Another week, another great week of NECC basketball across the area..Lots of big games were played throughout the week, and we break down what we just witnessed over these 5 days..
Before you read this, feel free to vote for the Doubleheader of the week for Jan. 10 since both Christmas, New year’s, and the NECC Tourney are fast approaching. NECC Fan Vote Doubleheader of the Week (Jan. 10, 2020)
CN-WN DH (Ligonier, IN)
Girls Basketball
Central Noble (8-4, 5-1 NECC) 48 @ West Noble (6-6, 2-3 NECC) 45
1st 14-8 WN
2nd 11-10 CN
Halftime 24-19 WN
3rd 12-9 CN
4th 17-12 CN
2nd Half 29-21 CN
In a game that we expected some grind, physicality, and great entertainment, the girls game of the DH did not disapoint at the slightest. I knew coming into a big game in the connference race West Noble was going to strike early, and they took control most of the 1st half….It seems like every time CN goes to West Noble, they seem to struggle in the 1st quarter a lot…and it happened yet again.
But, outisde of the 1st quarter, it was pretty much a equally balanced game on both sides really..credit to these Lady Cougars for being able to survive and hang around as long as they could until halftime. The fact they only trailed 5 points at the half, people that are familiar with this team knew CN was going to make a run.
The 3rd quarter was a lot slower pace than the first quarters were, but Madi Vice hitting that 3 at the buzzer not only gave her some confidence, but it gave CN a huge boost going to the 4th quarter knowing that they were within striking distance.
Outside of the last minute or so, Central Noble had a pretty dominant 4th quarter, especially on defense…credit to West Noble..they came out with a very solid gameplan, and their defense played pretty well in this game. The scoring depth is getting better for the Chargers, especially with Shoemaker back. Jazmyn (game high 19 pts) had a great game considering this was a typical Battle of Noble County game. Lilly Masr (10pts) didn’t had the best game, but I felt, she definitely had a impact on both sides of the ball, don’t let the numbers fool ya. Give credit to junior Taytlynn Forrer (6pts) because she has improved since i saw her play against Angola earlier this year..
If West Noble can continue to get better on the offensive side of the ball and gain some confidence, they have enough depth to compete with several teams in their area. But, when it’s all said and done, I gotta give more credit to Central Noble in this game especially the way they handled the adversity in the 1st quarter.
This team is starting to show some growth in their all-around game, especially with the mental side of things..At Luers opening night, that wasn’t the case…but, in this game @ WN, they remained composed, confident, and they didn’t show any signs of breaking down or losing hope.
Can we talk about these two freshman for a minute? Back in the Angola game, I gave some positive feedback on both Madi Vice and Meghan Kiebel in that loss, and they were no where near as productive offensively as they have been since. I’ve seen significant growth since that game, almost like they’ve matured as basketball players because of that experience playing that hard nose high pressure Goshen and Angola defenses. Even in the East Noble game, that one game has helped them to.
3 CN players scored in double digits….Bridgette Gray continues her hot streak posting 17, Meghan gets her career high of 16, and Madi drops 13. What makes it even better is that they won this game without Lydia Andrews or Sam Brumbaugh having a good offensive night. But, even those 2 made that up with strong defensive performances. This was a great effort and performance by Josh Treesh’s Cougars and it deserves some love.
Boys
Central Noble (4-1, 3-1 NECC) 42 @ West Noble (2-4, 0-2 NECC) 36
1st 16-9 CN
2nd 14-11 WN
Halftime 27-23 CN
3rd 8-2 WN
4th 13-5 CN
Second Half 15-13 CN
This was a huge game for both teams in the NECC race, and this game was actually pretty well-played. The Cougars absoluetly dominated the 1st Quarter with a 16-9 run in that quarter. But, knowing the Chargers, they were going to respond after a subpar 1st quarter performance. They started hitting some shots led by Josh Gross and Austin Cripe, and they were able to get some momentum coming into the break.
The 3rd quarter would pretty much be all Chargers with the exception of one Cougar basket in that quarter. The Chargers made defenisive adjustments at halftime, and you can sense that they made the Cougars a little uncomfortable and forcing them to take some tough shots and limiting their looks in the paint. But, what decided this game was the 4th quarter.
Their character was tested going into that quarter..they were coming off of a great half on both sides of the ball by CN, but the offense started to go dry in the 3rd. Connor Essegian had 13 1st half points, but was held scoreless in the 3rd. 7 of the team’s 13 4th quarter points came off his hands, and you can argue that was an MVP performance by him in just that quarter alone. Look Connor is a special player so that doesn’t surprise me, but it’s nice to see some contribution from everyone else as well.
But, I want to get the elephant out of the room…I took their loss to Westview to heart even though the Warriors played a great game. The way they played last night was exactly how I wanted them to play in terms of effort for sure. They came out with a lot of energy, and their defense played very well pretty much all night.
Even when this Cougars team lost some offensive power in the 3rd, this team showed zero quit on the defenisve side of the ball. This team was pounding the glass, and they forced WN to take tough shots and making them go to the line instead of giving them easy looks. Zero panic was displayed in this team, and this is a huge step closer to getting to where I want to see out of them come playoff time.
This is my point….if you show me the effort and desire, i don’t care how many mistakes a team makes or if they won or loss…you’ll make me pleased if you put forth the effort. Look, CN was at times sloppy offenisively, and shots were not falling particularly in the 2nd half. But, this team won because they matched West Noble’s effort and intensity, and Coach Marsh’s team typically bring that effort. I would take this win all day long if I’m the Cougars.
It’s a blessing in disguise that this team is learning how to play without Lucas (though you hate to see him not playing) because they were going to have to anyway. Long term, these struggles are going to help them moving forward beyond this year. They’re not the same team without Lucas, but they can still find success even through these tough breaks.
As for West Noble, outside of the 1st and the last couple minutes of the 4th, you definitely have to like the way they played really on both sides of the ball. Yes, shots were not falling for them to, but you can sense some improvement on defense and rebounding. Josh Gross had a pretty good game, especially with his 13 1st-half points, and Austin Cripe is a rising star knowing that he’s only a freshman. This is going to take some time for this Chargers team to play the best basketball they can, but you have to like the way they’re playing for Coach Marsh, as well as the future of this program down at the JV level that picked up a win.
Busco @ Prairie Heights
Girls
Churubusco Lady Eagles (4-8, 1-5 NECC) 34 @ Prairie Heights Lady Panthers (7-6, 4-3 NECC)
1st 22-6 PH
2nd 15-14 Busco
Halftime 36-21 PH
3rd 11-9 PH
4th 5-4 Busco
2nd Half 15-14 PH
Breif summary here…Heights attacking Busco right off the gate was obviously very important because the rest of the game would be tight. defense played really well yet again, but let’s obviously mention the Very well balanced performance out of their 3 best players. Alayna Boots had 14 of her 18 points in the 1st quarter, and both Lexi German and Kennedy Kugler each had 12 points. Give credit to Busco for hanging around even after a pretty bad 1st quarter.. Mariah Hosted (led Busco with 13) continues to quietly have a nice season along with Audrey Huelsenbeck’s performance. Again, I don’t think they’re going to finish high in the conference standings when it’s all said and done, but they have definitely taken some mighty steps towards their rebuild.
Boys Basketball
Churubusco Eagles (2-3, 2-1 NECC) 61 @ Prairie Heights (8-0, 4-0 NECC) 87
1st 27-10 PH
2nd 19-10 PH
Halftime 46-20 PH
3rd 19-16 PH
4th 25-22 Busco
2nd Half 41-41 Tie
From the opening tipoff, you knew this game was over.. Busco fans, if you need time to take a deep breath and think happy thoughts, now is the time to do so because Heights will be mentioned quite a bit for a little while..Oh, so you’re fine now?? Ok, let’s get to it.
Just as I expected, Busco struggled to slow down the big fella Elijah Malone, especially when Noah Wolfe couldn’t play, which hurts Busco’s bench greatly because it does. But, I knew when Brandon Christlieb came back to the lineup, I was thinking “oh boy, Busco could be in for a long, long night..”and they just couldn’t be stopped.
Here’s the thing…when their OWN head coach never saw them play this well like this in PRACTICE (A.I. enters the chat), I mean we’re not talking about the game right now. We’re out here TALKING ABOUT PRACTICE! You know this was a heck of a night for one team.
Christlieb had the game of his life just two games into his senior season..his career high 36 points already puts him at a 22.5 point per game average…Malone ended up with 26 and probably 10-15 boards, 7 or so blocks (you get the drill), and Mike Perkins ONLY (ONLY) had 13 points. I’m sorry Busco fans, but when they had that kind of night, you knew Busco lost to the better team stright up.
This Panthers team was very good without him…but with him this team is lethal on both sides of the ball…if future opponents are not able to stop their Big 3, they’ll end up just like the Eagles.
I’m giving Busco the benefit of the doubt on this one for now because let’s be honest. I knew they would struggle in this game because 1. Wolfe not playing 2. No Landen Jordan (though that wouldn’t necessairily be the best excuse) and 3. they simply got beat by the better team. They played a pretty decent 4 games, and tonight was just the first not so great performance of the season..But, I will say in a positive. Jackson Paul is staright up balling this season (25pts vs PH), and he has shown some major improvement on both sides of the ball..plus Hunter Perlich is pretty legit on both sides of the court if you ask me.
I don’t expect Busco to play this poorly on defense that often because knowing Chris Paul (Not the CP3 NBA player), I don’t think that would be tolerated. Big thing for me with Busco is 1. please get healthy if they can and 2. onto the next game I guess. Mark my words coming from a kid that graduated from a rival school..this Busco team is only getting better from here not just because Landen returning in January, but this team will get some of this stuff fixed and play their best basketball come the conference tournament and so forth.
Effort is there…just improvements need to be made..BOLD PREDICTION: I expect these two to meet again at some point this season.
Other notes around the NECC
Angola 48 Lakeland 29 Girls
On Wednesday, the Angola girls took one step closer to claiming their first regular season title in 3 seasons. Hanna Knoll had 23 points with Lauren Leach having a solid 14 points and a great defenisve effort…plus doing so without argubly their best all around bench player in Maizey Strand is critical. Brandon Appleton recorded his 100th varsity win joining 5 other coaches in Angola basketball history with 100 or more wins, lots of great leaders on that list including Coach Bentley. Downside of all this is the lack of games they’ll play for the next couple weeks, but when they’re hot I wouldn’t want to face them.
Westview 41 Angola 40
Westview has done it again!…..they find another way to win a big game this time in dramatic (not as much as the Northridge game) fashion…for the 2nd straight season Angola falls at Westview in dramatic fashion…but I’ll tell you what hats off to Coach Bentley and these men…They’re playing their socks off against a very good backcourt and an elite player in Charlie Yoder. Yoder ONLY had 22 points with the go-ahead free thorow with 1 second left to win it. Joel Knox had another solid 2-way performance along with 11 points. While the Ball State volleyball commit Dyer Ball only had 9 points, his presence was soundly heard on defense..plus, it’s nice to see some depth getting contribution when given upon. Tucker Hasselman had 8 and Max Hamilton had 7. Look, if this team gets hot in the NECC tourney or in the sectional, I don’t want to play against Bentley Ball at all…teams better be able to get wins over a more inexperienced team because next season (you mark this one down) they’ll get some serious talent and experience and I have a feeling opposing teams will be having headaches all over again.
Eastside 60 Lakeland 58 2OT
This game looked like it was going to go the distance…neither team was able to pull away…Gabe Trevino apparantly didn’t want to play a third overtime. His 15-footer at the buzzer secures Eastside’s first NECC win of the season @ Lakeland. Trevino led Blazers with 14 points, Noah Johnson had 13, Logan Fry had 12, and Gavin Pfferkorn had 11. As for the Lakers, Brady Bontrager led everyone with 26, and how about the sophomore Bracey Shepherd getting 23 points to lead the offensive attack. For the Blazers, they once again prove to win ugly yet again..for Lakeland, it’s a heartbreaker for sure with some of last season’s truggles continuning into this season, but they’re definitely not losing games without a fight.
Upcoming schedule
Next week is the West Noble-Prairie Heights doubleheader of the week preview, and then on the week of January 3rd it’s the game of the week between Eastside and West Noble boys.
Around the NorthEast Corner 