NECC TOURNAMENT
First thing is first: the NECC Tournament is not over. Due to the winter weather, we will crown NECC Tournament champions on Monday with Fairfield against Eastside on the girls side and the Falcon boys against Angola, all games at Lakeland High School. This will be the third title game meeting for both Fairfield/Eastside girls and Fairfield/Angola boys. The girls teams met in 1994 and 1996 and split those games; Eastside has not won the NECC Tournament since that 1994 win over the Falcons. In both prior title game meetings, the Angola boys have beaten Fairfield, both in overtime in 1991 and 2017; the 2017 tournament was Angola’s last NECC tournament title while Fairfield hasn’t won one since 1999.
But, we did get to see quite a bit of NECC basketball last week to get us to the final round on Monday.
Fairfield’s boys were, unsurprisingly, diverse in their wins throughout the tournament. On Tuesday, Mitchell Miller‘s 10 points was the only double digit scoring in a 54 point outing. On Wednesday, Fairfield scored the first 21 points against Fremont and Miller had 13 in the first half when Fairfield led 32-8. Miller was one of three Falcons in double digits in the win over Fremont. On Thursday, in the Falcons’ third game in as many days, the balance continued but it was again Miller at the forefront. The senior scored a game high 23 points in a win over Westview, with 16 of those coming in a tone setting first half.
The girls were equally impressive and diverse in their attacks. In their quarterfinal win Wednesday, Kaylee Dillon scored 12 points herself in the third and it really pushed the Falcons in their win over Fremont in a low scoring effort. On Thursday, in a semi final win over Lakeland, it was Madison Jones who stood out with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Macy Worthman scored 13. Fairfield seeks to become just the ninth girls team in conference history to repeat as NECC Tournament champions and the first time their program would do so if they get the win on Monday night.
Eastside made the NECC Tournament finals for the first time since 1996 with a semi final comeback win over Angola.
Speaking of Angola, how about the boys team making a run and then holding off Central Noble in Thursday’s semi final? About midway through the third quarter, a Tommy Caswell bucket put Angola up for good. The Hornets had trailed 30-12 at halftime, but Kyler Huscher picked a big game for a breakout, scoring 25 after coming into the game averaging just seven points per contest. Angola won the game 60-52.
Two stories out of the early games on Tuesday stood out and those were for Fremont girls and Hamilton boys. Fremont trailed 29-17 but made an 18-7 run and grabbed a 43-40 lead inside the final minute of the game. The Eagles actually trailed by as many as 15, but won with Addy Parr‘s 14 points leading the way. The Hamilton boys, admittedly an afterthought, kept pace with Eastside early and trailed 15-13 after one. While Eastside led by 12 at one point, Hamilton got within 61-55 at the final buzzer. Its been a long time since the Marines got a NECC Tournament win, so it was a big game to be close being Jagger Hurraw‘s 18 points.
Kudos to Westview‘s boys on a great comeback win after being down eight late on Tuesday to beat a Lakeland team that just beat them in the regular season, despite 24 second half points from Laker Nate Keil (he had 26 for the game). Wyatt Zepp matched him with 26 points for Westview, while nine fourth quarter points from Wiley Minix helped push the game to overtime, where Zepp scored 8 of his co-game high.
ACAC TOURNAMENT
I was correct in saying that Heritage boys would make noise over the week, but don’t know that I actually had them beating Woodlan on Tuesday in the ACAC Tournament. This is a dangerous Patriot lineup that is too good to lose too much. Junior Landon Lybarger scored 18 in the win over the Warriors on Tuesday. On Friday, they turned around and beat a savvy Bluffton team to advance to the tournament finals with a buzzer beating performance from Braden Walter to stop Bluffton 37-35.
Tuesday in the Tournament was a place for county sweeps. Adams Central represented Adams County with a win over South Adams in both the boys and girls games. Trace Maller led the AC boys with 16 while Ava Stanford‘s 13 led the Flying Jet girls. In Wells County, it was Bluffton winning both games over Southern Wells. It was good to see Konley Ault back in the lineup for Bluffton Tuesday. She didn’t miss a beat, scoring 15 in the Tigers’ opening round win.
Macy Pries, of course, had one of the best games on the girls side for a team that didn’t win as South Adams fell Tuesday to the Adams Central girls despite Pries’ 23 points.
Now onto the winners.
Jay County girls won their fourth straight ACAC Tournament crown in big fashion with a 61-40 win over Woodlan. Sophie Saxman was named the tournament MVP and she had a really gritty couple of games to snag that honor in the 50th ACAC girls tournament. Saxman scored 17 in the final game, also snagging an impressive 14 rebounds in the closing effort and leading the Patriots with four assists. Saxman also had 19 points and 15 rebounds to go with 4 steals in Friday’s semi final win over Adams Central. Hallie Schwieterman scored a team high 19 points in the final game.
The win is Jay County’s 8th ACAC Tournament title ever. They have been in the conference for just 10 seasons.
On the boys side, it also wasn’t a surprise as Adams Central repeated as ACAC Tournament champions with a 74-43 win over Heritage in the 101st boys tournament; Isaac Schultz earning his second straight tournament MVP. Schultz scored 25 in the title game and scored 20 the night before in a semi final win over Jay County. The Flying Jets got a substantial push in the second quarter of Saturday’s title game from Micah McClure to start and separate themselves from the Patriots; McClure finished with 15 points while Braylend Reber scored 14.
This was Adams Central’s first ever repeat in the tournament; prior to winning it last season, the Flying Jets had not won the ACAC Tournament since 1976.
THE GREAT EQUALIZER
It is no surprise that the three point shot has become so prevalent in high school basketball lately. After all, that is what the pro game revolves around so of course its a trickle down situation.
While Bounce still believes that having a strong inside player in the key in this area, as not everybody has that, the three ball was huge a multitude of times this week.
On Tuesday, Concordia Lutheran‘s Ben Bentz used its to help neutralize Leo. Bentz is a solid shooter, but hadn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire all season beyond the arc. Then against the Lions, he shot 5 of 8 behind the arc. And while it was a Cole Hayworth bucket at the rim using raw strength that was the game winning shot ultimately in the one point contest, if Bentz wasn’t so hot from downtown, there is a high likelihood that the Lions could have run away with the game like it appeared they could do early when they had Hayworth slowed.
Norwell contended very well with Wayne boys on Tuesday, but that was mostly in the first half as the Generals went on to win 80-55 after outscoring their NE8 opponent 44-27 in the second half. In that game, Jevon Lewis hit nine three pointers while shooting over 50 percent from deep for the Generals. When a guy hits nine, it is going to be pretty hard to stop his team. And then, Preston Comer went 4-of-6 himself from long range. Not only is that kind of shooting massive for area frontrunner Wayne, you just aren’t going to beat a team who hits 16 threes, especially when they only miss three two-point shots as well.
Even in loss, you look at something like Tuesday’s NECC Tournament loss for Prairie Heights. They fell to Fremont despite the previously mentioned solid lead. The Panthers got three triples out of Ava Boots and the one quarter she didn’t hit one was when Prairie Heights scored the least amount of points.
On Wednesday, Warsaw girls broke a school record by hitting 15 three pointers in a dominant win over Mishawaka with Brooke Zartman hitting seven of them. Also on Wednesday, Kennedy Fuelling of Norwell hit seven three pointers in a win over Bishop Dwenger. And bouncing back to the NECC Tournament on Wednesday, Nate Keil of Lakeland hit six second half triples in a loss to Westview.
That takes us to Friday and the showdown for the SAC title between Snider and Homestead. The Spartans did a tremendous job to lead a large chunk of the game and played a pace that they were clearly more comfortable with than the Panthers. Bit it can all change in a flash with the three ball and this game was another big example in a week of triple superiority. Snider hit six threes in the game, but two from Kyra Parker and one from Jordyn Poole came in the fourth quarter. The two hit a pair of clutch threes in the fourth to tie the game at 47 before pulling ahead for good; equally important were the high end passes made by Samantha Baughman and Ciara Sims to even make those shots happen. As important as shooting is, finding those shooters is an underrated craft and in this case, may have been the difference in a conference title.
OTHER GIRLS NOTES
Kyndra Sheets of Columbia City scored 23 points Tuesday in a win over Wawasee that pushed her over the 1,000 point scored mark of her career; the second Eagle to do so just this season….Ava McGrade had her 45th career double digit scoring game for Lakewood Park on Tuesday when she scored 30 in a win over Clinton Christian….We don’t EVER talk middle school basketball, but a shout out to Maple Creek‘s Cala Haffner, who surpassed 800 career middle school points this past week. That is very impressive and a name to remember for her high school future.
OTHER BOYS NOTES
Snider alum Malik Williams had his best pro game on Tuesday. Playing for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G League, Williams scored 26 points and had 18 rebounds in a win over Memphis….Leo won the “old leather ball” on Friday in their 110th meeting with New Haven all-time….Bellmont held Norwell to just 14 second half points Friday to hand the Knights their first NE8 loss of the season….Homestead coach Chris Johnson picked up his 500th career win Saturday in a 76-58 win over Marion; only 8 active coaches in Indiana have 500 wins and Johnson is the 37th in the state to ever hit the mark.
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