EARLY TROPHY SEASON
Lets be honest, part of the perk of the end of the season for onlookers is the chance to see teams who have put in big work hunt trophies. Sectional, Regionals….state titles if they are really lucky? But the holiday season always gives us an early look at those hunts.
This month will give us ACAC and NECC conference tournaments to look forward to, but the end of December and beginning of January mean that teams will get their first crack at adding some hardware to their season resume. December saw the Warsaw girls add a prestigious Hall of Fame Classic title in a dominating win over Norwell while East Noble boys and girls each added a Max Platt Tournament crown to their seasons, sweeping their own hosted tournaments.
This past week, as we started January, was full of big tournaments for area teams and several titles along the way on both sides, among multiple conferences from the area.
The Warsaw girls added trophy number two at their own 47th Lady Tiger Tournament that ran Friday and Saturday. They opened Friday with an 89-25 win over Peru that was full of new program records on what ended up being a banner night for the program. Joslyn Bricker scored a program record 43 points while hitting another record 17 shots, the team had a record 20 made threes and sharpshooter Brooke Zartman had a career best 32 points while hitting a record 10 three pointers in the game. Later on Friday night, Bricker scored 36 points in a win over Indianapolis Ritter, becoming the all-time scoring leader in Warsaw girls basketball history at 1,609. She passed 2004 Indiana Miss Basketball Jaclyn Leininger (1,607). The record-setting point came on a free throw with 1:27 left in the 3rd quarter. On Saturday, the Tigers captured the crown with an 80-36 win over Columbia City led by Bricker’s 26 points. She now sits 5th in a strong county history for girls basketball scoring trailing 2013 Wawasee grad KiLee Knafel, 1988 Lakeland Christian grad Cheryl Myers, 2017 Whitko grad Aly Reiff and 2002 Wawasee grad Shanna Zolman, with all but Zolman in immediate sight of passing.
Columbia City got a thrilling win Friday at Warsaw as well, 53-52 in overtime, against Pendleton Heights behind 26 points from Anisa Tonkel. They then picked up a 40 point win over Bishop Luers to advance to Saturday’s game with the host Tigers. In the win over Luers, Jill Morrow had seven blocked shots.
On Friday, a still unbeaten South Side boys team added another trophy to their season chase by running through the Tippecanoe Valley Tournament, topping Tipton and getting a second win over Leo this season. In the win over Leo, the Archers held the Lions to single digit scoring in three of the four quarters including just a single fourth quarter point in a 67-28 win. Josh Sandoval put the icing on the cake at Tippy Valley with 22 points, including five three pointers in the win. On Tuesday, South Side won the Delta Holiday Tournament with their third win in two days, topping host Delta on a buzzer beating three pointer from Jayvon Irby, who led the Archers with 17 points in the title game. Also during the tournament, Irby had 25 points in a win over Indianapolis Scecina while Terrance Jordan had a 16 point, 8 rebound, 5 assist outing in that same game. Also on Monday, JT Timberlake had 31 points and 15 rebounds in a win over Western.
While Huntington North didn’t find a lot of success at their own hosted event this week, there were some little wins. Sophomore Brayden Freiburger had a breakout game with 21 points in a loss to Mishawaka Marian. On Friday and Saturday though, Huntington North took to the Plymouth Tournament, capturing the title with wins over Twin Lakes and New Prairie. In the Twin Lakes win, Dalton Husband scored 18 points and had eight rebounds.
The Homestead girls won the Northridge Tournament held on Monday and Tuesday. The Spartans topped Penn, Rushville and Franklin Central to advance to the finals. In the Franklin Central win, Gabby Helsom led the way with a 32 point outing. They topped Greensburg 84-44 to capture the crown.
Heritage boys improved to 9-1 on the season by winning the Central Indiana Holiday Classic. In the opening game on Friday, Taurean Brown scored 18 points and Kingston Galentine added 17 in a win over Tri-Central. The Patriots, later in the day, beat Winchester 48-45 led by Brown’s 15 points. On Saturday, the Patriots captured the title with a 41-35 win over Frankton where Galentine led the way with 15 points.
OTHER AREA TOURNAMENTS
DeKalb boys made the finals of their own holiday tournament on January 3 before falling to Whiteland. While no local team won the DeKalb Tournament, there were some good showings from the Barons, Northrop and Lakewood Park throughout the two day event. Brady Vince opened things up for the Barons Friday with 16 points in a win over Hanover Central; later that day Zeke Penrod scored 14 to put DeKalb in the title game. For Lakewood Park, despite falling short in their games, Kobe Marquardt hit six threes on Friday in a loss to Northrop; the Bruins’ Donlaray Reese had 24 points in the game. Northrop won the third place game over Hanover Central with 23 points from Reese.
On Tuesday, the Lakeland girls had a nice showing in the consolation game of the Huskies Holiday Tournament in a win over Goshen. Dulce Canedo scored a game high 20 points, but the breakout performance came from Chloe Yoder, who scored eight points but added 10 rebounds and nine steals.
The beginning of the week saw several area teams participate in the Bob Wettig Tournament, hosted annually in Richmond. Snider opened things with a 73-34 win over the host team, led by 18 points each from Ketron Paschall and Xavier Wilson. The Panthers went 3-1 at the Wettig, finishing with a win over Indy Washington led by Wilson’s 24 points. North Side opened their Wettig experience with a 77-74 overtime win against KIPP Indy Legacy for their first win of the season; the Legends played five games last week going 3-2 including two overtime wins.
Huntington North also hosted a holiday event this week on the boys side that saw Wayne pick up a big win over Mishawaka Marian on Monday led by 20 points each from Lashawn Green and Everen Akison. Columbia City picked up two wins at Huntington North (Bishop Dwenger and Mishawaka Marian), while Dwenger topped Indianapolis Tindley.
Bellmont boys dropped two of three games in the Delta tournament that was won by South Side, but Daniel Selking continued to elevate himself as a star for the Braves. He had 26 points in a loss to Delta and 30 in a loss to Seegar. He went on to scored 27 points in their lone Delta Tournament win over Western and then on 40 points against Adams Central, Selking dropped 40 points to complete a fantastic week; he had 24 points at halftime versus 26 first half points from the Flying Jets.
Bishop Luers‘ Carmani Davis made the All-Tournament team at the Switzerland County Tournament, hitting 11 threes over three games at the Knights went 2-1.
Blackhawk Christian, long known for their success at random holiday season tournaments, finished third at Lawrenceburg’s Ray Furney Holiday Classic. The Braves beat New Palestine and Indianapolis Ritter before falling to Plainfield. In the third place game, they topped Bloomington South 59-51. In the opening game against New Pal, Payton Rhinehart led the way with 23 points, leading four in double figures including 10 from Briggs Pardon, who had missed the majority of the season so far. Rhinehart added 18 points against Ritter while Bryce Lacross scored 21.
SCHARLACH SOLIDIFIES STAR POWER
Going into Saturday’s game against rival Angola, Fremont junior Grace Scharlach was just three points from reaching 1,000 for her career with a very torrid scoring pace thus far this season. It did not take long for Scharlach to reach that milestone on Saturday, finishing with 25 points in the win and now sitting at 1,022 career points.
Not only did the Eagles get the milestone from Scharlach, but they beat Angola for the first time in 10 years with the last win over the Hornets coming on January 9, 2016. They have now won a program record 11 straight games.
By hitting 1,000 points on Saturday, Scharlach became just the second Fremont girls basketball player to do so before their senior season. The other being her current head coach Shae Rhonehouse Thomas. Rhonehouse hit 1,000 career points against Angola as well and went into her senior season with 1,048 points.
In a big win Wednesday versus a SAC opponent in Bishop Luers, Fremont got 27 points from Scharlach and 20 from Mya Turner. Turner added another 20 points in Saturday’s win over Angola.
BOYS QUICK HITS
In Tuesday’s win over Leo, Westview‘s Austin Schlabach scored 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting….Norwell had a 2-0 week led by the brothers McBride. Josh had 16 points and Nick had 12 in Tuesdays win over Concordia. On Friday against the Fort Wayne Hawks, Josh had 26 points and 12 rebounds while Nick hit five threes and finished with 21 points….Warsaw‘s Mydin Burgher scored a career high 30 points Tuesday in a win over Providence at Hoosier Gym….Niles Knox scored 25 points and Ryan Stuckey added 20 on Tuesday for Angola in a win over Mississinewa….Fort Wayne Hawks‘ Grey Chapman had a breakout performance getting to play against Norwell; he finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks….North Side rallied after scoring just 8 second quarter points Saturday to beat Elkhart 74-70 in overtime, led by 35 points from Sebastian Moore….With their win Friday over Central Noble, led by 18 points from Carson Waltke, East Noble has now won 3 straight games….Jadrien Ezell scored 31 points Friday in a win for New Haven over Bishop Dwenger at Gainbridge Fieldhouse….Leo sophomore Jonah Lagrange had a breakout performance in a win over Tippecanoe Valley on Friday with 17 points and 11 rebounds….On Saturday, Owen Roe led South Adams with 22 points in a win over Northfield….Churubusco‘s Josiah Morales hit six threes and scored 25 points Saturday in a win over Tri Central….Nick Collins had 19 points and 12 rebounds for Canterbury on Saturday in a win over Trinity Greenlawn.
GIRLS QUICK HITS
Fairfield‘s Madison Jones scored 24 points Tuesday in a loss to Warsaw at Hoosier Gym….In a Tuesday win over Yorktown, the Schwieterman sisters had a big night for Jay County. Karsyn and Hallie each scored 26 points with Karysn adding 10 rebounds in the win; it moved Hallie closer to 1,000 for her career at 964 points; she added 30 more points Saturday in a loss to Woodlan and now sits just six points from the 1K club….Lakeland‘s win Saturday over Heritage moved them to 6-8, already matching last season’s win total for the Lakers; Chloe Yoder had five blocks and Ella Huppenthal added 16 rebounds….Whitko‘s Reese Stonebraker became the 4th Whitko girls player to surpass 1,000 career points, doing so on Saturday….Stella Stockamp hit four threes and scored 22 points Saturday in Angola‘s loss to Fremont.
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