This Saturday represents arguably the best day all season of boys hoops – regionals. Four teams, three games, one title.
OTH is breaking down each regional involving area programs.
Here we go with Class 1A.
Projected winner: Gary 21st Century
This team is loaded and they score a lot of points which makes them arguably the favorite to win the Class 1A state title despite no Regional titles since 2017.
The killer kicker here is that this is probably not their peak. Gary 21st Century’s top three scorers are juniors and only one senior contributes heavily. With a team averaging 73.3 points per game, there are a lot of Cougar weapons to try and hone in on.
6-foot-4 junior Ashton Williams teeters on averaging a triple double while 6-3 classmate Quintin Floyd is a rebounding machine. When the team last updated their online stats 10 games ago, they had five different guys averaging more than 6.5 rebounds per game each, led by Floyd. That is skill, size and just outright will.
The Cougars have a tempo that will be hard to match on Saturday.
Senior you can’t miss: Logan Brace, Fremont
Nobody plays harder than Logan Brace. Should I repeat that for you? Yes, some kids may actually play as hard as him, but on any given night and in general, Brace makes it practically impossible to actually outwork him. And that is worth the price of admission at Triton alone.
Just a few weeks back on February 22, this kid his 13 of 14 shots to score 27 points while adding 15 rebounds. The workrate that he possesses is unimaginable for most high school athletes and he has only seemed to get stronger throughout the season. Sure, Brace can run through you but he has also demonstrated a real knowledge for the game, his shot selection and when to dial up his intensity.
Don’t be surprised if: Fremont gets hot, pulls upset(s)
We don’t see many better teams shooting the ball in the area than Fremont when they get going. They make a lot of shots, they make big shots, clutch shots…you name it and Fremont does it or has done it this season.
Ethan Bock, Gabel Pentecost, Corbin Beeman and Ethan Bontrager are all capable of being snipers out of the starting lineup.
But lets look at Bontrager for a minute because lately he has seemed like the hottest hand of all. Aside from his recent buzzer beater, he had 17 points in the Sectional final and now has the most three point makes in a single season in Fremont’s history. Bontrager’s 71 makes surpassed Wade Regadanz’s previous mark of 79 and Bontrager is still going. If Fremont heats up and stays hot this Regional is very much in their grasp.
TRITON REGIONAL SCHEDULE
North White (21-3) vs. Gary 21st Century (21-4), 10 a.m.
Fremont (17-8) vs. Triton (18-7), noon
Final, 8 p.m.
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
Be the first to comment