Regional at Triton
Class 2A: Wabash vs. Westview | 4 pm ET
The Favorite: Westview
Depth is one of the most major advantages that Westview has had over almost every team they have played. While that has been a true statement since the beginning of the season, their Sectional week was full of different guys stepping up, even if Luke Helmuth led the way.
Sure, Saturday’s title game win over Churubusco wasn’t against the toughest opposition but the Warriors still got scoring help from nine different players. Helmuth and Wiley Minix continue to be one of the best backcourts in Northeast Indiana and Wyatt Zepp has complimented them very well in his one season with the Warriors. The inside-out ability of this trio makes them tough for teams to matchup with.
Kaden Grau too has benefitted from his move to the Warriors this season. The sophomore doesn’t have to carry a heavy load so he is allowed to be a complimentary piece if he doesn’t happen to be on. But when he is, Grau can be the most dangerous scorer on this Westview roster. Meanwhile, Austin Schlabach is just a tremendous athlete who has grown to be one of the best underclassmen in the area.
Simply put, the Warriors are too deep for a lot of teams to handle and it is what helped them get here with last week’s wins over Churubusco, Central Noble and Fremont.
Players you can’t miss: Luke Helmuth (Westview) and Izaak Wright (Wabash)
There may be no hotter of an offensive player in the area right now than Luke Helmuth. In his last eight games, Helmuth is averaging 19.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. He has been a matchup nightmare in the postseason and has done so with a crafty style that rarely leans on a long range game. He gets to the rim, he cuts around some of the best defenders and has also been active on the offensive glass, helping many times to get his team second chance looks.
Izaak Wright is a lights out shooter, with five games of seven three pointers made and one of nine makes. The fact that he shoots a team best 46 percent from long range serves as a major point of emphasis. The senior is going to sling it and when he is on, it is a game changing situation. 17 times this season, Wright has shot double digit threes in a game and only eight of those times has he shot under 40 percent from deep.
Wright averages a team high with 15.6 points and five rebounds per contest.
Don’t be surprised if: Wabash gets hot from downtown
The 20-5 co champions of the Three Rivers Conference can shoot the ball really well. And while their depth may not be as good as Westview’s, this team can really sling it and it makes them very dangerous to take over games or to come back from games that you may think are wrapped up.
The Apaches shoot 40 percent from three point range on the season as a team, with their three most high volume long range shooters all shooting better than the team average. Grant Ford has hit 76 threes at a 41 percent clip, Isaac Wright has hit 62 at a 46 percent success rate and Trevor Daughtry has hit 50 at 42 percent.
This is not a team that you want to get into a shootout with, and at the same time, no lead is ever going to be safe if Wabash can get hot from downtown.
Regional at Frankfort
Class 1A: Canterbury vs. North Vermillion | 1 pm ET
The Favorite: Canterbury
Who are the Canterbury Cavaliers? It is a theme that has shifted throughout the season. This now is essentially the third face of Canterbury this season. They were one team for six games, a whole new team in January with the addition of Tucker Day, Jackson Davis, John Parent and Colin Burda and now, in only Class 1A games it is like they are a completely different team again. Can Canterbury not just thrive, but run through games against similar sized schools? Sectional week indicated that maybe they can do just that; listed by John Harrell as having the third best chance of remaining teams of capturing a 1A state title.
Day (11.3 ppg) and Parent (10.1) are two of the three players on this team averaging double digit points, immediately showing the impact they brought into the program next to Devon Lewis (15.5). With those guys and Ashton Dressler, this team is so senior led and well experienced in their high school years that few 1A teams can match up with them in those depth and experience categories. Sophomore Alden Greider is finding his old rhythm again too after missing several games, and had 11 points in the win over Northfield.
Players you can’t miss: Devon Lewis (Canterbury) and Matthew Dawson (North Vermillion)
Lewis is the leading scorer in this game, going for 15.5 points per average. His game and what he provides didn’t swing much when Canterbury added in their four seniors in January and that is credit to his adaptability.
Dawson has had a stellar junior season and his nine rebounds per game stand out. At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, he can be a physical presence that the Falcons need to push on and try and move out Tucker Day from the interior. He can be a high volume scorer with four games of 22 points this season, but he will need to consistently play at that clip this weekend in a likely head to head with Day. Dawson averages four offensive rebounds per contest and has outdone that average seven times, including 11 on the offensive end against Clinton Central. He also averages 12. points per game.
Don’t be surprised if: This isn’t even much of a game
We’ve said it since the beginning of the season: Canterbury’s tough schedule against a bevy of opponents who are bigger that a 1A school was only going to toughen them for the postseason. The inclusion of four transfer players at the midway point of the season was only going to make them better and those guys who had played a lot of time in their absence were going to make Canterbury deeper. Here is where we get to see if that comes to fruition.
North Vermillion is a solid team with five really capable scorers. But can the depth of experience that Canterbury has be overcome?
North Vermillion played 11 teams that are not in Class 1A, and against them they went 4-7. While Canterbury played just four games against 1A schools before the postseason began and the Cavaliers were 7-4 against non-1A schools after their complete lineup took place in January.
Regional at Frankfort
Class 2A: Blackhawk Christian vs. Lafayette Central Catholic | 4 pm ET
The Favorite: Blackhawk Christian
After the aforementioned Canterbury plays as 1 p.m., Fort Wayne will be represented by their second team at Frankfort when the defending Class 2A state champions take the court. This isn’t the first time that the Braves have had to run into and through LCC for the chance at a state title run, and probably won’t be the last.
With 20.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.9 blocks per game, Kellen Pickett has been a machine inside again much more often than he hasn’t. He is a tough matchup problem for any team and those who focus on him can often get burnt by Aiden Muldoon, Bryce Sefton or Luke Mansfield while Isaac Smith becomes a dangerous threat on the perimeter, especially from the corners.
Blackhawk Christian has done a really good job this season of building depth with guys who didn’t have a lot of experience from previous seasons. That is easier said that done, yet last week they powered through one of the toughest Sectionals in the state with statement wins over Adams Central and Bishop Luers, who both had the personnel to match up with the Braves position by position.
Players you can’t miss: Aiden Muldoon (Blackhawk Christian) and Albert Schwartz (Lafayette Central Catholic)
Muldoon has been a unique catalyst for the Braves this season, stepping into a major role in leadership as the Blackhawk Christian point guard. He has been able to step up big time and that is what helps the Braves tick as he controls tempo and averages 11.3 points 5.4 rebounds and a team best 5.2 assists per game. While the Braves have a wide lineup of fire starters, everything starts with Muldoon.
Schwartz gives LCC the best chance to make up for the height disparity on the inside. He will need to bring some of his football physicality to try and knock Pickett off balance. He had eight straight games with double digit rebounding after going for eight and then five in the last two games of Sectional play. At 6-foot-6, Schwartz has some reach and a similar build to Pickett. He averages nine rebounds, 1.2 blocks and a team high 11.7 points per game.
Don’t be surprised if: Isaac Smith takes over
Over his last 12 games, Smith has made 4.6 threes per game at a 43 percent success rate and he is actually shooting 42 percent from deep on the entire season, where he has hit 103 triples.
When he gets hot from the outside, which he has been at a high level lately, Smith is a real big problem. He is quiet as he moves off ball and he has a unique ability to get defenders to forget about him and then all of the sudden, he has the ball and the ball is in the bottom of the net. He has hit five or more threes nine times including hitting seven on a pair of occasions.
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