On The Court

NO. 18 WARSAW AT HUNTINGTON NORTH

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Friday at Huntington

COACHES: Al Rhodes (Warsaw), Jack Gabor (H. North)

RECORDS: Warsaw 3-0, H. North 1-2

LAST GAME: Warsaw 56, Col. City 46; FW South 48, Huntington 39

MATCHUP: ...There will be some new faces on the court in the latest addition of the Warsaw-Huntington rivalry with both squads missing experience from last year. The two teams met twice last year, once in the regular season and once in the regional, with Warsaw winning both games. The Tigers have won 10 straight games against the Vikings. Huntington North, lacking any real size inside, is off to a slow start due to a team shooting slump that has the Vikes at 37 percent from the floor. They are staying in games with a stingy defense that is only giving up 44 points per contest and holding opponents to 42 percent shooting. Kyle Hoopingarner leads the Vikes at 10.3 ppg. Warsaw, which lost seven seniors from last year's Final Four team, won all three games in the first week of the season, but it wasn't easy as two of them went into overtime. Warsaw is led by Tom Krizmanich's 17 ppg.

GAME TALK:

Rhodes... "They have a few players back, but not a lot of experience. Both teams are in similar situations. Huntington has controlled the ball on offense and played excellent defense so far. For the last few years, they have had some 6-foot-5 and 6-6 players, and that seems to be missing this year. ... The flu has hit our team hard this week. We had only five guys in practice on Monday and six on Tuesday. That is real hard. I think our stamina is going to be real tough, especially with two games in two days."

Gabor... "We had a team that was inexperienced heading into the season, and I have been pleasantly surprised by their effort defensively. It has been very good. One thing right now is that we have been in a shooting slump. Once we get that turned around we will be okay because we have some guys who I know are pretty good shooters. If we come out and get out of our shooting slump, obviously that will make us better. I feel confident that sometime this season we are going to be a pretty good basketball team. We are not far away. We are a hard team to play against."

COLUMBIA CITY AT TIPPECANOE VALLEY

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Friday at Mentone

COACHES: Chris Benedict (Col. City), Gregg Sciarra (Valley)

RECORDS: Col. City 1-1, Valley 1-1

LAST GAME: Warsaw 56, Col. City 46; Warsaw 63, Valley 62 (OT)

MATCHUP:... Columbia City is changing its starting lineup for this game. The Eagles will start guards Matt Moore and Chad Graves, forwards Dave Richmond and Jason Elkins and center Chris Joy. The Eagles had been starting guard Cory Wechsler ahead of Joy, but Joy gives them a bigger lineup. Joy and Elkins are each 6-4, and Richmond is 6-3. The Eagles went to Joy and Elkins inside successfully against Whitko, but Warsaw shut them down inside. Look for them to try to go to Elkins and Joy early and often against Valley.

GAME TALK:

Assistant coach John Snyder... "I think one of the things we will have to do is handle their defensive pressure. Valley plays pretty decent defense. We have to take care of the basketball. We're going to have to rebound well. Defensively, we'll have to take away a lot of the easy baskets they seem to get. They create open shots by taking care of the basketball so well. Darren Parker does a lot of the intangible things. How he goes is how the team goes. (Jeff) Brown, we'll have to contain him. We'll have to play (Scott) Cooksey and Nick (Stutzman) better than we played Warsaw's post people."

Sciarra... "Just looking at their options, Graves looks for the three-point shot a lot. Richmond can score and is pretty athletic. Joy is solid down low. They haven't shot well from three-point range, but they've had some strong play inside. We have to stop Joy, Elkins and Richmond. We expect a good battle. I don't think anybody is favored to win. I thought they handled the ball pretty well against Warsaw."

NORTHFIELD AT WHITKO

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Friday at South Whitley

COACHES: Chris Keisling (Northfield), Dave Henson (Whitko)

RECORDS: Northfield 1-0, 0-0 TRC; Whitko 0-2, 0-0 TRC

LAST GAME: Northfield 85, Southwood 74; Homestead 104, Whitko 77

MATCHUP:...The Wildcat defense has not stopped anyone inside yet. Columbia City and Homestead, Whitko's first two opponents, combined to hit 58 of 100 field goals (58 percent). And now the Wildcat inside defense will again be put to the test, this time by 6-7 Northfield senior center DeWayne Krom and 6-4 senior forward Bernie Schuck. They are Northfield's two returning starters. Whitko 6-5 shooting guard Zach Henson is averaging 21 points, 5.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game. Senior guard Darin Mirante, last year's sixth man, and junior forward Coley Schenkel scored 20 points each in Northfield's win over Southwood.

GAME TALK:

Keisling... "We have Krom and Schuck back, and Mirante was the first man off the bench. Right now, we're in the process of gelling together, and I expect that to continue through Christmas. We had a good win the first time out against Southwood. Whitko has some new faces. They lost some players. Jay Esterline is gone. They're going through that phase like we are. I look at their kids, who I know have the ability to get the job done. I think Zach is taking a lot of the load early, but the others will help carry it as the season goes on. Homestead is a nice ball team, and their press hurt Whitko. I think Whitko matches up pretty well with us. I think the game will come down to guard play. If we get strong guard play, we'll be ok. If not, we won't."

Henson... Henson was unavailable for comment. Six-foot-one senior forward Jason Ayres and 6-4 junior forward Jeremiah Laws each score 9.0 ppg. Six-foot-three junior center Bo Mullins tallies 8.5 ppg. Six-foot-five junior forward Kevin Miller averages 6.0 ppg. The Wildcat bench provided more offense the second game. Whitko's bench scored eight points in the first game. The reserves had 25 points in the second game. Whitko has hit just 12 of 26 free throws this season."

TRITON AT NORTHWOOD

TIPOFF: 8 p.m. Friday at Nappanee

COACHES: Kevin O'Rourke (Triton), Dan Gunn (NorthWood)

RECORDS: Triton 2-1, NorthWood 0-0

LAST GAME: Triton 59, Bremen 54; This is NorthWood's first game.

MATCHUP:...This is NorthWood's first basketball game, as the Panther football team advanced to semistate. Cory Monesmith has turned into the go-to guy for Triton, scoring just over 21 points per game. The Trojans are basically a collection of 6-0 players, but they have rebounded well this season. They have at least 26 boards in all three games. Junior Bobby Brown is NorthWood's leading returning scorer at 8.2 ppg. After him, no other NorthWood returner averaged more than four ppg. Gunn believes seniors Mitch Walters (3.7 ppg.) and Jason Hill (3.3 ppg.) are good shooters who can score this season.

GAME TALK:

O'Rourke... "We've played three games. We didn't play well the first game, but we've played better the last two games. We're improving, but we have a long way to go. You would think this being our fourth game, we would have an advantage because we've had chances to iron out our mistakes. We've had three opportunities to get better. On the other hand, this has given NorthWood time to see us play. Bobby Brown is probably their top returning player. He's a talented athlete. We're pretty sure they will have a number of kids who are 6-3, 6-4 in their lineup. It will be the same old story for us. We have to play solid defense, keep them out of the lane and make them take perimeter shots."

Gunn...."Triton's quick, has good shooters and is aggressive. Monesmith is one of their better players. One thing is we have had no time to work on basketball conditioning. Basketball is a game of conditioning. That's a big advantage Triton has. They should be more organized. After you play two or three games, everybody usually gets better."

MANCHESTER AT SOUTHWOOD

TIPOFF:8 p.m. Friday at Wabash

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

RECORDS:Manchester 1-1, 0-0 TRC; Southwood 0-1, 0-0 TRC

LAST GAME:Manchester 60, Wabash 48; Northfield 85, Southwood 74

MATCHUP:...Manchester starting guard Brandon Reimer re-injured a hip last week, and he is still questionable for this game. If he doesn't play, his brother, Rex, will start in his spot. Eric Swan is leading the Squires with 15 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. This is a battle between two veteran coaches in their first year with new teams. Steve McClure is in his first season at Southwood after several winning seasons at Northfield. Several Southwood players turned in strong performances the first game. Paul Wright, 6-4, had 18 points, five rebounds and four assists. Scott Stumbo had 16 points and eight rebounds. Brian Knight had 14 points and five rebounds.

GAME TALK:

Goshert... "Coach McClure has been extremely successful. In his tenure at Northfield, I think he averaged 15 wins a season over 10 years. With the kids at Southwood, they are kind of an up and coming program. Coach McClure is the right person to expose that. They have some very nice players - 14 or 15 - who are competing at the varsity level. They play a full-court game at both ends of the floor. They played Northfield well last week, and I know they feel that was a moral victory. Defensively, they put tremendous full-court pressure on you. They have some size inside, Wright at 6-4. Stumbo is an extremely good athlete who can shoot the three. They have very good guards who are good ball-handlers. We can't give them good looks from three-point range."

McClure... "Manchester has had tremendous tradition over several decades, and it has always been a team supported by the school and the community. Gary Goshert brings a lot of success to add to that tradition. They have some experience in the Reimer brothers, (Jake) Peden and (Chris) Enyeart. They have a nice nucleus. I would say from physical size, we match up better with Manchester than we did with Northfield. But that guarantees nothing."