Now Bounce won’t pretend to be an all encompassing prognosticating force like Blitz is during high school football season. I certainly can’t pick every single game during the season. And likewise, basketball can tend to be a tad harder to pick than football.
But nevertheless, Bounce is going to give this whole ‘pick making’ thing a go into basketball season. Each Monday, I will talk briefly about the 10 biggest area games to come during the week and try by hand and picking the winners. No point spread, just black and white make a pick.
With a week under our belts in girls basketball season, how about we make some picks for week two?
Concordia at Bellmont, Tuesday
Pitting two of the area’s premiere players against each other in Concordia Lutheran’s Carissa Garcia and Bellmont’s Grace Hunter is always fun. Last year, the two dueled and Garcia almost couldn’t miss from deep.
The difference in this game will be who has more around them. Both at 1-0, but how much did we learn about Concordia in a win over New Haven who will likely be at the bottom of the Northeast 8? Nautica Rogers’ 19 point, eight rebound effort in the opener is huge considering the need for an inside presence. More impressive? Garcia opened her season with 25 points and only hit one three pointer, meaning she has ramped up her aggression as a senior.
Bounce picks Concordia
Bishop Luers at Angola, Tuesday
The Knights showed some flashes Saturday night that they could be a competitive team, but their bench is awfully shallow due to some injuries. Angola doesn’t have anyone to check Lydia Reimbold, but they may be able to wear her out.
The Hornets have depth from a lot of experienced players and they have a point to prove: that beating Bishop Luers makes them one of the area’s better teams and that it would keep them on pace with NECC rival Central Noble, who beat Luers on Saturday.
Bounce picks Angola
Snider at Huntington North, Tuesday
Daleshia Davis isn’t going to be able to do it all for Snider, although she certainly put in the effort in a loss to Noblesville. Bounce feels like this one comes down to who can assert themselves inside and while Huntington North has the experience, Marqueisha Weeks-Bryant can be efficient if the Panthers can feed her down low.
Outside of that, Snider hit just 27 percent of their shots in their opener and that won’t be good enough against a seasoned Vikings team that will pick their shots very intelligently.
Bounce picks Huntington North
West Noble at Columbia City, Tuesday
The preseason recognition of what the Eagles can be quickly got knocked back to earth in their opener with a loss to Carroll. The key for Columbia City is starting fast, which they did not do against the Chargers, only scoring 26 first half points against the 21 they scored in the fourth quarter alone.
West Noble is one of very few teams in the state to already have two games under their belt. A sophomore, Lillian Mast, leads them in scoring and the usual offensive suspect Madison Schermerhorn is sixth in scoring on the team through those opening pair of wins. Is West Noble deeper than they’ve ever been?
Bounce picks Columbia City
Garrett at Heritage, Thursday
Heritage has also jumped out to 2-0 and will play Prairie Heights earlier in the week. Bree Dossen’s pace has been somewhat surprising as Bounce knows she is a heck of a scorer, but she is currently averaging eight points more per game than she did last season. Garrett brings back some depth, but is already 0-2 and shooting just 26 percent from the field.
Bounce picks Heritage
Homestead at Northridge, Thursday
I am pretty sure I already said that Homestead would be deep. But the way they spread out their offense in a season opening win over Carmel was fun to watch. They now visit Morgan Litwiller and a seasoned, senior laden Northridge (1-0) team. Litwiller is an efficient player that the Spartans will probably throw some different looks at.
The key for Homestead is to be aggressive, but not too aggressive. At times early against Carmel, they made too aggressive plays on the ball defensively and they do not want to get into foul trouble no matter how deep they are. Bounce is intrigued to see if freshman leading scorer Ayanna Patterson gets the senior Litwiller or if someone more seasoned liked Haley Swing or Sydney Graber draws the assignment.
Bounce picks Homestead
Alexandria at Jay County, Friday
Alexandria will be three games in before they visit Portland at the end of the week. Already 2-0, this young team bring in an efficient front. Their top three leading scorers are also their top three players in field goal percentage. Leading scorer Jenna Reece VanBlair (15 ppg) is shooting 47 percent from the field. Jay County is more seasoned with Shelby Caldwell and Kendra Muhlenkamp, but is there rust?
Bounce picks Alexandria
Leo at Carroll, Friday
Carroll woke me up with their win over Columbia City and it also garnered them some votes in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association poll this week. Bounce wasn’t high on the Chargers in the preseason mostly because they lost a lot. Well Delane Sheets, Olivia Hoeppner and Emily Parrett have humbled Bounce already. Leo has some good talent back, but their loss to Northrop to drop them to 0-2 has Bounce flipping what his pick may have been a week ago.
Bounce picks Carroll
Northridge at South Side, Saturday
Bounce has already talked about Northridge, so lets talk about South Side. I have been assured that freshman Olivia Smith is something to behold and her first outing indicated that to be true with 16 points in a win at Indianapolis Cathedral last Saturday.
Northridge could come into this game pretty unhappy if Thursday’s battle with a Fort Wayne team goes sour. Bounce would love to see South Side go inside and challenge the Northridge post play.
Bounce picks South Side
Norwell at Angola, Saturday
It is well documented at this point (in the Twitterverse) that Hornet faithful have questioned Bounce’s perceived lack of respect for the Angola girls. Trust me, it is perceived. But, this frog also wants to see what they can do. With Luers and Norwell both visiting this week, they could change my mind significantly.
Norwell won their opener with Warsaw, which isn’t so surprising. Ashley Vandenboom leading them with 15 points, that may have been a surprise to me. The Knights defense was highly efficient in the opener limiting everyone not named Maddie Ryman to 6-of-18 shooting.
Bounce picks Norwell
These opinions represent those of Bounce and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Bounce on Twitter at Bounce_OTH
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