its impressive Northern Indiana Conference victory over New Prairie last Friday. Tonight the Lions have their first of two road games this week when they travel to Winona Lake to face winless Lakeland Christian (0-5). This is the first meeting all-time between the two schools. The Cougars have scored more than 31 points only once in its five games and may be challenged to do so against Bremen as well.
Winamac @ Culver (boys)
Culver (3-2) plays its second Hoosier North Athletic Conference game, but this one will be at home when Winamac (2-3) visits John R. Nelson Gymnasium. The Warriors have played the tougher schedule so far, but both teams lost to the only common opponent (Rochester) by large margins this season. The Cavaliers broke an eight-year losing streak to Winamac last year (48-40). Can they do it again?
Noble/whitley @ Culver Academy (boys)
In a late switch, Culver Academy picked up a home game against South Bend Career Academy last Saturday and salvaged the weekend with a decisive win. Tonight the Eagles (3-2) face a homeschool team based out of Columbia City. Homeschool teams are tough to gauge, but this much is known about the Warriors. They have played a ton of games already and are 8-7 with three players averaging in double
figures. They have one common opponent with CMA this season Lalumiere’s regional team. Both lost to Lalu - CMA by 18, Noble/ Whitley by 11 - so this sounds like it should be a very competitive game.
Oregon-davis @ New Prairie (boys)
Somebody gets into the win column when Oregon-davis (0-4) travels to New Prairie (0-4). Both teams are averaging around 38 ppg and giving up about 62. Look for this one to be in the middle somewhere. The Cougars
downed the Bobcats, 56-41, a year ago.
Triton @ Jimtown (girls)
It seems like every opponent for Triton (3-9) is either good (opponents’ record is 74-54), a bigger school (8 out of 12 times), or both. Tonight it’s a trip to Class 3A Jimtown (6-6), who defeated Elkhart Christian by 11 two days before ECA downed Triton by three. Both teams are victory-challenged of late (Triton has lost four straight, Jimtown is 1-3 in its last four games) so the effort level will be high as both teams see a winnable game. The Lady Jimmies were added to the Lady Trojans’ schedule four years ago and Triton has won time. Will they make it five in a row?
Wednesday watches Laville @ South Bend Riley (girls)
Laville (3-8) went 0-2 last weekend, but sees a chance to flip that this week starting with this rare Wednesday night game at SB Riley (1-9). The Lady Lancers’ defense has been their strong point all season and with the Lady Wildcats only averaging 20.7 from its offense, don’t be surprised to see 2A LV taste victory over the Class 4A Northern Indiana Conference squad.
(*AP boys thru Dec. 5)
LEADING AREA SCORERS (ppg)
(as of Dec. 10)
Boys
Jack Rodgers (Culver) 21.8 Sean Richard (Argos) 20.7 Collin Czarnecki (Laville) 19.0 Michael Good (Laville) 18.3 Joe Chrapliwy (Glenn) 17.0
Chase Devine (Bremen) 17.0 Kadyn Ellery (Plymouth) 15.4 Gage Riffle (Triton) 15.0 Coby Walters (Plymouth) 14.6 Chase Miller (Glenn) 14.2 Adria Guasp (Culver) 11.8 Tanner Witt-hoyo (Triton) 11.5 Silas Laidig (Bremen) 11.5 Matas Piktuizis (CMA) 11.0 Julian Swanson (Triton) 10.5 Preston Wolfe (Plymouth) 10.4 David Hite (Culver) 9.8 Mekhi Austin (Argos) 9.7 Luke Stults (Argos) 9.7 Carson Krueger (Glenn) 9.0 Lucas Plummer (Laville) 9.0
Girls Samantha Redinger (Argos) 31.3 Kila Foster (Bremen) 17.2 Addyson Viers (Triton) 15.7 Sarah Thompson (O-D) 14.2 Brooke Edison (Laville) 11.2 Eliana Grubbs (Bremen) 11.2 Emma Kincaid (Bremen) 11.2 Lena Jones (Plymouth) 10.6 Sophie Miller (Plymouth) 10.3 Mikayla Shively (Bremen) 9.9 Gabbi Krause (O-D) 9.8 Jayla Patrick (O-D) 9.2 Vee Miller (CGA) 9.1 Jimara Combs (CGA) 9.1 Kayla Herron (CGA) 9.0
NORTHERN LAKES CONFERENCE
Boys Overall (thru Dec. 10) Concord 5-1 Northridge 4-1 Warsaw 3-1 Mishawaka 2-1 Goshen 3-2 Plymouth 3-2 Wawasee 3-2 Northwood 1-1
Girls Conf/overall (thru Dec. 10) Northridge 2-0 11-1 Warsaw 2-0 7-3 Wawasee 2-1 9-2 Northwood 2-1 7-2 Plymouth 1-1 5-5 Mishawaka 0-1 7-4 Goshen 0-2 5-5 Concord 0-3 3-7
NORTHERN INDIANA CONFERENCE
Boys Conf/overall (thru Dec. 10) SB Riley 3-0 5-0 SB Washington 3-0 5-1 Penn 2-0 4-1 SB St. Joseph 2-0 3-2 Bremen 1-0 3-1 SB Adams 1-1 3-1 SB Clay 1-2 3-2 Glenn 1-2 1-4 Marian 0-1 2-3 Jimtown 0-2 0-4 New Prairie 0-3 0-4 Elkhart 0-3 0-6
Girls Conf/overall (thru Dec. 10) SB Washington 6-0 9-2 New Prairie 6-1 10-1 Penn 4-1 7-4 Elkhart 4-1 6-5 Glenn 4-3 8-4 Bremen 4-3 6-4 Jimtown 4-3 6-6 SB St. Joseph 4-3 4-7 SB Adams 3-5 5-6 Marian 1-7 1-11 SB Clay 0-6 1-12 SB Riley 0-7 1-9
HOOSIER NORTH ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
Boys Conf/overall (thru Dec. 10) Triton 1-0 4-0 Knox 1-0 1-0 Laville 1-0 2-1 N. Judson 0-0 4-0 Caston 0-0 2-3 Culver 0-1 3-2 Winamac 0-1 2-3 Pioneer 0-1 1-3
Girls Conf/overall (thru Dec. 10) Caston 3-0 10-0 Knox 3-0 4-7 Winamac 2-1 8-4 Culver 1-2 3-9 Triton 1-2 3-9 N. Judson 0-1 6-4 Pioneer 0-2 3-5 Laville 0-2 3-8
HOOSIER PLAINS CONFERENCE
Boys Overall (thru Dec. 10) Elkhart Christian 2-1 Argos 1-2 Career Academy 1-4 Trinity 0-3 Lakeland Christian 0-5 Bethany Christian 0-5
Girls Conf/overall (thru Dec. 10) Lakeland Christian 2-0 6-4 Argos 2-0 4-7 Bethany Christian 1-0 9-0 Elkhart Christian 1-2 5-6 Trinity 1-2 2-8 Career Academy 0-3 1-8
INDEPENDENTS
Boys (thru Dec. 10) Culver Academy 3-2 Oregon-davis 0-4
Girls (thru Dec. 10) Culver Academy 7-5 Oregon-davis 4-8