WARSAW AT GOSHEN

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Friday in Goshen

Coaches: Al Rhodes (Warsaw), Mike Sorrell (Goshen)

Records: Goshen 0-2, 0-0 NLC; Warsaw 2-0, 0-0 NLC

Last game: South Bend Riley 51, Goshen 45; Warsaw 55, Columbia City 38

Last year: Warsaw 78, Goshen 63

Matchup: Guard Phil Mikel, arguably Goshen's best player, got into foul trouble in the first quarter of the Riley game and finished with just seven points. He fouled out ... The Warsaw Tigers are not ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll, but they are 14th in the coaches poll, which does not differentiate classes ... Al Rhodes thinks his team's biggest strength is its passing game. Just how good have the Tigers been? They have 48 field goals in two games and have assisted on 41 of them ... Forward Steve Siebenmorgen leads Warsaw with 22.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game ... Point guard Rob Kesler adds 11.5 ppg., while center Zach Nelson scores 10.0 ppg.

Rhodes: "I think the ball control Goshen uses on offense will be very similar to Columbia City. The only difference is, Columbia City's goal is for the perimeter people to get the ball to the post men. Goshen is not as inside-oriented. Goshen wants to get the ball inside by driving, dribble penetration. They have 10 lettermen back, but they are 0-2. This game concerns me. Goshen is a team with its back against the wall. I hope our team handles this game with maturity. We will have to play well to beat Goshen. If we don't play well at Goshen, we will get beaten. When we play Goshen, we like to press a little more and try to pick up the tempo. Our outside shooting will be tested in a game for the first time this year. Goshen likes to collapse on the post. When Nelson or Siebenmorgen receive the ball, they will have three or four defenders around them. We will need a stronger outside shooting game than we have shown so far."

Sorrell: Sorrell did not return phone calls.

Northfield at Whitko

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Friday in South Whitley

Coaches: Brian Tonsoni (Northfield), Fred Fields (Whitko)

Records: Northfield 0-1; Whitko 0-1

Last game: Southwood 71, Northfield 61; Columbia City 61, Whitko 47

Last year: Whitko 61, Northfield 49

Matchup: Northfield is led by starting guard Nick Clifton ... Tonsoni believes Clifton is Northfield's best all-around player on their team ... Clifton is also Northfield's leading scoring threat ... Ben Mohr led the Wildcat scorers last week with 19 points ... Joe Grant added 15 points and 7 rebounds.

Tonsoni: "Whitko is an above-average team. They have a good guard in (Ben) Mohr, who has good speed. They also have the (Joe) Grant kid who played well inside the first game and had a strong inside game. We can go nine deep, so we are a flexible team. To succeed, we will need to know where Mohr is at all times. We also need to block out and rebound when they miss shots, that will certainly be a key."

Fields: "I don't know a lot about Northfield. They have an all new coaching staff. We have seen video on them from their first game so we have been able to see them. We match up favorably talent-wise. They have a couple of inside guys who are good sized and will give us problems. Size will be our nemesis all year. For this game, we need to have a two-week improvement. We need to work on our shot selection, and we need to get better on the boards. We did not do a bad job on the boards last game, but with our size, we'll need to be miraculous on the boards all season."

Columbia City at Tippecanoe Valley

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Friday in Mentone

Coaches: Chris Benedict (Columbia City), Bill Patrick (Tippecanoe Valley)

Records: Columbia City 1-1; Tippecanoe Valley 0-1

Last game: Warsaw 55, Columbia City 38; Warsaw 75, Valley 57

Last year: Columbia City 64, Valley 40

Matchup: Columbia City will look to Jason Elkins for scoring ... Elkins is the leading rebounder and scorer for the Eagles ... Columbia City has three scorers who average at least 10 points per game in Elkins, Eric Heuer and Justin Waterson ... Heuer is also the team's third-leading rebounder.

Benedict: "Valley is in the process of starting a new program with coach Patrick. They are excited to have a new program, and they are ready to take it all in. Patrick is a good coach ... Both of our teams have played Warsaw. Warsaw is obviously a good team, and they had their way with both of us. Valley has a good player in Brandon Eaton. Basically we are focusing on what we can do to get better, not what the other teams are doing this early in the season. The big thing for us will be to take care of the ball. In our last game, we turned the ball over 23 times, so ball control will be important. Our defense is pretty solid so we'll try to use that to our advantage."

Patrick: "Columbia City has a size advantage over us. They have a couple of big kids inside. Jason Elkins was All-Conference last year, and he's a good player. In the first game of the season Eric Heuer had 20 points. Against Warsaw, he got into foul trouble and didn't score much. They also have Justin Waterson, who is a 6-1 starting guard/forward and does a good job for them. Size will be a problem for us. The key to the game will be rebounding and stopping their inside game. That was one of our problems against Warsaw; we let Siebenmorgan score 31 points so we need to concentrate on improving defensively."

Manchester at Southwood

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Friday in Wabash

Coaches: Gary Goshert (Manchester), Steve McClure (Southwood)

Records: Manchester , Southwood 1-0

Last game: Manchester 73, Maconaquah 60; Southwoood 74, Northfield 61

Last Year Manchester 47, Southwood 30

Matchup: Manchester has won its first two games on the road ... Eric Swan, the team's leading scorer, scored 26 points against Maconaquah ... In the last game, Rex Reimer added 19 points to the Squire effort ... Southwood won its first game and is looking for a win against rival Manchester ... Southwood's Paul Wright, a top scorer in the state last year, returns to the court after averaging 20.3 points per game last season ... Also returning for the Southwood squad are senior guard D.J. Marshall (9.5 ppg) and senior forward Andy Gibson (5.8 ppg).

Goshert: "We played Saturday against Wabash, then we had practice on Monday to get ready for Maconaquah on Tuesday. Then we had a couple practices to get ready for Southwood. First things first though, we want to take care of ourselves. Southwood has a lot of depth, excellent quickness and good skill with the ball. We'll be playing an excellent team on Friday, but at this point of the season we want to take care of ourselves."

McClure: "They have great tradition. Over the years they've been tough on Southwood. Goshert is a tremendous coach and his kids are tough on both ends of the floor. The biggest thing for us is we need to improve. We have to improve week to week."

Triton at LaVille

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. in LaVille

Coaches: Joe Bennett (Triton), Doug Reid (LaVille)

Records: Triton 0-1, LaVille 0-0

Last game: Bremen 54, Triton 37

Last year: Triton 63, LaVille 39

Matchup: Triton lost Andy Westafer to graduation but returns 6-2 senior guard Matt Savill and junior guard Austin Unterbrink ... LaVille has a new coach but returns four seniors ... 6-2 senior forward John Gilmer averaged seven points per game last season.

Bennett: "I don't know very much about them. Right now I'm more concerned with ourselves. I hardly know their players except for a roster, and they have a new coach. For us to be successful we need to defend the post better and rebound better. We're working on that right now and I hope we get some results."

Reid: "I scouted them against Bremen, and they have a sticky man to man high pressured defense. In the post they try to get it to Read (Jim) and Savill (Matt). We can't give in to pressure on defense. We need to play a good defensive game ourselves." [[In-content Ad]]