On The Court...

VALLEY AT CASTON

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Saturday at Fulton

COACHES: Gregg Sciarra (Valley), Craig Teagle (Caston)

RECORDS: Valley 6-4, Caston 7-2

LAST GAME: Southwood 76, Valley 65; Caston 82, Whitko 73

MATCHUP: ...Valley played Tuesday, but Caston last played Jan. 4 against Whitko. Valley's top scorers are Jeff Brown (18 ppg), Eric Love (11.3 ppg) and Nick Stutzman (11.0 ppg). Love has made 25 of 48 three-pointers (52 percent), and he is the only player in the TRC shooting better than 43 percent behind the three-point arc. Brown averages 8.4 rebounds per game, third best in the Three Rivers Conference. Teammate Darren Parker is tied for second in the conference with 7 assists per game. Caston's top scorers are Luke Zartman (19.9), Blake Harness (14.8) and Garrett Cain (11.1). Harness leads Caston with 9 rpg. Two Caston players - 6-foot-2-inch senior Kevin Early and 5-9 senior Ryan Zimpleman - recently quit the team.

GAME TALK:

Sciarra... "Caston is a fine Class A team. I think they will be one of the better teams around this year and next year. Zartman is good outside, and Harness is good inside, and he rebounds well. They run a motion offense and a sagging man-to-man defense. We know that going in. We'll probably have to emphasize stopping Harness down low. Then we'll have to find a way to contain Zartman. They are a fairly quick and fairly physical team. It's tough for any team to play at Caston."

Teagle... "Valley is very athletic, very quick. They have a lot of different guys who can score. They beat us 80-48 last year at their place, and they have three of their leading scorers back from that team. Brown is an outstanding scorer. But we don't have the type of team that can shut one player down. We have to play good team defense. If you try to shut Brown down, then I think Stutzman, Love or Parker can hurt you. I think us taking care of the basketball when they come out and press us, double-team us and trap us will be key. That, and the last two years, Valley has seemed to have gotten any shot they wanted against us."

BLUFFTON AT WHITKO

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Saturday at South Whitley

COACHES: Wayne Barker (Bluffton), Dave Henson (Whitko)

RECORDS: Bluffton 7-0, Whitko 4-5

LAST GAME: Bluffton 54, Eastbrook 28; Whitko 77, Wabash 63

MATCHUP:... Just two years ago, Bluffton's basketball team struggled to win any games. Barker was hired last year, and he guided the Tigers to a 12-10 record. Now he has them undefeated. Defense has been the key. Bluffton holds teams to 38 points per game. Six-foot-nine-inch junior Adam Ballinger paces Bluffton with 21.8 points and 8.0 rebounds a game. He is the only Bluffton player scoring in double figures. Dan Cotton paces the Tigers with 3.0 assists per game. Whitko's Zach Henson averages 25 points, 6.6 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Teammate Bo Mullins scores 10.4 ppg, and Jason Ayres adds 9.4 ppg. Kevin Miller paces Whitko with 5.3 rpg.

GAME TALK:

Barker... "Obviously Henson is putting up big numbers. Anyone who wants to beat Whitko, you have to limit his scoring opportunities. This should be a good matchup. Whitko has been up and down at times, but they have good players. Defensively, our kids have been very, very good. That's why it's such a challenge at Whitko. They want the tempo quicker than what we want to play. It'll be interesting to see which team can set the tempo early."

Henson... "The Ballinger kid can play inside and can shoot the ball outside. He is their key. You definitely have to contain him. They rely heavily on him. They also start 6-7 Matt Skaggs inside. They have a pretty good 1-2 punch inside. You have to hit the boards hard and prevent second shots. Those are the two kids that will create the most problems for us, and we have to make the other kids beat us. ...We are making strides, especially defensively. We are also working hard to get every kid involved offensively."

MANCHESTER AT FW DWENGER

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Saturday at Fort Wayne

COACHES: Gary Goshert (Manchester), Chris Johnson (Dwenger)

RECORDS: Manchester 5-4, Dwenger 3-3

LAST GAME: Oak Hill 67, Manchester 62; Dwenger 71, FW Northrop 67

MATCHUP:...Dwenger plays Manchester and Whitko on the same weekend every year. All five of Dwenger's starters from last year's team graduated, and they accounted for 53 ppg. B.J. Carretta, Dwenger's top player last year, is now at Purdue. Dwenger's scoring leaders this year are Al Calixte (15.0), Luke Meyers (13.0) and Jared Glassley (12.0). Manchester's Eric Swan scores 13.7 ppg, and he is the Squires' only scorer in double figures. Chris Enyeart leads the Squires with 5.7 rpg, and teammate Jonathan Price dishes out 5.7 apg.

GAME TALK:

Goshert... "Year in and year out, this is always one of the better teams in Fort Wayne. They play hard, and they play physical. They're not quite as tall this year, but they are probably a little quicker. These games are traditionally extremely close games. We don't expect anything different this year. We've made progress defensively. Now we're trying to make that a constant. We want to contest the ball better, allow the other team only one shot each time down the floor."

Johnson... "We match up with them. We have the same size, same type of team. Manchester always has a very smart ballclub. They don't make too many mistakes, and they hit their free throws when they have to. Eric Swan, we've seen him on tape, and he's going to be a good ball player. Enyeart is tough inside. With (former coach Moe) Smedley gone, we didn't think they'd play a matchup zone, but they still do that. This is always a tough weekend for us. The two years I've been here, we've never won both games. Two years ago we were 0-2, and last year we were 1-1."

TRITON AT JIMTOWN

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Saturday at Walkerton

COACHES: Kevin O'Rourke (Triton), Randy DeShone (Jimtown)

RECORDS: Triton 7-2, 3-0 NSC; Jimtown 4-5, 1-1

LAST GAME: Triton 67, Culver 52; Bremen 59, Jimtown 52

MATCHUP:...Jimtown has three players - Adrian Pettis, Nate Baughman and Brandon Arnold - who score between 10 and 12 ppg. Cory Monesmith leads Triton with 17.9 ppg, and teammates Jeff Rupe and Philip Reed average 13 ppg. Jimtown is tall - the Jimmies play three 6-5 players - but every team Triton has faced this year has been taller. And still the Trojans are 7-2.

GAME TALK:

O'Rourke... "Jimtown is hovering around .500. They have a lot of size and a lot of athletic players. Pettis, who's an All-Conference football player, also plays basketball. They have two athletic guards in Arnold and Courtney Lehman. They play solid defense, but I just think they're searching for a consistent offense. If they find that, they're going to become a very good team. They're just a little young right now."

DeShone.... "They're very quick, a strong shooting team. All of their kids can shoot the ball. Probably the only part of their game that's a little weak is that they're not a very big team, but they counteract that with quickness. We have three kids who are 6-5, and they make up our inside game. We have to handle Triton's quickness, and since we have a little more size, we need to utilize that on rebounding. Triton does a great job of screening to get open shots. We can't let them have those open shots."