SAC
• The Wayne girls have their first back to back wins since the 2015-2016 season and a win away from matching last season’s win total of 4. I think that I’ve said it, but I will say it again: Lacia Gorman has this group on the right path and when you think about how young they are, they could be really good in a season or two.
Aniah Hill (23 points) and Khalise Collins (22 points) led the way in a monster win over Marion. The last time that Wayne had scored 81 points in a game before the Marion win was 2014 and they had last beaten Marion in 2012 when J.J. Foster was the head coach. They won again one night later on Wednesday by edging Fremont with Hill’s 21, Collins’ 13 and 11 points from Sydney Gorman. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see them compete with fellow young upstart Snider on Friday as planned, but Wayne can’t be upset with their current trajectory.
• Northrop is never beat. And the NE8 now knows that better than anyone else. Already this season, the Bruins had come back to beat DeKalb in a game that looked lost. Wednesday, they did it again, this time against East Noble. The Knights looked to be well in control of the game, leading 23-8 at halftime. But Northrop fought back and outscored East Noble 33-11 in the second half to cruise to a win.
TiAuna White‘s 20 point, 10 rebound double double lead them while Alexa Robinson pitched in eight points and 12 rebounds. Northrop has had some ups and downs to start the season but they really know how to turn it up when it matters. Experience helps that. White herself has been in a lot of battles over the years.
Northrop’s 3-4 start, after a loss Friday to Bishop Luers, may have some teams forgetting why they were so highly regarded in the preseason. This is still very much a team that can play SAC spoiler and compete in the postseason. Don’t let a record fool you.
NE8
• Hey everyone, wanna see Norwell look rusty? C’mon did you really think that was going to happen. They looked phenomenal on Tuesday in a win over Northfield after two weeks off from games. Maiah Shelton really delivered, the team hit nine three pointers and all 10 players who got into the game for the Knights got onto the score sheet.
They returned to the court on Friday, picking up a NE8 win against Columbia City and a bit of revenge from their loss to the Eagles last season that saw the teams split the conference. Six different Knights scored in that one and it was clear that Norwell wasn’t missing a single beat coming off of their unscheduled break.
Then there was Saturday night. You can read more in depth about it as I broke down that game after being wow’d by it in person. But the reality from that game that everyone needs to focus on is this: Norwell bends, but breaking them is substantially more difficult. It is a weird season that could end whenever and the Knights are led by a senior group that isn’t ready to settle. Norwell could have settled on Saturday, played without patience and eventually folded against Garrett. That isn’t the Norwell way. Bounce would say that elevated them to the top of his power poll, even before their three win week, was a fantastic decision.
ACAC
• Heritage has been one of the most active teams thus far this season, inching closer to a third straight 10 win season. But their victory over Blackhawk Christian was arguably their best win of the year. The Braves came in as the state’s only 10 win team, only for Heritage to hand them just their second loss of the season. You never know about teams when you change coaches, but there are probably more questions when it is a JV coach taking over. Can that coach step up to another level? There are a lot of differences between the JV and Varsity levels.
Nicole Sisson has answered quickly that question. She has a pretty young Patriot team, but they can play. Only one of the previous four Heritage coaches have opened their time leading the program with at least seven wins that first season.
On the court, the Patriots have seen a variety of girls step up, but in the upset over the Braves, it was junior Shelby Schane‘s career best output, hitting 10 of 12 shots including all four of her three point attempts. When a team is shooting 33 percent from the field during the season, it is always great when your third leading scorer can just have a game like this. The Patriots got another big win, improving to 2-0 in conference, on Friday by holding off a record night from Southern Wells.
• And speaking of Southern Wells, how about Georgia Hanauer? After surpassing 1,000 career points already this season, Hanauer bullied her way to Raider record in Friday’s loss to Heritage. Her 42 points was one of the best girls basketball scoring outputs in Northeast Indiana in years.
Hanauer has been a once in a generation performer for Southern Wells, who probably doesn’t get the respect she deserves most of the time as part of a Class 1A program. She is a high level scorer and when her shot is falling, there isn’t much you can do but get out of the way. Heritage was fortunate enough to be a bit stronger as a team on Friday, but the show Hanauer put on will be remembered in Southern Wells circles for years.
While she didn’t break into the top 20 single game performances in Northeast Indiana history, she came close to hitting the 48 point mark needed to get there. Not many people can say that with the top 20 last cracked by a female by Leigha Brown of DeKalb in 2017. And how many Class 1A schools are represented on that list? Zero. Hanuaer continues to make major waves and settle herself into the argument of the best Southern Wells athlete ever.
• While Heritage sits 2-0 in a still very early ACAC race, a big fixture in that race took shape on Friday night. Adams Central fought and fought but the continued ability of Madison Dirksen to excel in big games helped Jay County to the win over the Flying Jets. This was widely regarded in the preseason as the game that could really go a long way in deciding the ACAC.
Is it over? Of course not. Nobody in the ACAC has played more than two conference games and both unbeaten in the ACAC Heritage and currently quarantined Woodlan would like to object to Friday’s game deciding anything. But that doesn’t change how big of one it was.
The Patriots trailed by as many as sixth in the fourth before coming back for the 46-41 win led by Dirksen’s 14 points and 15 from Renna Schweiterman‘s 15. AC fired back well, led by Alivia Dalrymple‘s 20 points.
NECC/AREA
• Lakeland. Lakeland, Lakeland, Lakeland.
Don’t count me as one of those not willing to talk about the Lakers. They are very much at the forefront of the NECC and barreling down towards a trip to Angola this coming week. We may not know if they will really compete for the NECC title until January games with Central Noble and a regular season closer with Garrett, but right now they have to be in the forefront.
It is almost silly how they have been ignored by some NECC coverage and even area coverage as they continue to rack up wins, including Friday’s somewhat surprising blow by of OTH’s #10 ranked girls team Fairfield. It wasn’t that the win was surprising, more the margin as Fairfield had likewise been blowing by opponents. So for Lakeland to come in and win 47-30 and hold Fairfield to a near season low scoring, we have to be taken a bit aback.
It speaks volumes about their depth and ability to spread the ball out. Bailey Hartsough scored just eight points in the win over Fairfield and Peyton Hartsough, who had really broken out, had just 10. But then Madison Kiel scored 14 and Faith Riehl had 11 and things just added up significantly for Lakeland. This all came after trailing 7-0 before Lakeland really tightened up their defensive efficiency.
The Lakers improved to 8-2 on Saturday with a 45-41 win over Bethany Christian.
• Did anybody else notice that Central Noble is just kind of quietly 6-1? Maybe it was their lone loss, their most high profile game of the season, a bad loss to Angola that pushed people off their path. But this week, the Cougars fired back from that game with a complete set of games, going 3-0 to improve their record, including two wins in the loaded NECC.
On Tuesday, Lydia Andrews‘ 19 points led an extremely balanced effort against Lakewood Park where the Cougars went to the free throw line 30 times. The next night, Bridgette Gray led another balanced effort by scoring all 15 of her game high points against Prairie Heights in the first three quarters of that win.
Then Friday was a blowout of Westview. That time it was Madi Vice‘s 21 points, including three triples, that led the way for the Cougars.
Notice a trend? I didn’t mention a leading scorer more than once. Three games, three wins, three leading scorers. The Cougars are finding their best comfort in depth and balance. In two of those wins, seven different Cougars scored with Meghan Kiebel also having a balanced week with games of 13, 8 and 13 points. The Cougars also got to the free throw line 61 times over that span. This team is playing the aggressor early in the season and it is looking more and more like the loss to Angola was just a little blip on the radar.
• It wouldn’t be fitting to let this week’s column go by without talking about Garrett. The Railroaders attempted to defend their perfect record on Saturday, but fell in overtime to Norwell at The Castle. That is how the story of the weekend ended for the Railroaders.
But if you are in the corner of Garrett, you certainly cannot be unhappy with their performance. Save for Kaylee Fuelling’s masterful performance in overtime, the Railroaders played even with or above Norwell for nearly every minute of their game.
Morgan Ostrowski played with poise, took advantage of mismatches that she had against traditional posts and showed why she is anything but traditional down low. She worked the midrange, took her defenders off the dribble and stepped out to hit a triple.
The Railroaders are very, very good. And yes, they lost on Saturday but there is every chance that Garrett could lay claim to being the second best team in the area right now. I mean, they had Norwell on the ropes and no matter how well Norwell fought back, nothing can escape how Garrett had them on the ropes. They used precision passing and ball movement to make big moments bigger on the hands of Nataley Armstrong and Faith Owen, while Bailey Kelham and Taylor Gerke played with almost unrivaled toughness. The Railroaders are the real deal and even in a loss, they proved that.
Can we hope for a Regional rematch with Norwell now or is that too soon?
• The Warsaw girls keep plugging along despite losing a really quality matchup with Carroll this week. They came out Monday and held Tippecanoe Valley to just 13 points through the first three quarters in. the 64-27 win. The way that the Tigers continue to operate made that Carroll game interesting and leaves us hopeful they will be able to reschedule it at some point.
That is because Warsaw wins by committee, much like the Chargers. They had 10 players score in the win over Tippy Valley, led by 11 each from Kensie Ryman and Abby Sanner. But then right behind them were three different players with nine points. The depth and ability to maintain a consistent level of play is something quite respectable out of this team.
APPETIZERS
Hanna Knoll is now 2nd all-time in scoring in Angola girls basketball history. She had 15 points against Leo on Wednesday to move 51 points away from the program record of Rachel Rinehart. She then added 19 points Saturday in a loss to Homestead….South Side retained the girls version of the Reichert-Hey Trophy on Friday with a 70-20 win over North Side. The Archers are now 2-0 in the series since the prize was created….Sullivan Kessler averaged 20.5 points over two games this week, both wins for Eastside. They are Kessler’s best two-game scoring outputs of the season.
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 in this week’s girls hoops FAN CHOICE for Performance of the Week
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