Saturday’s Daily Dive: Hamilton Heights’ Strong Start, Columbus North’s Time, Southridge’s Demolition
Saturday was a great day of hoops as we had some big time wins and some upsets. Things are getting ramped up here as we finish off the month of November and head into December. Our look at Hamilton Heights’…
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Continue ReadingSaturday was a great day of hoops as we had some big time wins and some upsets. Things are getting ramped up here as we finish off the month of November and head into December. Our look at Hamilton Heights’ strong start, Columbus North’s time to prove themselves, and Southridge’s Demolition and more.
Hamilton Heights’ Strong Start
On Saturday night, we saw Hamilton Heights put their offense into full motion. Just one day after knocking off New Castle, they come back home again to beat a tough Guerin Catholic team. Now, 3-1, they look like they could really be a strong competitor for a run this season and into Sectionals.
Their schedule as it sits looks pretty easy with Lewis Cass, Delta, Western, and Noblesville coming up. All winnable games. The first really tough one might come in the form of Lapel on January 11th. Looking even further down the line, there are only about 5 games that could really cause them significant problems now that they are through the gauntlet of Mt. Vernon, New Castle, and Guerin Catholic.
Part of that success so far has come from the trio of A.J. Fields, Camron Knott, and Gus Etchison. Those three give size and scoring ability. In the win last night, Etchison had 26, Knott with 13, and Field had 21 points. That trio put up 60 of their 76 that game.
Columbus North’s Time To Prove Themselves
One of the surprise teams to this point is Columbus North. Not necessarily because they are playing well but because they are doing it so quickly. They lost so key guys last year and now some of their top talent is still in the development stage and this is a great start relative to our expectations.
With three straight wins after an opening loss to Heritage Christian, North now beat Hauser, Shelbyville, and Martinsville. The key to watch moving forward is how do Blake Barker, Trent Kelley, and Nick Schiavello and company do over the next three games. They look to take on Franklin Central, Fishers, and Columbus East. That is a young FC team, a strong Fishers group, and your arch rival. All a step up from the last three games you played. It’s time to prove yourself, Columbus North.
Southridge’s Demolition
“Watch out for Southridge.” That might be the thing you have to start saying if things go like they could this year. This team is talented, and deep, and if they play up to their potential, a win like they had to open the season against Corydon Central is going to be just one of a bunch.
Backed by sophomore Colson Montgomery, Southridge has a ton of talent with Jaden Hayes, Joe LaGrange, and others. They have size and athleticism, and last night they tore Corydon Central apart. At the half, Southridge was up 31-15. After three, up 54-19. Then they finished 69-32.
While there are some land mines to be aware of in their schedule, this Southridge team has a good coach, good players, and should have drive to be successful this year and they realistically could end up winning every game. They won’t, just hedging my bet but there isn’t a game so far that they don’t have what it takes on paper to win. Their first game kind of helped to prove that.
Quick Hitters:
- Anderson moves to 2-1 after a big win over New Castle. For Anderson, they have wins over them and Pendleton Heights. Great start to the season for Mike Elliott and company. On the other hand, New Castle is now 1-2 after back-to-back losses this weekend to Hamilton Heights and Anderson. After seeing them live, hard to imagine them regaining their step any time soon with the next three games against Shelbyville, Brownsburg, and New Palestine.
- Luke Brown scored 44 points in last night’s win over Blue River Valley. He also scored 33 earlier in the week and 44 points the game before that. His scoring average is going to be as high as we have had in some time and he already has 152 points on the season to date. At his current rate, he has a pretty good chance to be over 800 points just in the regular season.
- After beating Cathedral on Friday night, Center Grove had a big win over Bloomington North on Saturday as well. Mr. Basketball candidate Trayce Jackson-Davis kept it going with 33 points and 12 rebounds in the win.
- Last night, Chesterton just dismissed a solid Lowell team, 54-29. It wasn’t even close. Chesterton now moves to 3-0 on the year and has a pair of key wins already. Their schedule is pretty easy until they come down to Indianapolis for the Noblesville Holiday Tournament on December 27th.
- Covenant Christian beat Roncalli last night. Great job by Covenant but also a little telling of where Roncalli is this season. Not the powerhouse that hey have been the last few years with as many seniors as they had graduate. A ton of new faces.
- Danville picked up a much needed win last night over Avon. However, Danville, from all accounts, doesn’t look great and two early season losses to Greencastle and Park Tudor kind of tell the tale. This team should be better, much better.
- Might be time to reevaluate Richmond. They have a ton of talent now and a head coach that does know how to win. But losing to East Central on Saturday night is a tough one to swallow. They also lost to North Central the night before. Their schedule only gets tougher from here and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them be all over the map over the next three weeks with games against Marion, Connersville, and Bishop Dwenger.
- East Noble won a barnburner over Fort Wayne Carroll last night 41-38. Pace is much more of Carroll’s style so to see East Noble pull it out is great and now they are 3-1 but that loss is to Snider who is vying to be the best team in Fort Wayne. Senior David Ejah had 20 points and 13 rebounds for Carroll.
- Fort Wayne Northrop is now 4-0 and pulled of a big win over South Bend Adams on Saturday. They got 17 points and 17 rebounds from senior Sydney Curry.
- So far, Homestead is proving just how good they can be. They are 3-0 with wins over Huntington North, Warsaw, and Marion. On their schedule, they likely won’t be looking at a possible loss until the Summit Conference Tournament in late December. Sophomore Luke Goode had 23 points in the win.
- Last night, Cardinal Ritter got a big win over Heritage Christian. HC looks solid this year so that win will go a long way. Problem is, they now get Crispus Attucks up next. Nate Soltis had 26 points in the win.
- Cameron Alford put up 30 points in a closer than you would expect loss to La Lumiere. Brownsburg played very well in the loss and by accounts, Alford was great against high-end talent.
- Linton-Stockton moved to 3-1 with a win over Vincennes Lincoln. Now, though, they get their biggest test of the year as they take on Barr-Reeve at home on Friday night. Keep a look out on that score.
- Marquette Catholic got a much needed win over a really good South Bend St. Joseph team. Senior Colin Kenney put up a career-high 42 points. He also just had 34 points against Gary West. So far so good for the Furman commit.
- Penn beat Crown Point last night but the thing about it is they kind of have a three-headed monster with Drew Lutz, Beau Ludwick, and Noah Applegate. This team might be for real but their schedule is so regionalized it will be hard to tell. Next game to focus on would be South Bend Washington or Valparaiso in January.
- Princeton moves to 3-0 after a win over Pike Central. Time to find out just how good they are with Bosse, Harrison, Southridge, and Vincennes Lincoln coming up in the next two weeks.
- Silver Creek does it again, beats Jennings County and puts up 85 points. Actually lowers their average down to 88.5 ppg but still, really impressive start to the season.
- Have to be impressed with how well South Bend Riley is playing this year. 3-0 with three solid wins against LaPorte, Northridge, and Merrillville. Not the best teams but pretty solid for a roster that is down four starters from a year ago.
- Something is wrong with Frankton. Now 2-2 with another loss last night to Tipton where they only scored 42 points. Time to dig into this one more.
- Lafayette Jeff won the Franciscan Health Classic with a 76-73 win over Central Catholic. Good start for the Broncos who are now 4-0.