On The Court Basketball Previews

CARROLL AT WARSAW

Tip-off: 6:15 p.m. Friday in Warsaw

Coaches: Rob Irwin (Carroll), Al Rhodes (Warsaw)

Records: Carroll 15-4, Warsaw 13-6

Last game: Carroll 87, FW North 57; Warsaw 68, H. North 60 (OT)

Last year: Warsaw 62, Carroll 47

Matchup: Carroll owns a better record than Warsaw, but some of the teams Carroll has lost to, Warsaw has beaten. Carroll's losses have come to DeKalb, Bellmont, Marion and Huntington North. Warsaw has beaten Marion and Huntington North and not faced the other two teams. These teams are similar in that both have rangy, tall, athletic players who can score inside but shoot outside as well. Gabe Miller, a 6-foot-8, 185-pound senior, is Carroll's tallest player, and he is a guard. He leads the Chargers with 25 points per game. Matt Ogle, a 6-5 senior forward, adds 9.0 ppg, and Scott Bushong, a 6-7 senior forward, adds 8.0 ppg. These three have seen varsity action for Carroll since their freshman years. Bushong leads with 8.0 rebounds per game. The Tigers are coming off a win over Huntington North that saw senior forward Josh Buck outplay Huntington North Mr. Basketball candidate Sean Kline. Buck scored 26 points to Kline's 17. Buck leads Warsaw with 15.3 ppg and is followed by Greg Clay (9.7) and Paul Finnegan (8.8). Finnegan scored a season-high 19 points against the Vikings. Warsaw outrebounds teams 28-22.

Irwin: "Warsaw can play a lot of guys. Buck and Finnegan are real nice players, and we will be going up against one of the best coaches in the state on their Senior Night. We're looking at as a challenge. We have some height, but our guys are mobile, too. Our biggest kid (Miller) plays guard. We have been able to play a variety of ways, slow or fast, but we like to push the ball up and down the court."

Rhodes: "(Carroll's) frontline is tremendous. They have three kids who are not only big but experienced in Miller, Ogle and Bushong. We have our hands full with them. A big key will be how their guards handle our pressure. If we can't rattle their guards so they aren't comfortable getting the ball inside, we may be in for a long night. I think the win against Huntington North gave us another shot in the arm in terms of confidence. We were assertive on offense and defense. I think it gave Paul Finnegan a boost in terms of confidence in outside shooting. Everybody was assertive, which we weren't [in a loss] against Plymouth."

WAWASEE AT TIPPECANOE VALLEY

Tip-Off: 6:15 p.m. Friday in Akron

Coaches: Phil Mishler (Wawasee), Bill Patrick (T. Valley)

Records: Wawasee 4-14, T. Valley 13-5

Last game: Columbia City 49, Wawasee 47; T. Valley 72, Triton 57

Last year: T. Valley 61, Wawasee 59

Matchup: Coaches all year long have made this comment about Wawasee's boys basketball team - the Warriors are a lot better than their record shows. Tuesday night Wawasee, 4-13 at the time, took Columbia City to the wire on its home floor before falling by two. Justin VanLue led Wawasee in that outing with 14 points, while Scott Beasley and Travis Klenke added 11 each. The Warriors started the season 3-2, but have gone 1-12 since then. Valley enters after a 15-point win at Triton. Valley senior Cody New leads the area with 24.4 ppg, while teammate Trey Eaton adds 17.2 ppg. Eaton, a 6-3 sophomore, hits 63 percent of his field goals. He has hit 104 of 164 field attempts this year.

Mishler: "Coach Patrick has been there three years now. He's building the same great program he had at Whitko. We've got all the respect in the world for them, not only are they well coached but they have a lot of weapons. It's gonna take another exceptional effort on our part to get an opportunity to win."

Patrick:Ê"I saw Wawasee play (Tuesday) night. They have been up and down all season. Some games they have played very well, and other games they fall short. They play a lot of players, against Columbia City, they had nine players in by the end of the first quarter. Andrew Packer will be hard for us to deal with. He's 6-4 and over 200 pounds. Overall they are a little bigger than we are, and they have some kids who shoot the ball well. They have eight or nine pretty good players, and they handle the ball well. The key for us is always rebounding. If we do a good job of rebounding and keep the other team off the boards, I think we'll do OK."

WHITKO AT NORTHWOOD

Tip-off: 6:15 p.m. Friday in Nappanee

Coaches: Steve Pickett (Whitko); Dan Gunn (NorthWood)

Records: Whitko 9-9; NorthWood 13-5

Last game: Whitko 70, FW North Side 65; NorthWood 57, No. 5 Penn 55

Last year: NorthWood 95, Whitko 66

Matchup: Whitko is coming off a 70-65 win over Fort Wayne North Side last Wednesday. With more than a week of rest, the Wildcats are hoping to hit the court fresh against a NorthWood team that played a tough game Tuesday. The Wildcats will look to sophomore Alex Frantz and senior Josh Hoffman to lead the inside game and senior Adam Wendel for an outside threat. Against North Side, Hoffman led the Wildcats with 19 points, while Frantz added 16. NorthWood is coming off a big win over Penn Tuesday night. The Panthers will look to Willy Will and Rory Clouse to lead the offense. Against Penn, Will led the Panthers with 20 points, while Clouse chipped in 11. Robbie Lightfoot, who suffered a badly sprained ankle against Penn, had 14 points in the win.

Pickett: "NorthWood just beat the No. 5 team in the state. They beat Penn Tuesday. (NorthWood) is very well-coached and extremely athletic. They have a lot of desire to win. They cut to the basket very hard. Willy Will is one of the best players we will see all year. We are going to work on our dribble penetration and getting back in transition defense because NorthWood is a team that likes to push the ball up the court. We are also working on our help-side defense and bumping their cutters. NorthWood does a good job of passing to the wing and then cut to the basket. We will also work on blocking out."

Gunn: "Whitko is 9-9, and they have improved a lot from last year. They do a good job pushing the ball up the floor and getting good shots. They play hard on defense. We will be working on the same kinds of things we do every week. We are working on boxing out and working against the man and zone defenses."

TRITON AT KNOX (NSC)

Tip-off: 6 p.m. Friday in Knox

Coaches: Joe Bennett (Triton), Todd Boldry (Knox)

Records: Triton 12-5, 5-1 NSC; Knox 9-9, 3-3 NSC

Last game: Triton 87, Oregon-Davis 27; Knox 56, West Central 40

Last year: Knox 69, Triton 64

Matchup: Triton enters this week still hanging on to a chance at winning the Northern State Conference with a 5-1 record. If 5-1 New Prairie knocks off 6-0 Glenn, Triton would finish in a three-way tie for the NSC title. A year ago, Knox had an explosive team led by frontliner Brandon Webb. This year the Redskins are considerably shorter and are 9-9 overall and 3-3 in the NSC. Knox's tallest player is 6-4 Tyler Moore. Their second-tallest player is 6-2, and he splits varsity time with JV minutes. The Redskins start the 6-4 Moore, 6-0 Jason Dulin, and three others at 5-10. Dulin paces Knox with 18 points and nine rebounds per game. Triton, a team that prides itself on its post play, is led in scoring by 6-4 senior Jim Read at 10.8 ppg. Joey Potter, another senior frontliner, chips in with nine ppg, as does Jake Burnett. Tyson Blackford and Steven Boyer each chip in with eight ppg.

Bennett: "(Knox) is a smaller, quicker team than last year. They like to pressure more and pentetrate on offense. We've gonna have to play a real good game. It's a conference game on the road, and I think they are very good. They do a good job staying within what they do best, penetrating and pitching. They work and play very hard. In order for us to be successful we have to play our brand of basketball, rebounding and playing good defense."

Boldry: "What sticks out is their overall athletic ability. They have five or six guys averaging between eight and 11 points. We can't key on one guy because they have a lot of others that can step up in big games. We've been competitive in every game, we haven't lost by more than 10. We're doing good things, but we're small and we just don't have the firepower we did last year."