Each Sunday, yours truly will take a look at some of the bigger stories and important notes of the week with a wrap up column.
So what did we think of the final week of girls regular season play? What about on the boys side, where things got murky in most of the conference title races.
A MASSIVE FRIDAY NIGHT
It was a crazy Friday no matter the conference.
After a surprisingly close game earlier in the week against Norwell, Bishop Luers traveled to Wayne on Friday for what was arguably the most anticipated game of the season. And really, what argument is there? We knew before the season that this game was going to determine the SAC and it lived up to every bit of hype it had.
The game was full of high impact moments and perhaps the most dunks we’ve seen in a long time in a single game, including two that helped Wayne close it out in transition from Khalyn Williams-Thomas and Preston Comer. For Luers, Dereon Truesdale finished with 22 points while Drelyn Truesdale had 20 and Danny Kelly added 15 points, 8 rebounds and three blocks. It was a massive night, not just massive finishes for the Wayne duo though as they were the top two scorers with 26 coming from Comer and 24 from Williams-Thomas.
Elsewhere Friday, there were a pair of big fourth quarters in the ACAC with Heritage overcoming a massive fourth quarter hole to beat Adams Central and keep their conference title hopes alive. Bluffton too kept their ACAC hopes alive on Declan Greiser‘s buzzer beater to top Jay County.
In the NECC, things got mixed up more as the long conference unbeaten Lakeland dropped a road game at Garrett after a pair of Railroader triple doubles.
WHAT ABOUT EAST NOBLE?
East Noble went 3-0 this week and are now 9-7 on the season after starting 1-5.
On Tuesday, the Knights upended then NECC-first place Lakeland 53-48 behind a season high 27 points from Mason Treesh, while Kobe Ritchie added 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Thursday say a great matchup between East Noble and Huntington North. The host Knights won the weather delayed matchup behind 23 points from Nathan Bowker, but some really clutch down the stretch moments from Landon Swogger. Ritchie had another double double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. The game was a great back and forth battle and a marquee win for the Knights who played superior defense down the stretch including a trap on Huntington North’s Ethan Zahn in the closing seconds to seal the win.
On Saturday, the Knights upset Norwell in the afternoon behind 22 points from Ryker Quake, who hit six three pointers. Bowker flirted with a triple double with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists while Ritchie had his third double double of the week with 10 points and 15 rebounds. The outing may make things more exciting in Kendallville as Quake posted his best game since recently making his season debut after an ACL injury.
This Knights team has experienced a rebirth as of late despite great early season individual performances from Bowker and Ritchie. Now at full health, they have won 8 of their last 10.
YOUR CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
The big one was on Thursday on the girls side with the SAC being decided between Homestead and Northrop, something we at least thought could happen when the season began. The game itself wasn’t super balanced with Homestead taking the 68-42 win behind 23 points from Myah Epps. Whitney Ankenbruck added 18 points for the Spartans on six three point makes on eight attempts. It gives Homestead their 7th SAC title in the 10 years they have been part of the conference, but their first since 2022. The Spartans sit behind only Bishop Luers, Snider and Northrop in all-time SAC titles.
In the NE8, Bellmont closed out an outright title on Friday with a win over Leo. But before they got there, they hammed Angola 70-22 on Wednesday. Emily Bleke outscored the Hornets herself with 26 points in the win. On Friday in the NE8 outright title win over Leo, Emily Bleke became the fourth 1,000 point scorer in program history. The title is Bellmont’s third in the history of the NE8 that started in 2015-2016; they trail only Norwell (6) in total titles.
Eastside already had the conference wrapped up, but their win over Westview on Thursday, behind 17 points from Lucy Kitchen, gave them their first ever unbeaten NECC season at 10-0 in the conference.
Likewise, Bluffton had already wrapped up the ACAC before this last week of the season with Warsaw winning the NLC and Whitko and Wabash sharing the TRC.
BOYS CONFERENCE RACES
With four teams atop the NECC, West Noble is the surprise of the conference, sitting at 6-1 before a meeting this coming week with fellow 6-1 Westview. The Chargers dispatched DeKalb in a surprise win Tuesday with Jordan Eash having 10 points and 10 rebounds before beating Fairfield on Friday night behind 19 and 10 from Eash. Westview sits in the position with a two conference win week over Garrett and Eastside with Austin Schlabach scoring 16 against the Railroaders and 21 against Eastside. Angola improved to 6-1 as well in the NECC with a win Saturday over Fairfield. Lakeland also sits at one conference loss now with a 54-50 loss to Garrett on Friday; Isaiah King scored 21 points with 13 rebounds while Parker Reed had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Garrett in the win. Lakeland went 0-3 overall during the course of the week.
In the ACAC, Declan Greiser hit for 22 and a buzzer beating game winner Friday for Bluffton to top Jay County. Also on Friday, Landon Lybarger‘s free throws with 3.2 seconds left gave Heritage a 67-66 win over Adams Central. The Patriots trailed 60-42 in the fourth but closed the game on a 25-6 run despite 24 points from Braylend Reber; Taurean Brown led Heritage with 20 points and Lybarger added 18. Bluffton sits 4-1 with Woodlan and Heritage at 3-1, but the Warriors own both tiebreakers so they would need to drop a game to Southern Wells or South Adams to not win the ACAC.
While not ACAC conference related, Adams Central‘s Trace Maller scored 40 points Saturday in a win over Tipton, including going 18-of-19 from the free throw line.
In the NE8, things got interesting Thursday after the previous mentioned East Noble and Huntington North game and then again with East Noble on Saturday. But the big equalizer was Columbia City giving New Haven their first conference loss of the season on Saturday, 65-57, behind 19 points from Landon Richmond. That leaves both of those teams with one conference loss while Leo, East Noble and Huntington North each sit with two losses as all of the teams have two conference games left. The Lions picked up an easier conference win Saturday over Bellmont, but Leo’s marquee win of the week was Monday over North Side on a Solomon Richard buzzer beater.
The SAC was discussed more with Friday’s result out of the much anticipated Wayne/Bishop Luers game. Wayne is the last team to not lose in the conference, while Homestead sits at 5-1 and Bishop Luers at 4-1. Homestead hosts Wayne on February 11; the Spartans also still have South Side and Concordia on their schedule to try and close out an outright title.
In the Northern Lakes Conference, Warsaw picked up a massive win Friday over NorthWood, 61-49. The Tigers had a balanced offensive effort, paced by Mydin Burgher‘s 15 points and four steals from Carson Gould. It leaves Warsaw as 5-0 in the NLC and the only conference unbeaten this at this point.
BLACKHAWK WITH REMINDERS
Despite the fact that focuses were elsewhere a lot of this week, we have to circle back to Blackhawk Christian, who had themselves a great week.
On Tuesday, they dispatched of Bishop Dwenger 64-44 behind a massive 30 point game from Kellen Pickett while Briggs Pardon added 10 points. On Saturday, they topped Wayne at Wayne, 56-52, one night at the Generals took control of the SAC with a win over Bishop Luers. Again, it was Pickett leading the way with 22 points while Bryce Sefton added 16.
It is a not so gentle reminder that with the postseason looming, there is a reason that this Class 1A school is up in Class 3A now in the first place. Blackhawk Christian is incredibly dangerous no matter who they play and no matter where they play.
MORE GIRLS NOTES
Lakewood Park coach Jared Estep got his 50th win as the Panthers head coach on Tuesday in a win over Wayne led by Ava McGrade‘s 26 points….Bluffton coach Doug Curtis got his 300th career win Thursday in a win over Manchester, with the Tigers tying a program record with the 21st win of the season….Warsaw tied a school record with 21 regular season wins by beating Angola….Lakewood Park won their record 16th regular season game Friday with a win over Lakeland Christian where Ava McGrade had eight steals….DeKalb‘s Ashley Cox passed Machelle Joseph and Elizabeth Martin on the list of all-time games played as Baron, now sitting at 91 games.
MORE BOYS NOTES
Manchester‘s Gavin Betten had a triple double on Tuesday in a win over Churubusco. Betten scored 25 points, had 15 rebounds and 12 steals. He added six assists and three blocks….Fremont‘s Landon Jaeger broke the program record for steals in a game with 12 against Eastside on Tuesday….Woodlan‘s Trey Yoder reached 1,000 career points on Thursday in a win over Lakewood Park, he is the 11th Warrior to do so ever….Saturday’s win over New Haven was the 100th career win for Columbia City coach Matt Schauss.
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