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High school basketball preview
The featured contest Friday night will be a rematch of the Greene County Invitational tourney championship when Shakamak returns to Switz City to take on White River Valley.
Instead of a tourney championship on the line, the two teams will be vying for positioning in the SouthWestern Indiana Athletic Conference.
The Lakers are sitting at 2-2 in the SWIAC with loses from Bloomfield (66-59) and Union (55-51). Both defeats came in overtime. Shakamak has earned conference victories from Linton (58-48) and North Daviess (43-40).
"I think Ernie (Maesch) does a great job at Shakamak," said WRV coach Sean Vandeventer. "His kids play hard and they don't usually make a lot of mistakes and beat themselves. We're going to have to be ready to play. Couple weeks ago when we played each other it was a game that either team could have won."
White River Valley is at the bottom of the conference standings, but still have plenty of time to rebound. The Wolverines come in after conference loses to Linton (60-53) and Bloomfield (42-38).
Friday's game will be an opportunity for both teams to bounce back and set themselves in the conference mix.
WRV is averaging 53 points per contest, while surrendering only 52 per game. The Wolverines come in with a 6-5 records and losers of their last two. Brandt Zimmerly is leading WRV in scoring with 16 per contest. Mike Powell has provided a nice inside presence with 14 per game, while Ryan Karr has chipped in 10.
"We've got to be able to contest outside shots," noted Vandeventer. "We also have to stop dribble penetration. They're very good at getting you to come out and belly up on them, and then they'll take you to the hole. It's not a thing where we can say we're going to just take away the outside shot. We'll have to watch out for their penetration and stop them from driving."
Shakamak split two from last weekend with a road loss to Union and a home victory against North Daviess. The Lakers average 53 points on offense and five up 49 on defense.
Tip time is set for 8:00 p.m.
"You look at teams they've played and look at how competitive they've been you can tell they're a better team than their record would show," said T-Birds' coach Andy Igel. "They took us to an overtime situation last year. If we come out flat or if we come in thinking all we have to do is show up then we'll get beat.
The Bulldogs sport a 2-10 mark, but one of their wins came last Friday in an overtime win against Shakamak. Union is currently 1-3 in the conference.
"Any time you go on the road it's a tough chore," said Union coach Doug Boyd. "Going to Eastern is that much tougher. They're tough to beat at home. They're going to be ready to play. They're really good defensively. They pose some matchup problems with their size. It's going to be a tough one.
Eastern Greene has conference wins at Clay City and its victory this past Tuesday against the Miners.
The Thunderbirds have surrendered 49 points on defense, while the offense is pumping in 46 per game.
"I hope we'll get off to a good start," said Igel. "We've had trouble with our starts and we've come out a little flat. We've not played as well as we could have and we hope we can come out and get a good start. We're going to have to establish things early. It would be nice to get our inside players going."
Union is averaging 47 points on offense, but give up 55.5 on defense. The Bulldogs are led by Daniel Page, Ryan Gambill, and Justin Davidson, who are all averaging around double figures in scoring.
"We're going to have to hit the boards," mentioned Boyd. "If they miss it we'll have to rebound. I'd like to see a little more consistency from our offense. We've had four kids in double figures, but for us to be able to pull off some wins, especially on the road, we'll have to see about three of those guys in double figures, and sometimes we won't get that.
Boyd went on to say that interior defense and keeping the ball out of the middle will be a factor in whether the Bulldogs are successful.
"We feel like we're getting where we want to be," said Boyd. "We're not where we want to be, but we're still a month or so away from sectional, so we still have a long way to go yet."
Game time Friday is 7:30 p.m.
"They're a really good team," said Bloomfield coach Ron McBride. "They're a lot like us in they like to control the tempo of the game. I feel we match up pretty well against them, height wise we're about the same. They're probably got more experience."
Loogootee comes in at 10-2, while the Cardinals have dropped their last two games (both against 4A schools) to fall to 7-6. Bloomfield is averaging 45 points per game on offense with its defense come in giving up 44 per game.
"They like to play a lot of zone," said McBride. "They like to come out and put a lot of pressure on you, but we're not going to face anymore pressure than what we've faced all ready. Teams like to come out and put pressure on us."
Loogootee is averaging 10 more points on offense (49.8) than they're giving on defense and are the winners of their past four games.
"Right now we're not really worried about what they're doing to us," stated McBride. "What we want to do is come out and be successful with things we've been working on and executing."
Start time in Loogootee is 8:00 p.m.
"We had a tough loss Tuesday night and we need to bounce back to get ourselves back on the winning track," said Linton coach Darren Clayton. "We need to start bumping that record up and taking the steps we need to take to be a team that's going to be above .500 when the season's over and take steps that are necessary to get that done."
North Daviess has lost three in a row and is 4-7 on the season and 0-1 in conference play. The team is averaging 48 points on defense, but only scoring 43.5 on offense.
Coach Clayton knows that size will be a fact as the Cougars start Gabe Swartzentruber and Blake Lawyer.
"They give us some matchup problems," noted Clayton. "They'll come out with a very tall line up. Height wise they could give us some problems and they like to get the ball inside. They have a nice mix and we'll not only have to stop the dribble penetration, but we'll have to be aware of (Jesse) Walls on the perimeter.
The Miners have improved to 7-3 since opening the season 0-2. Currently Linton is 7-5 and 2-3 in the SWIAC.
"If you look back at the games we've won and the games we've been able to play at the pace we've wanted to play, our rebounds and defense have led to that," mentioned Clayton. "We've been able to keep other teams to one shot and done each trip down the floor or we've caused turnovers. It's those things that have allowed us to push the ball and to take advantage of our quickness. Especially against a team with their height, we're going to have to hit the boards hard and to take advantage of our advantage which is quickness."
The Miners and Cougars will compete at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday's games will include: Shakamak at West Vigo, 7:30 p.m.; White River Valley traveling to Bethesda Christian, 7:30; and Bloomfield going to Shoals, 7:30.