On The Court

OAK HILL AT NO. 5 MANCHESTER

Tipoff: 8 p.m. Friday at North Manchester

Records: Oak Hill 4-3, 2-0 TRC; Manchester 7-1, 2-0 TRC

Coaches: Gary Goshert (Manchester); Flava Sirk (Oak Hill)

Last game: Manchester 61, Wabash 40; Oak Hill 80, Rochester 72

Matchup: The Squires are ranked No. 5 in Class 2A in the latest Associated Press poll. Less than halfway into the season, Manchester and Oak Hill are the only unbeaten Three Rivers Conference teams left. Oak Hill's defense is allowing 69.9 points per game; Manchester is allowing just over 45 ppg. The Squires have been one of the best teams in the area as far as players moving without the ball, as they have toasted several defenses already this year with their backdoor plays. Look for that trend to continue. Manchester 6-foot-4 senior center Chris Enyeart leads the Squires with 14.4 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Forward Scot Croner adds 9.1 ppg, while point guard Rex Reimer chips in with 8.9 ppg. When it comes to Oak Hill's offense, Jarrad Odle is the man. Odle, a 6-foot-7 forward headed to IU, led the state in scoring with 29.4 ppg last year and is 13th with 25.4 ppg this year. He's also good for 10 rebounds every night. The question for Oak Hill is, outside of Odle, do the Golden Eagles have enough other players who can pick up the slack? Or are the Golden Eagles a one-man show?

Goshert: "Oak Hill isn't quite as big this year as in the past, but they still have last year's leading scorer in Odle. They have a good point guard in the (Kyle) Wert kid. He's hard to defend. You have to try to make Odle work as hard as he can possibly work for his points. A lot of (how Oak Hill does) depends on the other players and their capabilities."

NO. 4 MARION AT NO. 5 MANCHESTER

Tipoff: 8 p.m. Saturday at North Manchester

Records: Marion 7-1, Manchester 7-1

Coaches: Moe Smedley (Marion); Gary Goshert (Manchester)

Last game: Manchester 61, Wabash 40; Marion 63, Bloomington S. 46

Matchup: Marion is ranked No. 4 in Class 4A in the latest Associated Press poll, while the Squires are ranked No. 5 in Class 2A. Moe Smedley returns to the place where he once coached. Smedley was the Squires coach for several years before he resigned to take the Marion job before the 1996-1997 season. The Giants' frontcourt is truly that - their forwards and centers go 6-8, 6-6, 6-4. Zach Randolph, a 6-8 sophomore, leads the Giants with 18 ppg. Wing player JoJo Williams adds 14 ppg., while point guard Andre Betts scores 9 ppg. Marion may be one of the best teams in the state, but Goshert is asking his players to place all their emphasis on winning Friday's conference game with Oak Hill. Marion's just another non-conference game; winning or losing this one game with Oak Hill could turn out to be the difference in first or second place in the TRC. Enyeart has scored in double figures in seven of the eight games and has had a double-double (points, rebounds) in four of the games. Five-foot-11 senior teammate Chris Good came on this weekend, scoring 15 and 17 points, both career highs.

Goshert: "The most important game this weekend for us is the first one on Friday night. Marion is excellent with tremendous athletes, size and quickness. They have it all. You can't say enough about the quality of team Marion has and the job Moe has done there. But our most important game is our conference game Friday with Oak Hill."

Smedley: "When I was at Manchester, we tried to get Marion on our schedule. Then when I went to Marion, Anderson Heights dropped out of existence, and we needed to find another team. We thought Manchester would be a good team. (Manchester) is no different than when I left. I saw them play in the (Wabash) County Tourney. They are certainly overachievers, kids dedicated to playing good basketball. (Rex) Reimer is certainly their quarterback. When he's out, it changes the tempo of their offense. He's a key offensively and defensively. Manchester has good shot selection. They do a good job of finding the open man, but more importantly, they know how to get open. They don't take bad shots ... Since a very fine Anderson team beat us the third game of the season, our kids have realized what they have to do every time they step on the court. I told them we can compete with any team in the state. But we can't play bad and expect to win. That happened Tuesday night at Purdue (a 74-57 loss to Michigan State)."