SAC
• Carroll won the Charger/DeKalb/Northrop trifecta with all of the teams playing each other at the start of the week. There shouldn’t be any surprise about that at this point though. They ran through DeKalb on Tuesday, led by Saniya Jackson‘s 25 points. The real impressive part here is that they held DeKalb to single digit scoring in each of the quarters. Considering that DeKalb had just pushed Northrop to their limits the night before, it was important for Carroll to make sure the Barons never got their footing.
The very next night, Carroll too got to play Northrop, topping the Bruins with more stellar defense leading the way. Northrop scored just six first quarter points to mark the fifth straight quarter Carroll had only given up single digit points. Carroll meanwhile scored 60 points in the first half with 25 and 35 point quarters. Just for fact’s sake, only 49 teams in the state – including Carroll – are averaging more points per game than the Chargers scored in the first half Wednesday. Emily Parrett led them in scoring this time with 16 points.
But the real coup for Carroll came Friday night when the Chargers became the first team to ever take a SAC regular season game away from Homestead. Parrett’s buzzer to force double overtime may be the best girls basketball shot of the season so far. The Chargers are now up to seven wins after winning four games in five days this week. This was a huge undertaking to play so much so quickly, especially with it bookended with Homestead and then Northridge on Saturday. No girls team in the area is clicking like the Chargers right now.
RELATED: Carroll beats Homestead to take control of SAC race
• While Carroll remains at the forefront of our collective minds right now, a spot they have more that earned, don’t expect the SAC challenge to relent. Homestead and South Side are both very much still in this race and so, so good.
Let’s take Homestead for example. We would consider this a growing pain type of situation for the Spartans. We are still seeing girls learn their roles and taking on their first big time varsity minutes. Yet, it still took Carroll two overtimes and a clutch late shot to make that happen. The Spartans are still a top tier team and Ayanna Patterson‘s 32 point outburst is one of her best games to date in her high school career and dare we forget the type of coach Rod Parker is.
South Side meanwhile picked up a critical conference win Friday over Snider in a game that was much closer than some expected. They turned around on Saturday beating South Bend Washington strongly as well. Olivia Smith is reminding everyone why she is possibly the best point guard in the area and has taken over a more than steady scoring pace. Smith had 19 on Friday and 26 on Saturday.
NE8
• Wednesday’s game between New Haven and Wayne was everything I thought it could be and probably more. Both of these teams can score and have players willing and wanting to make plays. This goes a long way to credit MyQueisha Bratton and Lacia Gorman as coaches. These are two programs that have been down for years upon years yet things feel different with these two women building the younger generation up.
Wayne is just a little too young in comparison to New Haven and that probably had a lot to do with the outcome of the game and the New Haven win, but make no mistake these programs are both rising. There aren’t players on these teams or coaches on the sidelines that are just ok with going through the motions. Freshman Khalise Collins had 18 points and 13 rebounds in the loss for Wayne.
New Haven ended up having four different players in double digit scoring, which has not happened much for the Bulldogs in the last almost 10 years. Freshman Kaelyn Ortiz-Vaudt tied a school record Wednesday, hitting six three pointers on her way to 18 points. Kayla Williams also had 18 points to go with 11 rebounds, Savannah Weekly scored 10 points and Avarcia Nard led them all with 22 points to go with her eight rebounds. The Bulldogs are coming along and with the win over Wayne, secured back-to-back wins for the first time since 2014.
ACAC
• I may have mentioned this before, but McKenna Dietsch‘s absence due to injury has made the Flying Jets so much stronger now that she’s back. Case in point: Tuesday, they put up 74 points in a win over Churubusco. Now with back to back games above their scoring average, it is the first time they’ve hit 74 points in two seasons but just the sixth time in the past 20 years.
Again, it is Sage Hammond that has announced herself loudly to those who oppose Adams Central, she led the way with 22 points. Dietsch was right there with 17 and a total team effort has Adams Central kind of scary offensively right now. They lost out on their scheduled game with Woodlan this week due to the Warriors’ quarantine, but a looming meeting with Jay County on December 11 could go a long way in determining this conference.
NECC/AREA
• It took West Noble a minute or two to bounce back from their quarantine. The played on November 10 with a big win at Columbia City and then they had to sit and wait. The schedule says they missed just two games but it had to have felt like so much more before they finally got on the court Tuesday against Wawasee. There was some rust.
The Chargers scored just two first quarter points, but by the time the end of the game came around, they were rolling. West Noble scored 20 fourth quarter points in a monster turnaround to beat the Warriors 42-36. It was impressive how they shook off that sluggishness to pull out the win and get back on track after such a big layoff.
The Chargers were lead in scoring by Mackensey Mabie with 16 points and Nichelle Phares with 12. They powered through a big win over NECC last place Westview on Thursday behind Lilly Mast‘s monster 31 point night.
• Garrett turned back two substantial challenges this week in Concordia Lutheran and Eastside to remain undefeated. The Railroaders looked like they may fall to Concordia earlier in the week but their defense held incredibly strong. A real eye opener was Morgan Ostrowski, who rose to the challenge of arguably the best opposing interior on Garrett’s schedule. She matched up well against Concordia’s Chanteese Craig, battled and posted a double double of 13 points and 12 rebounds, but also tied a school record with seven blocked shots in the game.
On Saturday, a really slow start gave way to a fantastic second half for the Railroaders at Eastside. Ostrowski again pushed the way with 19 points and 13 rebounds. What continues to be refreshing about Garrett this season is that different players step up in different and unique times of need.
That is going to take them pretty far I think. They are tied with Frankton in having the most wins in the state by an unbeaten team at 9-0.
• Remember last week when I said that Angola would be just fine? Insert “just fine” on Friday night with a monster performance against one time significant rival Central Noble. The Cougars may not be what they once were, but it certainly no slouch of a program. Yet on Friday, Angola pushed by with a 47-26 win, reasserting their dominance in the race at the top of the NECC.
Is it possible that the NECC is out of their reach already? Sure. But the conference tournament is not and neither is the postseason, which is the ultimate proving ground anyway. Angola’s play on both sides of the ball Friday is exactly what they need nightly. Defensively, the only allowed one Central Noble three pointer and limited the Cougars best scorers in the process.
Offensively, they pushed and pushed led significantly by Hanna Knoll. It had been, by Hanna Knoll standards, a slow year. But she broke through that real quick on Friday, matching a career high 31 points and pushing Angola right back into the conversation. Knoll moved to number three all-time in scoring history for the Angola girls and is only 27 points behind Amanda Cope‘s second place.
• Blackhawk Christian girls now have the most wins in the state. While having the 35th best winning margin across Indiana, the Braves are the first team to reach 10 wins this season. They are averaging almost three games per week and are working to get as much in as possible while possible.
There are three other teams in the state with nine wins, including 9-0 Garrett, but the Braves stand alone at 10. They have now won at least 10 games in three straight seasons, but never ever 10-1. This huge start has been balanced, in many ways, but how do you ignore Hailee Kline at this point. Is she the best Class 1A player in the state? She scored 21 points Tuesday against North Side and 23 on Thursday against Churubusco. The Braves beat Elkhart Christian on Saturday for their 10th win.
APPETIZERS
Southern Wells‘ Georgia Hanauer eclipsed 1,000 career points on Tuesday in a win at Muncie Burris. The Owls paused actives to recognize Hanauer with the game ball; she went on to score 20 points total in the 62-55 win….Angola‘s Tuesday loss to Fairfield marks the first time they’ve lost two regular season NECC games since 2015-2016; Fairfield’s Brea Garber had 17 points in Tuesday’s contest.
VOTE
Be sure to vote in this week’s FAN CHOICE for Performance of the Week poll.. Keep in mind with basketball, this isn’t a player of the week poll. We aren’t taking into consideration every single game on a player’s weekly resume. Instead, these are the best singular games of the week.
Vote here for the best single game from November 30 to December 5.
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