WRAPPING UP GIRLS CONFERENCE TITLES
With one more week left in girls high school basketball’s regular season, it is time to wrap some things up. And the main things are conference titles.
In the ACAC, Woodlan has had the conference regular season crown wrapped up for a while, but they added the unbeaten tag to it Saturday in a win over South Adams. Earlier in the week, Alyssa Anderson surpassed 1,000 career points in a win over Bishop Luers. The ACAC champion has gone unbeaten in the conference regular season each year since 2017 when Jay County and South Adams shared the title.
Warsaw clinched another NLC title on Saturday with their win over Concord. Warsaw has now won the last five NLC titles, going a perfect 35-0 in conference during that time. The last non-Warsaw champ was Goshen in 2021 and not since 2019’s Northridge team has a conference champion not gone unbeaten in the league. Brooke Zartman hit six threes and finished with 28 points in the win over Concord.
In the NE8, Norwell moved to 6-0 on Wednesday with a win over New Haven behind Vanessa Rosswurm‘s 24 points and seven steals. The Knights sit in the drivers seat to win an outright title, though have clinched at least a share of the NE8 with Bellmont. The Braves finish their conference season on January 30 against Leo. They need a win and a loss the same night by Norwell to share the title. Should Norwell beat East Noble that night, they will be outright conference champions for the first time since 2024; it would be the fourth straight year with an outright NE8 champ going unbeaten in conference play.
While it wasn’t a conference situation, Tuesday’s win for Norwell over Jay County showed us just how big the gap is between the NE8’s top team and the ACAC Tournament champion. Norwell jumped out to a 31-12 first quarter lead and never looked back, winning three of the four quarters by nine or more points in the 88-48 victory. Norwell’s Vanessa Rosswurm (20 pts) and Macie Saalfrank (19) battled with Karsyn (21 pts) and Hallie Schwieterman (20), but Norwell had too much depth. Jada Dale scored 13 while Ashley Waldman had 12 for Norwell, who forced 25 Patriot turnovers.
The TRC is over as Whitko topped Maconaquah and Northfield this past week to finish 9-0 and win an outright conference title. This is Whitko’s third straight TRC title, sharing it each of the past two seasons. The last outright, unbeaten TRC winner was Tippecanoe Valley in 2023. This is just the second perfect TRC season for Whitko, who also did so in 2008.
The SAC is the first of the two complicated conference down the last week. Homestead sits 8-0 after beating North Side on Friday, but 7-1 Northrop looms on January 30. Snider is also 7-1 heading into a game with Carroll on the 30th. Right now, we could see an outright Homestead title if they beat Northrop and that is the cleanest path. If Northrop beats Homestead and Snider beats Carroll, all three teams would share the title. For Northrop there is one more path: a win over Homestead and a Snider loss would give the Bruins the title on their own due to the tiebreaker they would have with Homestead.
How confident is Bounce in a Homestead win? Well just for history’s sake, no team has won the SAC with a conference loss since Bishop Luers did so in 2011. Also, any team other than Homestead winning the conference would mark just the 6th time this millennium that team with less than 20 overall wins won the conference title and no team has done it with less than 17 wins, which Northrop and Snider would be lower than.
Of note of the Homestead girls, they picked up a massive win on Tuesday, topping the state’s number one ranked team Warsaw, 66-52, in large part thanks to a 17-8 third quarter for the Spartans. Carley Moellering hit five threes, scoring 19 points to lead three double digit scorers for the Spartans. Joslyn Bricker scored 31 to lead Warsaw. The Tigers were missing two starters, but the loss ended Warsaw’s 15 game winning streak and 29 game home winning streak.
In the NECC, things stay similarly wild. Eastside improved to 8-1 in the conference Friday beating Central Noble…Fairfield beat Central Noble on Tuesday and Westview on Friday to improve to 8-1…Fremont beat Prairie Heights on Saturday to get to 7-1….All three teams will be the favorites in their final NECC games next week (Eastside at Westview, Fairfield at West Noble, Fremont vs. Garrett and vs. Lakeland) so a lot of signs are pointing to these three teams, maybe rightfully, share the NECC title. There has been an outright and unbeaten champion every season since 2016 and Westview, so we know that unbeaten streak will end. You have to go back to 2010 and 9-1 Angola and Fairfield to find the last time the NECC girls basketball title was shared.
GIRLS QUICK HITS
Ella Savick scored 19 and Kendall VanderWal had 18 for Angola on Tuesday in a win over Westview….
Alivia Bolinger of Concordia had a massive game of 32 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 steals Tuesday in a 59-53 win over Blackhawk Christian. She had a 22 point/10 rebound double double in Friday’s loss to Snider….Kaydintz Bales had a 22 point, 16 rebound double double on Tuesday for Central Noble in a loss to Fairfield….Alyssa Anderson of Woodlan scored 36 points Tuesday, surpassing 1,000 for her career in a win over Bishop Luers….Bluffton hit 10 three pointers in Wednesday’s win over DeKalb, including four from Khloe Dick and and three from Kamryn Ault….Norwell set a program record with 23 three point makes Wednesday against New Haven….Churubusco‘s Patty Wiggs scored 23 points to out duel Canterbury despite 20 points from the Cavs’ Grace Chaille….Khloe Dick hit 7 threes and scored 28 points Thursday in Blufton‘s win over Eastbrook….Bishop Luers‘ Campbell Glenn his five threes on Thursday against Woodlan….Friday’s senior night for lone Garrett senior Sarah DePew saw her score 23 points, with 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals opposite West Noble….Snider‘s Janaya Cooper scored 29 points Saturday in a win over Northridge….On February 20, Central Noble will induct into their athletic Hall of Fame by honoring the 2017-18 girls basketball team and former coach Josh Treesh….On Friday, the Homestead girls struck big with 104 points in their conference win over North Side….Angola‘s Kendall VanderWal scored 29 points Friday in a win over Churubusco; she scored 34 Saturday against Bishop Dwenger….Jay County‘s Karsyn Schwieterman scored 27 points on Saturday in a 71-35 win over Southern Wells.
BOYS QUICK HITS
Braylend Reber scored 25 for Adams Central on Tuesday, but Norwell topped the Flying Jets 75-50 behind 23 points from Josh McBride and a 12 point/12 assist game from Nick McBride….Ryan Stuckey of Angola scored 23 points (9-14 FT) Tuesday in a win over DeKalb….Landon Richmond scored 23 and Trey Deckman added 15 on Tuesday as Columbia City upset Homestead….Declan Grieser led Bluffton with 45 points Friday in a win over Adams Central, the largest scoring total for any player in the area this season….Warsaw‘s Mydin Burgher had back to back big games with 22 points Friday against Concord and 21 Saturday against Garrett, both in wins….Niles Knox has 25 points for Angola on Friday in a dominant 78-16 win over Churubusco….Carmani Davis scored a game high 26 points while Bishop Luers teammate TJ English added 20 in a win over Bishop Dwenger on Friday night….West Noble head coach Ethan Marsh collected career win 100 on Friday….Adams Central‘s Braylend Reber surpassed 1,000 career points on Friday against Bluffton, where he scored 27….Xavier Wilson scored 30 for Snider Friday in a 69-52 win over Concordia….North Side‘s win over Homestead on Friday (72-59) behind Sebastian Moore‘s 23 points is their first over the Spartans since December 29, 2017 in the now defunct SAC Holiday Tournament….Everen Akison scored 30 points for Wayne on Saturday in a loss to Penn.
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
Be the first to comment