We can call this full swing now as two full weeks of the season are behind us and this week we got some primetime match ups, even maybe already knowing who is winning one of the area’s conferences.
So what are some important things to take out of this week of girls basketball season? Bounce has you covered with things you need reminded of and perhaps even some things you may have missed during the week.
QUIETLY, THE ACAC IS LOOKING STRONG
Bluffton is 3-0. Southern Wells is 5-0. Jay County, Woodlan and South Adams all sit at 2-1. Woodlan upset Angola this week, Adams Central gave Fremont a push on Saturday.
Is the ACAC the best area conference early in the season? Through two weeks of play, the ACAC is 16-5 and all of their members have at least one win on the season and nobody has more than one loss.
The NE8 is 16-7 with two teams who have not picked up a win yet. The NECC is 18-16 with six teams having multiple losses and West Noble technically winless as they have not played a game yet. The SAC is 11-16 with five teams yet to pick up a win. The average margin of loss for those five teams: 45.5 points.
A massive standout of all of this with the ACAC’s great start has been Bluffton, who graduated one of the best scorers in program history, but have then just picked up where they left off last season. Their win over East Noble on Saturday has been their biggest of the young season but the Tigers had a pretty stellar week overall.
Bluffton opened their season Tuesday with a 68-38 win over Northfield. Khloe Dick led the way with 29 points, in what was a pretty stellar week for the junior. Bluffton returned to action on Wednesday and toppled Marion 69-45 behind Dick’s 32 points on 53 percent shooting; Kamryn Ault added 15 points and 10 rebounds while Sophie Eisenhut blocked three shots.
The Tigers wrapped up the week on Saturday with a big time win against East Noble, a program that had also started their season pretty good. Bluffton won 60-51 after trailing through three quarters, due in large part to their scoring depth on the day. Dick led the way with 15 points, followed by Bridget Steffen with 12, Carlee Strunk had 11, Ault scored 10, and Eden Nash had 9 points.
Credit too for the other teams. You will read more about Woodlan below and Adams Central put a good fight into Fremont to end the week, with Tenley Hendricks having an impressive 16 point outing for the Flying Jets. Southern Wells sits at 5-0, the best overall record in the area through two weeks, Kaylee Davis leads the way averaging over five rebounds, assists and steals per game with the Raiders averaging over 25 steals per game through their first three contests.
NECC STRONGHOLD
Fremont made a major step on Thursday in securing the Northeast Corner Conference. How weird does that sound just two weeks into the season.
The Eagles beat Eastside, 64-55, for the first time in 8 years on Wednesday in the NECC opener for each team, as Fremont improved to 3-0 and Eastside fell to 1-1.
The game was about as close as they could come with Fremont taking a one point advantage out of the first quarter and the two teams tied headed into the fourth before the defending Class 1A state runner up surged forward for the 64-55 win.
Last season, Fremont lost just three total times and the two that were not in the state finals were to Eastside, first by 8 in the regular season and then again in January’s NECC Tournament, again by 8 in the tournament finals. The last win for Fremont over Eastside was in the opener of their 2018 season, picking up a 59-38 win, but this is the first time that Eastside has lost to the Eagles under coach Mike Lortie.
Beating a fellow NECC frontrunner just two weeks into the season gives Fremont more than an early signature win—it puts the Eagles in the driver’s seat. There has to be some comfort in clearing a hurdle of that magnitude so soon, knowing they already hold an advantage over one of their biggest challengers. There is still plenty of basketball left, and the rest of the conference won’t make the road easy, but Fremont’s task becomes straightforward: keep winning and the Eagles won’t need help from anyone else. Controlling your own destiny almost from the onset of the season is a valuable position, and Fremont has already earned it.
Mya Turner led all scorers with 23 for Fremont, who had four players in double figures scoring with Grace Scharlach‘s 15, Mallorie Hufnagle‘s 14 and Chloe Verdin‘s 10 points.
Eastside was led by 17 points from Taylor Mack, while MacKenzie Dawkins added 16 for the Blazers.
It was part of a big three win week for the Eagles with wins also against Lakewood Park and Adams Central. Against Lakewood Park, Scharlach had 22 points and seven steals; she added 19 points and five steals on Saturday against the Flying Jets.
BIG WINNER OF THE WEEK?
• We will see come next week how Woodlan‘s win on Tuesday alters the next girls hoops Power Poll, but this early in the season, they have to have the win of the week after upsetting Angola, 59-58.
The game was tied at 22 at halftime, but the Warriors continued to just play really physically and limited some of what Angola likes to do around the basket. Savannah Scheumann scored 21 points to lead the Warriors. Lexie Peoples continued her solid start to the season as well, scoring 10 while added 10 rebounds and five assists in the win.
Kendall VanderWal still scored 24 in the loss for the Hornets, while Kendall Holman added 16.
Angola did bounce back on Thursday against a Wayne team that looked good earlier in the week with a win at Leo. In that game, the Kendalls looked unstoppable as Kendall VanderWal scored 33 points and had 15 rebounds, while Kendall Holman posted a double double of her own with 14 points and 13 rebounds. VanderWal’s 33 points became the best individual scoring game in the area so far this season. Of the five players who have scored in the 30s individually in the first two weeks, four of them have now come from the NECC.
• Or was Homestead‘s win Wednesday over Northridge the big win of the week? After all, the Raiders have been given plenty of praise in the preseason and after week one. Homestead (#2 in the state) getting a win at Northridge (#3 in the state) is a massive early momentum for a Spartan team some expected to be lesser than in the past.
Delaney Noll scored 20 points to lead Homestead, hitting two of the Spartans’ nine three pointers in the game. Leah Werth hit three triples and finished with 11 points; Homestead had seven different players score. It was the Raiders who came out swinging with the first quarter lead, but Homestead charged past from there with a 16-10 second quarter to take the halftime lead.
What makes Homestead’s win even bigger perhaps was Northridge dispatching Norwell on Saturday without one of their best players in Lily Scholl. That win for the Raiders really established their spot more, so Homestead getting that W earlier in the week is also that much more important.
Homestead fell in a great battle with Pike on Saturday, led by Noll’s 28 points, while Eva Scarbeary added 24 and Werth scored 10.
• There there is a field of thought that Columbia City upsetting Whitko, 53-51, on Friday may be the game of the week.
The game extended Whitko’s struggles against the Eagles, with Columbia City taking every game in the series since 2016.
While the win was very notable with Whitko ranked in the state and Columbia City facing some rebuilding properties with a new coach and new expectations in roles for a lot of people. But the end of the game made it even more noteworthy. In the closing seconds, freshman Sage Linnemeier made a great cut to the basket for an open pass and the winning lay in with just four seconds left of the clock.
Linnemeier finished with 9 points and 6 assists for the Eagles, while Claudia Strack led them with 16 points and six rebounds.
Columbia City did fall to Fishers to end the week in a 57-55 battle where Kennedy Tucker had 15 points and Strack added 14 for the Eagles.
EYE OPENING SCORES
Can we call it like it was on Tuesday night? Shocking.
We see lopsided scores across the state all of the time. It is nothing new and there is a certain ebb and flow to it most of the time. Two years ago, South Bend Washington beat Gary Lighthouse 100-0. Last week, that same program lost 79-2 to Tippecanoe Valley.
But three in one night, all SAC teams, was a shocker on Tuesday as Columbia City beat Carroll 65-10, Bellmont rolled by Concordia 72-15 and Warsaw stopped Northrop 63-6.
Is it worth going deep into? Absolutely not. But that doesn’t mean that the sports media world locally wasn’t a little shocked on Tuesday night to see such lopsided final scores and really scores throughout – Bellmont opened their won over Concordia 42-0.
But we can also highlight the big moments for the teams that won, including Kennedy Tucker‘s 11 points and six steals for Columbia City, while teammates Izzy Knitter and Sola Holler added nine more steals each.
For Bellmont, Ashley Bleke scored 13 and Oni Krueckeberg added 12 points with 8 steals in the win over Concordia. For Warsaw, in their win over Northop, Charlotte Kesler led 11 different Tiger scorers with her 15 points.
Some people may not like the pointing out of low scoring games, but the reality is that everyone in the high school basketball world was talking about this during the week.
QUICK HITS
Madison Jones of Fairfield was the second area player to hit 30 points this season, hitting exactly 30 in Tuesday’s loss to Wawasee….East Noble‘s Rian David hit six three pointers and finished with 28 points Tuesday in a win over Bishop Dwenger….Khloe Dick scored 29 for Bluffton as they opened their season with a win over Northfield….Wayne‘s Davianna Irons had a 16 point, 11 rebound double double Wednesday in a win over Leo….DeKalb‘s Reese Schmidt posted a 15 point, 15 rebound double double in a win over North Side….Also in double doubles this week, Central Noble‘s Kaydintz Bales scored 26 points and had 10 rebounds in a loss to Whitko; the Wildcats though scored 92 points in that win, the most since 2014; the Wildcats have now opened 8 straight seasons with a win….Ana Lehman made five three pointers and finished with 25 points Thursday in a 46-45 win for South Adams over Winchester….Norwell’s Haley Williamson added to her strong defensive season with 6 steals Friday in a win over Fairfield; teammate Mia Kurtz had 7 steals on Saturday against Northridge….Garrett‘s Emma Coffman scored 32 points on Saturday in a win over New Haven….Bishop Luers officially has a dangerous duo. Harvest Green scored 29 points and Avery Sebastian added a line of 20 points, 7 rebounds, 5 steals and 7 blocks on Satuday in a win over Mississinewa….Leo’s Stella Schelm had 20 points and 11 rebounds Saturday in Leo’s comeback win over Blackhawk Christian, while Luci Schott added 20 rebounds for the Lions.
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