Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
TIPPECANOE VALLEY AT CASTON
Tip-off 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Caston
Coaches Bill Patrick (Valley), Doug Hicks (Caston)
Records Valley 6-3, Caston 4-2
Last game Tippecanoe Valley 61, Argos 59; Triton 44, Caston 38
Last year Caston 69, Valley 58
Matchup: Valley's Brandon Eaton is one of the area's leaders in scoring, averaging 15.1 points per game ... Valley teammate Jarvis Shepherd averages 3.8 assists per game ... Eric Prater and Eaton lead the Vikings in rebounding with 6.1 and 5.8 per game, respectively ... Valley will try to make up for the loss of another leading rebounder, Dax Snyder, who will be out until Tuesday after surgery for a broken nose ... Bill Hook leads Caston with 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game ... Brent Thomas chips in 14.0 points per game for the Comets, while Josh Craig adds 6.3 rebound per game ... Jacob Lane pitches in 12.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for Caston.
Patrick: "I believe Caston has lost only two games, and one of those was to Northfield. They have won the sectional three of the past four years. Caston is a pretty good basketball team. We are concentrating on Northfield right now, but we'll go over Caston Saturday morning. I know they have a 6-foot-5 player inside. They also have a good guard. Caston plays well at home, and both of their losses have come on the road. The big question this weekend will be conditioning. We've missed a lot of school and several practices, so that will be a factor."
Hicks: Hicks could not be reached for comment.
MANCHESTER AT Bishop DWENGER
Tip-off 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Coaches Gary Goshert (Manchester), Chris Johnson (Dwenger)
Records Manchester 7-1, Dwenger 4-3
Last game Manchester 92, Wabash 34; FW North 67, Dwenger 55
Last year Manchester 67, Dwenger 59
Matchup: Manchester will look to head back to the court after an extended absence due to weather-related cancellations ... The Squires will look to Eric Swan, who is leading the area in scoring with 19.3 points per game ... With 4.9 per game, Rex Reimer lead the area in assists. He adds an average of 12.8 points per game for Manchester ... Manchester's Chris Betten and Steve Fawcett pull down 5.6 and 4.5 rebounds per game respectively, while Michael Hendrix adds 3.6 assists per game ... Jared Glassley leads Dwenger with 15.9 points and 6.1 assists per game, while Mikie Hopen adds 11.3 points per game Saints ... John Gensic adds to Dwenger's totals with 10.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Goshert: "Dwenger plays in the SAC, a tremendously competitive city league in Fort Wayne. They are well-coached, and they play hard. Dwenger has several good perimeter shooters. In fact, every boy on the team can shoot the basketball; they have a solid offense. They don't just have one or two boys who can shoot the ball, every boy on the floor can shoot. Dwenger is just a very hard-working, good-shooting basketball team. They play tremendous defense. Dwenger is a high quality basketball team."
Johnson: "Manchester and Dwenger has been a rivalry over the past two years. The games are always very competitive. Manchester's players are hard-working, and they play fundamentally sound basketball. We've got our work cut out for us. Our key will be rebounding against them. From the film, they look bigger than we are, so we will need to try to control the boards. We'll also try to find their shooters and try to control them."
TRITON AT JIMTOWN
Tip-off 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Elkhart
Coaches Joe Bennett (Triton), Randy DeShone (Jimtown)
Records Triton 5-2, 1-1 NSC; Jimtown 3-4, 0-1 NSC.
Last game Triton 61 Culver Military Academy 53, Bremen 52, Jimtown 29
Last year Jimtown 51, Triton 42
Matchup: Triton is on a three-game win streak ... Matt Savill leads the Trojans with 14.3 points and 1.8 steals per game ... Brandon Zeider is an area scoring and rebounding leader with 12.5 points and 3.3 boards per game ... Austin Unterbrink averages 4.5 assists per game for Triton ... Jimtown is an experienced team with four seniors returning from last year ... Jimmy House is the shooting guard for Jimtown, and he averages 16 points per game ... Keith Kinder is the outside shooter for the Jimmies, and he averages 12 points per game ... Jimtown's all-around go-to guy is Pete Svetanoff, who averages 10 points per game and leads the team in rebounds ... The man in the middle for Jimtown is Tucker Doud, a 6-4, 210-pound center.
Bennett: "This weekend we will play our fifth and sixth games in a row on the road. Jimtown is definitely an athletic team. They have Jimmy House and Keith Kinder, who are their ball-handlers and leading scorers. Then they have a big kid (Svetanoff) in the middle who rebounds well ... We have played one game and had one practice since Christmas break. That's what concerns me about our team. For us, the key this weekend will be working at it on defense. Offensively, we're capable."
DeShone: "First of all, Triton is a very talented team. They are athletic and have some good shooters. They are a well-rounded team. They penetrate and force turnovers. We have two games this weekend, so we have concentrated on Friday's game, but we have tried to simulate their aggression in practice. We will try to make them shoot tough shots and not let them go on runs. They are an athletic team who can force turnovers and go on a six- to eight-point run very easily."
JOHN GLENN AT NORTHWOOD
Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Nappanee
Coaches: Gordon Mosson (John Glenn), Dan Gunn (NorthWood)
Records: Glenn 2-6, NorthWood 3-4
Last game: Northridge 63, NorthWood 49; Valley 54, Glenn 48
Last year: NorthWood 64, Glenn 40
Matchup: Glenn hasn't been in action since a Dec. 23 loss in the Plymouth Holiday Tournament ... NorthWood was one of the few teams to play last Friday ... Craig Stedman and Chris Adkins lead Glenn's scoring attack with 12-point averages ... Matt Smith grabs 7.0 rebounds a game for the Falcons ... Darin Nunemaker paces the Panthers' scoring with 13.2 points per game ... Charlie Roeder leads NorthWood with an average of 7.7 rebounds per game ... Nic Bradley dishes out 4.8 assists per game for the Panthers.
Gunn: "It's been a month since we have seen them play, but John Glenn is always competitive. Coach Mosson does a good job, and I expect a good ballgame. They use a run-motion offense, and they have a good group of shooters. Last time we saw them play, one of their starting guards was suspended, so we did not get a true sense of their team. We need to shoot well in order to do well in this game."
Mosson: "We haven't been able to prepare for them at all. It's a situation of us getting back in shape ourselves. Last year the Bradley kid hurt us. Nunemaker has had some big games, and (Aaron) Huber is their spark plug. We'd like to get to the free-throw line, and we haven't done a good job in the fourth quarters of our games. It's been a combination of things. We haven't hit free throws toward the end, we've missed open shots and turned the ball over. And we haven't had the chance to practice to get ourselves better."
BLUFFTON AT WHITKO
Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. Saturday in South Whitley
Coaches: Wayne Barker (Bluffton), Fred Fields (Whitko)
Records: Whitko 3-4, Bluffton 3-4
Last game: Whitko 80, Wabash 67; Eastbrook 81, Bluffton 73
Last year: Bluffton 55, Whitko 43
Matchup: Ben Mohr is leading the Wildcats with 15.7 points and 2.2 steals per game ... Joe Grant, who had 14 rebounds against Wabash, is an area leader with 7.5 rebounds per game and 9.2 points per game ... Bluffton is led by Josh Copeland, who averages 18 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game ... Eric Sills adds 16.4 points and 3.8 assists per game for Bluffton.
Fields: "Once again, Bluffton is one of those Saturday teams we just go out and play. Copeland can play big on any night against any team. I'd say we have to put points on the board and play the best defense we can play. We're starting to get more balanced scoring. Mohr had a big night, and Joe Grant had 14 rebounds in our last game. We've lost John Wendel for a week and a half, but we're getting him back, and Ben Ryan's wrist, we're pretty sure it's OK. So if there's one good thing about all these cancellations, some of the players are healing."
Barker: "We haven't had much time to prepare because we've only have four practices since Dec. 30. We don't know much about Whitko, so we're more worried about our own team at this point. I know they have a great backcourt with good guards. Mohr and (Josh) Gonzalez complement each other and play well together. I also feel that our strength is our guard play. The team who controls the other best will probably come out on top."
