Sectional hopefuls take the court for semifinals

Sectional play is in full swing with tonight's semifinal action.

But before we take a deeper look into our area sectionals, there's a few games left over from last weekend to revisit.

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The Bloomfield Cardinals came up huge in the latest installment of the Game of the Year for area basketball.

The Cards toppled the Class 2A top-ranked Barr-Reeve Vikings, 44-35 last Friday at Montgomery.

Bloomfield coach Matt Britton wouldn't go as far as to say Friday night's win was a statement. But I will.

In fact Bloomfield made several statements. One, the Cardinals proved on the court they're deserving of the lofty ranking they've been afforded all year.

And in the process, they reinforced a couple beliefs I've held all along this season.

I just didn't see any way Barr-Reeve could possibly be at the same level as last year's Class A State Champs. Not after graduating most of the core of last year's Class A state championship squad - Addison Wagler, Seth and Connor Swartzentruber, Duncan Roy, Ethan Duncheon and Chris Wittmer.

Consequently I've never agreed with the Vikings' top ranking in Class 2A. They're a good team, to be sure. I just don't think they're one of the "Best in Class."

And I've said all along, there isn't a great deal of difference between the best teams in 1A and the best teams in 2A this season.

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Shakamak closed out its regular season with a 73-61 loss at Owen Valley. The Lakers staged two comebacks, pulling within three points and five points but couldn't get over the hump.

Owen Valley's Cam King scored his 1,000th career point on a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.

The Patriot ace might have reached his milestone sooner had he not been held to a season-low five points at Linton-Stockton.

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Eastern Greene ended its regular season on a disappointing - and puzzling - note. The T-Birds lost at home on Senior Night 45-36 to North Daviess.

Really the only explanation is the one Thunderbird coach Jon Neill provided.

"We were pretty confident they were going to try to slow it down. We talked about how we really needed to play with a lot of energy and try to speed them up. And we didn't do a very good job of that. We allowed them to control the pace the entire game."

The Thunderbirds regrouped in time for a bounce-back win in the sectional opener against Mitchell. Barely.

Tuesday's opening round of sectional play produced no surprises.

In Class A Sectional 57 at Switz City, Shakamak completed the three-game season sweep of North Central, winning 62-43 in the first game of the White River Valley Sectional.

Bloomfield likewise had little difficulty, sending defending champion Clay City home with a 49-32 loss.

Friday's semifinal matchups point toward a likely Shakamak-Bloomfield face-off for the sectional title.

The Lakers figure to handle 5-17 Eminence in Friday's opener.

Coaches and fans are always talking about how tough it is to beat a team three times in one season. Somehow I don't think that will be a concern for Bloomfield in its third meeting this season with WRV.

I wouldn't expect to see a repeat performance of the Cardinals' 82-25 runaway in the Greene County Invitational. Tyler York is back for White River Valley and has given the Wolverines a much-needed boost.

But I'm not going to predict an upset here either.

Class 2A Sectional 47 at North Knox played out as widely anticipated. Both favored teams - Eastern Greene and South Knox - won, advancing to Friday's sectional semifinal round.

For the third time in the last three meetings between these two teams, Eastern Greene weathered a furious Mitchell fourth-quarter comeback. Nathan Eckerle's 3-point dagger with 9.2 seconds left lifted the Thunderbirds to another nail-biting win over the Bluejackets.

"Obviously survival's the name of the game at this point. And we were lucky to do that tonight," coach Jon Neill said.

Eastern Greene indeed survived. But they were on life support at the end.

Friday's first semifinal contest will be the third meeting this season between the Thunderbirds and the Linton-Stockton Miners. Will the third time be the charm for the T-Birds?

In Tuesday's nightcap, South Knox outscored sectional host North Knox 23-16 over the middle two quarters on its way to a 59-48 win.

Isiah Stafford, who entered sectional play averaging 15.4 points per game, put up 22 points in the win. Brandon Fickling a 7.5 per-game scorer, added 13.

North Knox's leading scorer, junior guard Caden Fields, tallied 19 markers to lead the Warriors attack.

The Spartans earned the privilege of facing 2A top-ranked Barr-Reeve in Friday's second semifinal.

The Vikings won the regular season matchup 57-48 three weeks ago.

"They're a great basketball team. We're excited to be there, focused on them the next couple days," South Knox coach Mark Rohrer said.

"We're playing with confidence right now. There are some positives we can take away from the first time we played Barr-Reeve but there are things we need to clean up too."

Rohrer gets another shot at his mentor, veteran Barr-Reeve coach Bryan Hughes. The Spartans' fourth-year head coach was the point guard for the Vikings' 2007 Class A semistate champion squad.

The old adage, "It's tough to beat a team three times in one season" gets put to a sterner test Friday with the third edition of Eastern Greene against Linton-Stockton.

And with a four-point loss to the Miners in the semifinal of the GCI followed by a 14-point loss at Linton-Stockton three weeks later, the "three-time" factor may be one thing working in the Thunderbirds' favor.

"We definitely do not want to play them again unless it's the first Saturday in March (sectional championship)," Miner coach Joey Hart said after the second win. "They are a very capable and worthy opponent."

The T-Birds will need to keep Linton-Stockton from getting to the rim at will and can't allow the Miners' physicality to take them out of what they normally run offensively.

If the Thunderbirds can accomplish those two things - and if they're able to get out in transition and hit from deep - Friday could be very interesting.

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Another cliche I've heard bandied about quite a bit is "They're much better than their record indicates."

Most recently I heard it said of Shakamak, by Owen Valley coach Chad Smith.

I'm more inclined to believe a team is for the most part who its record says it is.

But for some reason Mitchell looks more like a 15-8 team than an 8-15 team - at least when the Bluejackets play Eastern Greene.

Tuesday's game unfolded exactly the way the two previous meetings have. Mitchell's full-court press ignited a fourth-quarter comeback with the Bluejackets nearly pulling off the upset.

And with size on the front line in 6-5 Drew Passmore, 6-4 Daulton Blackwell and 6-3 Gage Forrest, and the quick, athletic backcourt of Aidan Wheeler and Zach Vandeventer, the ingredients are certainly in place.

As Neill said, ""They're an athletic group. They create some matchup problems. They've got some kids who shoot it well when they get hot. They're a solid team."

It's tough to say the Jackets are better than the record indicates. Looking at the schedule, Mitchell has lost a half-dozen games it probably shouldn't have.

But were it not for a 6-point third quarter in which the Bluejackets hit just 2 of 10 shots, Tuesday's game might not have come down to Eckerle's game-winning bomb.

And we'd be talking about a Linton-Mitchell semifinal matchup.