On The Court

Warsaw at Valparaiso

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Valparaiso

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

Records: Warsaw 2-0, Valparaiso 2-0

Last game: Warsaw 55, Columbia City 38; Valparaiso 52, Boone Grove 50

Last year: Valparaiso 49, Warsaw 47

Matchup: Warsaw is led by Steve Siebenmorgen's 22.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game ... Rob Kesler chips in 11.5 points and 2..0 rebounds per game ... Zach Nelson contributes 10 points 4.5 rebounds respectively

Rhodes: "Valparaiso is 2-0. They upset Gary Andrean Saturday night. I'm very concerned with them, because since our series has started with them, we've lost two close games. Valparaiso plays a lot of zone defense, which is different than what we will have seen from Goshen and Columbia City. They do a nice job matching up defensively. Both years their defense has given us trouble because of the way they match up. This a double road trip weekend for us, so this will be a good test for our mental toughness ... Our half-court defense made very solid improvement from the first game to the second game. Now we need to keep our mental concentration for a full 32 minutes. We had lulls in the fourth quarter against Columbia City and Valley. We were never in danger of losing either game, but in a closer game, those lapses could prove costly. Our defensive rebounding has been good, but we need to improve our offensive rebounding. We need to clean up the number of turnovers as we improve."

Punter: "We don't know that much about (Warsaw). We'll have some ideas, but obviously we have to keep them from running set plays and getting easy baskets. We're not a real offensive team; we only scored 52 and 56 points in our first games. Dirk Rhinehart is our leading scorer at 17 a game. After that we have a couple guys at nine, eight, and six."

Tippecanoe Valley at North Miami

Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Denver

Coaches: Bill Patrick (Tippecanoe Valley), Bill Torgerson (North Miami)

Records: Valley 0-1, 0-0 TRC; North Miami 2-0, 0-0 TRC

Last game: Warsaw 75, Valley 57; North Miami 48, Culver 41

Last year: North Miami 68, Valley 55

Matchup: North Miami has two double-figure scorers in Kenny Hanson (23 ppg., 8 rpg.) and Brandon Wideman (11 ppg., 9 rpg.) ... The Vikings are led by Brandon Eaton's 23 points per game and Jarvis Shepherd's 13 ppg.

Patrick: "North Miami has a good team. The Hanson kid averaged 18 points per game last year. Three of the area's leading scorers from last year are returning for them also. They have beaten Wabash and Culver. North Miami has one of the better teams they have had in years. Last year they beat Valley at Valley. Offensively they have a very good team. Defensively, they're not as strong as they are offensively. They have six pretty good players from last year as well. Obviously, we will focus on stopping Hanson and the other three high scorers. We match up in size. They are quicker and have a better outside game than Columbia City, so we will have to defend them differently. Our defense will be key, and stopping the leading scorer will be important."

Torgerson: "Our main concern is defending Eaton. As far as jumping ability, he's more athletic than us. It's more of an unknown with a new coach over there. But if you want to talk about the conference race, this is our first. To be successful we have to contain Eaton and keep him out of set plays."

DeKalb at Wawasee

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

Coaches: Jerry Davis (Wawasee), Cliff Hawkins (DeKalb)

Records: Wawasee 0-2, DeKalb 0-0

Last game: Angola 68, Wawasee 64 2OT

Matchup: Wawasee comes off a double-overtime loss to Angola and is led by Jeremy High, who scored 16 points against Angola ... Chris Lambert and R.J. Nethaway chipped in 13 and 12 points respectively ... DeKalb's offense is centered around 6-8 forward John Watkins (20 ppg), Kyle Rorak (18 ppg), and Buk Prevelic (17 ppg)

Davis: "They have a kid that's 6-8 (John Watkins) and plays the post and perimeter very well, and that's not something we match up to. We have to take away the things he does. They have a sophomore shooting guard (Kyle Rorak), so hopefully we can take advantage of their youth. They played the zone last week so our ability to shoot the three will be important."

Hawkins: "In terms of the Wawasee game, it's a major challenge for us. It's our first double weekend. We play Garrett on Friday, and in our area, that's for all the marbles. Then we have to turn right around with Wawasee. They are very hungry after losing in two overtimes to Angola, plus they're rested, not having to play Friday. It'll be a test of conditioning for us, but we've spent some time working on that. Their strength lies inside, so we have to make them beat us outside. We respect their defensive play. With a short preseason, we like to take our time with that and get to know ourselves first. But we are impressed with Nethaway, (Andrew) Warner and High."

Central Noble at Whitko

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

Coaches: Paul Baker (Central Noble), Fred Fields (Whitko)

Records: Central Noble 0-1, Whitko 0-1

Last game: East Noble 49, Central Noble 24; Columbia City 61, Whitko 47

Matchup: East Noble lost four starting seniors to graduation ... 5-10 Matt Spencer had 11 points against East Noble ... 6-1 Nick Grawcock added five points in the loss to East Noble ... Whitko is coming off a loss to Columbia City in their first game ... Ben Mohr led Whitko with 19 points against Columbia City ... Joe Grant added 15 points and 7 rebounds.

Baker: "Whitko has a pair of excellent returning guards in (Josh) Gonzalez and (Ben) Mohr. Their strength is inside. They have some big kids inside. It's a typical Whitko team. This game will be hard-fought and physical. It will be difficult playing over there (at Whitko). We have to be efficient offensively and do a good job with the ball. We need to go over there and do a good job on the boards."

Fields: Fields did not return phone calls.