WARSAW AT VALPARAISO

Tip-off: 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Valparaiso

Coaches: Al Rhodes (Warsaw); Robert Punter (Valparaiso)

Records: Warsaw 1-1; Valparaiso 1-0

Last Game: Warsaw 54, Columbia City 40; Valparaiso 55, South Bend Clay 50

Last Year: Warsaw 51, Valparaiso 44

Matchup: After the Valparaiso football team had a successful football season, the basketball team has had only about eight practices with the full team. Eric Rhinehart leads the Valparaiso offense with 17 points per game. Ben Lieske pulls down six rebounds per game. Warsaw has outrebounded its opponents a combined 62-38 over the first two games. In the first game, the Tigers missed their layups, shot 34 percent from the field and lost to Valley 59-56. In the second game, the Tigers hit their layups, shot 55 percent from the field and won by 14. Senior forward Josh Buck clearly has been established as Warsaw's go-to guy; he has attempted 41 shots over two games, while no other Tiger has attempted more than 15 shots. Buck averages 21 points per game and is followed by Jerad Shaw at 10 ppg. As was the case against Columbia City, this game features a clash in tempo. Warsaw wants a full-court, run-and-gun game; Valparaiso wants a half-court, slow-down game.

Rhodes: "Valparaiso plays a couple of excellent zones, a 1-3-1 and a 1-2-2. That's the defense we will see until we begin to beat it consistently. We're still trying to play up-tempo. What I want to see is whether we can continue our quality field goal percentage. I hope we have made strides and that we will continue to finish plays."

Punter: "We don't know a lot about Warsaw at this point because we have played the same nights Warsaw has. I know they lost several kids to graduation. We are preparing for a well-coached team. Right now we are not concerned with our opponent as much as we are with ourselves. We want to do the right thing offensively and defensively. We've only had eight practices because football went deep into the season."

DEKALB AT WAWASEE

Tip-off: 6:15 p.m. Saturday in Syracuse

Coaches: Cliff Hawkins (DeKalb); Phil Mishler (Wawasee)

Records: DeKalb 2-0; Wawasee 1-1

Last Game: DeKalb 50, Central Noble 39; Angola 79, Wawasee 66

Last Year: DeKalb 56, Wawasee 36

Matchup: After winning the first game of the season against Fairfield, Wawasee fell to Angola last weekend. The Warriors look to get back on the winning track against DeKalb Saturday. Brian Adkins and Scott Beasley lead the Warriors. Beasley averages 13 points per game off the bench. Adkins, a starter, scores around 10 points per game. DeKalb poses Wawasee all kinds of matchup problems. Wawasee will have to deal with a tall team in DeKalb, which featues 6-6 center Adam Ledell, 6-4 forward Alex Kock, 6-3 Will Turner and 6-3 Kyle Roark.

Hawkins: "We're a team that's well-balanced, so it's hard to defend us. We handle the ball extremely well and like to get up and down the floor quickly. I think Wawsee is very committed to playing strong man-to-man pressure defense. I think they are trying to establish Adkins as their leader on the floor."

Mishler: "We know DeKalb has a big center, and that he can step out and and score from the perimeter. They also have two good guards who get him the ball. We are going to do what we do as well as we possibly can." [[In-content Ad]]