Rivalry week in the SAC during football season has always been one of the area’s most watched weeks and for good reason. And sometimes, it feels like rivalries in football in Northeast Indiana take center stage.
But on the basketball court, the area is also full of great rivalries. Some are natural. Neighboring schools, city or county foes, conference opponents. Some just generate a great buzz every time they happen.
It just so happens that this week, as the ACAC and NECC Tournaments take center stage, we still get to see some of the best rivalries in Northeast Indiana.
So here are Bounce’s picks for the best basketball rivalries in our area on both the boys and girls sides.
HOMESTEAD/BLACKHAWK CHRISTIAN BOYS
This is always one of the most anticipated games of boys season, conference or non conference. Why? Great coaches help. Chris Johnson at Homestead and Matt Roth at Blackhawk Christian, along with late great former Braves coach Marc Davidson helped make this game a terrific rivalry and battle to look forward to. They have had some of the area’s best best players, future college prospects, Division 1 guys and sometimes even a gym full of the highest of level of college coaches on hand to watch. Homestead against Blackhawk Christian is always fun. And fun enough that many may not know that in the previous 10 seasons leading up to now, Homestead holds a 7-3 advantage in the series, including four straight from 2019-2022. Just four times in the previous 10 years was the score within 10 points, two of those being Blackhawk Christian wins; the teams went to overtime in 2022 with Homestead winning 69-62.
They reconvened this week at Blackhawk Christian, where the Braves won the previous matchup. But this time it was all Homestead and it was all Mack Welker. In a rivalry where there have been some massive individual performances, it is possible that Welker trumped them all on Tuesday night when he dropped 39 to get the win in the cozy confines of Blackhawk’s gym. It pushed the Spartans to an 8-3 advantage over the past 11 seasons. Bryce Lacross finished with 18 to lead the Braves, while Jake Coolman added 18 for Homestead.
LEO/NEW HAVEN BOYS
The Lions and Bulldogs are headed for another clash this Friday, always a highlight of the NE8 schedule these days, as well as a chance to see two EACA teams in purple go to war. Before we talk about the past 10 years, lets look right before that with three noteworthy games in three straight seasons. In 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, New Haven dominated and put up massive points scoring 99 and 100 on Leo in consecutive seasons. In the 2013-14 season, the Bulldogs also won in the only recent overtime affair between the two teams, 82-75 in double overtime.
This is a rivalry that many can agree on but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a lopsided one overall in the past 10 seasons. During that time, New Haven holds a 9-2 advantage, including a 2019 Sectional win. That said, it has been much closer lately. Five times in the past 10 seasons has the game been decided by 10 or less points and that includes four in a row up to present day. The Bulldogs have won 3 of the last four, but their margin of victory in those games is just 5.7 points. Leo last won in the 2023-24 season, a 66-57 win. One of Leo’s two wins in the past decade came in their 2021 run to state, but they did lose to the Bulldogs the next season when they made it back to semi state.
NORTH SIDE/SOUTH SIDE BOYS
In 2019, these two schools added the Reichert/Hey Memorial Trophies as a symbol for their basketball rivalries akin to the Totem Pole, long used for the North/South football rivalries. The two longest standing schools in Fort Wayne finally had a token to play for on the hardwood, honoring two legendary coaches from the respective schools. Counting a 64-60 win for South Side earlier this season, the Archers trail North 7-5 in meetings over the last 11 seasons. North Side won four straight during that time period from 2016-2018, including a SAC Tournament win but that was part of a larger nine game win streak that dated back to a 2011-2012 win for the Legends.
While we are looking here at the last decade (plus games played this season), that 9 game win streak for the Redskins turned into Legends was significant; also noteworthy is that it game on the heels of South beating North three times during the 2010-2011 season. Those victories were half of South Side’s 6 wins total on the season. In the last 11 seasons and a pretty balanced battle, the teams have gone to overtime just once with North Side winning 61-58 during the 2023-24 season one of just three times in that time span where the game has been decided by single digits. But there is always scoring: in the past 16 seasons, the winning team has never scored less than 61 points while the losing team has scored less than 50 just once. On the flip side of that, the winning team has scored 80 or more points 9 times over 16 years, headed by 113 from North Side in the 2014-15 season.
GARRETT/ANGOLA BOYS
This is a short note because the last 10 years of this rivalry, unlike some of the other featured here, have not been super balanced. In the 10 seasons previous to this one, Angola holds a 14-2 edge over the Railroaders with both of those Railroader wins coming last season in what ended one of the state’s longest winning droughts for a team against any opponent. Angola also eliminated Garrett from the postseason three times during that stretch. And before last season, only two games were determined by less than 10 points.
But the 2024-25 season changed a lot and ignited this into one of the area’s best current rivalries, something that the teams carried into this season despite their current opposing trajectories. Last season, Garrett fell by 11 to Angola on December 13 but the game was plenty intense. The two teams came back together on January 14, when Garrett topped the Hornets 56-55 in overtime of a NECC Tournament opening round contest in what OTH later dubbed the NECC Game of the Year. With the season series knotted up, of course the two drew each other in the first round of Sectional play, the first time ever for Garrett and Angola to play each other three times in the same season. Garrett won the Sectional matchup 46-41 to end the Hornets season. This season, despite Garrett’s struggles and an in-game injury to one of their top players, the Railroaders took Angola to overtime again, this time falling 67-58.
CARROLL/HOMESTEAD
There is no rivalry in Northeast Indiana basketball in present day that we look at transcending boys or girls more than this one. And here it comes…”but Bounce, Homestead has won far more games in both series in the last 10 years.” I simply do not care. Homestead and Carroll is as close as a blood feud as you can get. Really good coaching, really good players, rabid student sections and social media Barstools. This rivalry never disappoints in so many ways. Carroll hates the letter ‘H’ and Homestead hates the letter ‘C.’ So yes, the Spartans, over the previous ten seasons lead Carroll 24-6 between the two programs. Did I mention that I don’t care? We’ve still seen 11 games decided by 10 or less points.
The Spartans have been significantly more dominant on the girls side, leading 13-2 since 2016 in you include this season’s super lopsided win that gives them five wins in a row in the series. But in just 2022-23, it was a 60-55 game and in the 2020-21 season, Carroll took both games off the Spartans, winning 62-58 in double overtime in the regular season and again, 66-58 in the Regional round to end Homestead’s season. That year actually ended a 14-game losing streak to Homestead. The two teams have met twice in Regional play in the last 10 seasons, splitting those games, but Homestead did win the only two ever SAC Holiday Tournament meetings.
On the boys side, Homestead holds an 11-4 advantage in the previous ten season, but seven games in that time have been contested by less than 10 points. Homestead won both meetings last season, including the first Regional meeting between the two teams since a 56-52 Homestead win in Regionals in 2016. That season, they actually played three times with Carroll dominating the regular season 62-43 before the Spartans bounced back to win 60-57 in the regular season and then the Regional game. Homestead has won three straight twice in the last 10 seasons, and could make that three times with a win later this season. Of the seven times this game has been less than 10 points in the past 10 seasons, five of those have been five or less point wins.
BELLMONT/NORWELL GIRLS
The last ten years of this rivalry have put it among the best in the area and it has to contend for the best in the state. In that time, not counting this Saturday’s first meeting of the season for the teams, Bellmont and Norwell have played 17 times since their lone 2015-2016 season encounter. You would think, in some ways, that Norwell’s 13-4 lead in the series over that time wouldn’t make it a so-called rivlary, but you’d have to dig deeper into the numbers.
In those 17 meetings, it was pretty rare that the outcome was something that was guaranteed. Just look at last season. Norwell was coming off a state finals appearance and headed back to a state title victory, being Bellmont along the way in the Sectional round. But Bellmont was the team that got the regular season win, 47-44, on their own home court. Last season was one of 6 times the two teams have met in the Sectional round in the last ten seasons. 8 of the last 17 meetings have been determined within 10 points with four of those being within a five point margin.
EASTSIDE/FAIRFIELD GIRLS
This is one that some in the area may consider a more recent rivalry, but Eastside and Fairfield have quite a history in the last decade. Last week, Fairfield picked up a 62-45 win with the teams possibly meeting again this week in the NECC Tournament. If they do, it would be the third year in a row the teams would play in the NECC Tournament and the 6th time in the last 11 seasons; Eastside is 4-1 in the previous five NECC Tournament Meetings opposite the Falcons.
Counting this season’s game, the two teams have met 17 times in the past 11 years between the regular season, the NECC Tournament and a 2022 regional round game. Fairfield holds the edge 10-7 at the current time, with no team winning more than three in a row against eachother; that came when Fairfield won regular season matchups in 2020, 2021 and 2022. During the last 17 encounters, the two teams have gone to overtime three times with Fairfield winning twice. Also in the last 17 games, the score has been determined by single digits on eight occassions.
NORTHROP/SNIDER GIRLS
This rivalry seems to have been amplified since the 2021-22 season when Katie Jackson took over coaching Northrop and moreso in 2022-2023 when Reggie Tharp became the head man at Snider. In the course of the previous 10 seasons, each school has had four different coaches, but the SAC and FWCS rivalry has remained constant, even with some lopsided scores on each side. Last week, Snider picked up a 49-48 win to extend their lead in the rivalry over the past 11 seasons to 9-7.
Northrop has the longest win streak in the past 11 years, winning five straight from 2017-2020 before Snider won the next four meetings. The Panthers had won back-to-back games in the series before Northrop took the regular season last year; Snider bounced back to win the Sectional meeting – the Panthers have won all three postseason meetings in the last 10 years. Northrop’s only non-regular season win over Snider in this time period was a 2017-18 SAC Tournament win. In the last 16 meetings of the two teams, eight have been decided by 10 points or less.
HONORABLE MENTION
This is just a place that Bounce wanted to mention a few rivalries that have heated up the area in the last decade that may have died down a little bit, if not completely. So here are some classic past decade rivalries that Bounce would love to see reignited:
• Snider/Homestead boys
• Garrett/Angola girls
• Woodlan/Heritage boys
• Bishop Luers/Bishop Dwenger boys and girls
• North Side/Snider boys
• Central Noble/Angola girls
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
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