Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
ARGOS AT TIPPECANOE VALLEY
Tip-off: 6:15 p.m. tonight in Akron
Coaches: Doug Snyder (Argos); Bill Patrick (Valley)
Records: Argos 4-3; Valley 6-2
Last Game: Argos 74, River Forest 73; Tipeecanoe Valley 81, Rochester 57
Last Year: Valley 57, Argos 35
Matchup: Argos will look to Dustin O'Dell and Bill Robertson to lead the offense. O'Dell and Robertson average right around 15 points per game. Juniors Robertson and Tony Patterson stepped up in Argos' last game. In that game, Robertson exploded for 33 points, while Patterson had 22 as the Dragons topped River Forest 74-73. Tippecanoe Valley claimed the title in their own holiday tournament with an ugly win over Winamac Friday and a sound beating of Rochester Saturday. The Vikings will look to big men Cody New and Trey Eaton for inside scoring over smaller Argos players. New leads the Vikings in scoring with an average of 27.4 points per game, rebounding with 8.8 per game and steals with 1.8 per game. Eaton adds 16.5 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Vikings.
Patrick: "I know Argos is over .500 and they push the ball down the floor. They run a full-court man-to-man and a full-court zone press. They do a lot of outside shooting. Against Bremen, they shot 26 threes. They didn't lose anybody from last year. They are quick, but they don't have a lot of size. Hopefully we will get into a situation where we can get the ball inside to Trey and Cody. We will need to be able to handle their full-court man-to-man and zone and keep them from shooting threes."
Snyder:Ê"Valley is a very good team, and they are coming off a win in their holiday tournament. They are 5-0 on their home court, and that is a concern for us. Their top two scorers are 6-3 and 6-2, and since our tallest guy is listed at 6-1, we are going to try to limit their inside shooting. We use our full-court press to create turnovers, but we need to score off those turnovers to make it count against Valley."
NORTHRIDGE AT WARSAW
Tip-off: 6:15 p.m. Friday at the Tiger Den
Coaches: Steve Austin (Northridge), Al Rhodes (Warsaw)
Records: Northridge 5-4, 0-1 NLC; Warsaw 6-3, 1-0 NLC
Last game: Warsaw 60, Northridge 39
Matchup: The last game these two teams played was when they met Dec. 23 at Warsaw in the NLC championship game. In that game, Warsaw's full-court press ate up Northridge, forcing the Raiders into 23 turnovers, including nine in the third quarter. Warsaw outscored Northridge 22-7 in the third to turn a 22-21 halftime lead into a 44-28 lead entering the fourth. Another key for Warsaw in that game was containing sophomore guard Mario Ingraffia. He led Northridge with 18 points as the Raiders stunned Plymouth 46-37 in the semifinals; he went scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting against Warsaw. Look for Austin to make adjustments, much as Wawasee's Phil Mishler made adjustments. Warsaw won at Wawasee 89-58 on Dec. 15, but when the teams met on Dec. 19, Warsaw won at Wawasee 52-44. Warsaw is starting a stretch where six of its next seven are at home. Warsaw's top scorers are Josh Buck (17.1 ppg) and Greg Clay (11 ppg), and its top rebounders are Buck (5.3) and Jerad Shaw (5.2). Point guard Brad Seiss leads Warsaw with 3.9 assists per game, and Buck leads the Tigers with 2.7 steals per game. Warsaw forces opponents into 19.8 turnovers per game, while Warsaw commits 15.3 per game. Six-foot-2 junior Trent Mast, who's been out since the second game of the season with an injury, returns for Northridge. In his limited play, he leads the Raiders with 11.0 ppg. Sophomore center Matt Crawford adds 9.4 ppg.
Austin: "Warsaw sped up the tempo, but looking back at the film, nearly all of our mistakes came near halfcourt. Physically, Warsaw just wore us down, and mentally, we got tired, and that led to mistakes. We have to take better care of the basketball. It's just a matter of making better choices. When the guy's open, we have to throw the ball to him, and we don't. When the guy's not open, we're trying to throw the ball in there."
Rhodes: "We played well against a zone, and that's been the gameplan against us. Our press was very effective in the third quarter. I expect Coach Austin to work on spacing and press breakers to do a better job of handling our press. This will be very similar to our games against Wawasee. You won't have to do much to motivate [Northridge]. Our perimeter defense was very good against Northridge, so I expect them to set up more backdoor plays. I see this as a very dangerous situation."
