Daily Recap: Marion, McCutcheon Go For 94, Mantis Puts Up 42
We are three nights in and in a similar way to last year, we are seeing some big time point totals in the first week. Tonight you saw 42 points from Nick Mantis as the headliner. You also saw a…
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Continue ReadingWe are three nights in and in a similar way to last year, we are seeing some big time point totals in the first week. Tonight you saw 42 points from Nick Mantis as the headliner. You also saw a couple interesting scores like the one from McCutcheon 94-46 over West Lafayette. We break that all down here in our daily recap.
McCutcheon, Marion Rout Opponents In First Game
One of the biggest stories last night was the big wins. Last night you had upsets and tonight it was a pair of 94 point totals by both Marion and McCutcheon that caught the eye.
For Marion, they played local foe Maconaquah and beat them 94-49. While we figure McCutcheon would win pretty easily, we weren’t expecting this type of outcome from Marion, a team that lost a ton from their 3A State Championship team. The biggest question was where is the offense going to come from. Well, tonight kind of put that to bed. Obviously, you want to see how they do against a quality opponent but helping to answer the biggest offseason question mark in the first game helps a lot.
McCutcheon beat West Lafayette, 94-46 and did so in tremendous fashion. They were up 32-10 in the first quarter and at that point, junior guard Robert Phinisee already had 14 points. At the end of the game, they won by near 50 points and Phinisee finished with 30 points, 9 rebounds, 7 steals, 4 assists and just 1 turnover.
Key Outcomes To Watch
With it being early in the season, you don’t know definitively if these outcomes are upsets are not. Some are obvious but most aren’t and there were some that caught us as ones to remember in the coming weeks.
Was really surprised with Fort Wayne Carroll’s loss to South Bend Adams. It was only a 9-point victory for Adams so it wasn’t like they beat them badly but you would think that Carroll could be a very good team this year. Sohpomore shooter Dan McKeeman had 22 for them but really, you have to have guys like Arius Jones (6 points), Anthony Martin (4 points), and Jared Hofer (6 points) produce more if they are going to reach their best.
Another head scratcher was West Washington’s loss to Salem. Not so surprised that it was a loss as you have a 1A school going up against a 3A school but was surpised in the spread. West Washington lost by 27 points. This is a good team but that can’t be the start they were looking for.
The other score that stuck out was Clinton Prairie’s win over rival local Frankfort. The Hot Dogs have a pretty solid core coming back and should be the best team in the area. Now, the thing to watch in the coming weeks is if we were completely off base or if Frankfort is still good but Clinton Prairie is a lot better than we thought.
Top Scorers:
- Nick Mantis (Lowell) – 42 points, 4 ast
- Langston Stallings (Bowman Academy) – 32 points, 5 rebs, 2 blk
- Jalen Owens (TH North) – 32 points
- Robert Phinisee (McCutcheon) – 30 points, 9 rebs, 7 stls, 4 ast
- Nate Walpole (Whitko) – 29 points
- Caden Fields (North Knox) – 29 points, 10 rebounds
- Braeden Beard (Tell City) – 28 points, 13 rebs, 5 stl, 4 blk
- Courvosier McCauley (Manual) – 28 points, 10 rebs, 4 ast, 7 stl
- Max Flinchum (Noblesville) – 28 points
- Andrew Kenneally (Crown Point) – 27 points, 10 rebs
- Kaleb Swick (Southmont) – 27 points, 15 rebs
- Grant Smith (Connersville) – 27 points
- Vinny Stone (Argos) – 26 points
- Walter Ellis (SB Adams) – 25 points, 7 rebs, 4 ast
- Sasha Stefanovic (Crown Point) – 24 points, 5 rebs, 3 ast, 3 stl
- Clay Hilliard (Plymouth) – 23 points
- Hunter Hollowell (Huntington North) – 23 points
- Caleb Randolph (North Montgomery) – 23 points
- Trevor Lakes (Lebanon) – 22 points, 7 rebs
- Dan McKeeman (FW Carroll) – 22 points
- Gavin Bizeau (Plainfield) – 21 points, 11 rebs
- Gavin Griggs (Shenandoah) – 20 points, 10 rebs