Published: January 03, 2008 02:33 pm         

Basketball conference races at full steam

Christmas and New Year’s holidays are over and it’s time for area high school boys basketball teams to get back into a weekly routine.

There’s a full slate of Northern Lakes Conference games Friday night with the Northridge Raiders (7-1 overall, 1-0 NLC) hosting the Warsaw Tigers (7-2, 1-0), the NorthWood Panthers (2-5, 0-1) visiting the Wawasee Warriors (6-3, 0-1), the Elkhart Memorial Crimson Chargers (5-1, 1-0) entertaining the Plymouth Pilgrims (7-2, 1-0) and the Goshen Redskins (7-2, 0-1) visiting the Concord Minutemen (2-6, 0-1).

In Northeast Corner Conference contests, the Westview Warriors (7-1, 4-0 NECC) host the Hamilton Marines (0-6, 0-4) and the West Noble Chargers (4-4, 3-1) visit the Lakeland Lakers (5-4, 3-1) Friday. The Fairfield Falcons (4-5, 2-1) entertain the Eastside Blazers (3-6, 0-3) Saturday.

The Bethany Christian Bruins (3-6) return to action with a weekend doubleheader, hosting the Argos Dragons (5-1) on Friday and the Fort Wayne Canterbury Cavaliers (3-4) Saturday.

The Northridge Raiders have a dynamic 1-2 scoring punch in 6-5 senior Brent Eaton (20.1 ppg) and 5-10 classmate Derrick Troyer (12.1). Six-foot junior Elliot Smith (7.5) and 6-2 classmate Landon Miller (6.0) are other leading scorers for the Raiders.

Miller is coming off a 25-point outburst in the Raiders’ 70-46 win over Garrett in the championship of the Northridge holiday tourney. He drilled seven 3-pointers in the contest.

Leading scorers for the Warsaw Tigers are 5-8 freshman Nic Moore (17.2), 6-3 junior Ryne Robinson (15.7), 6-3 sophomore Justin Clemens (8.8) and 6-1 classmate Andy Conrad (7.4).

“Warsaw is a tough team which is young and the they are probably a year away from being one of the Top Ten teams in the state,” Northridge coach Jason Ridge said. “Moore is one of the quicker point guards we will see this season. It should be an interesting matchup between him and Troyer.

“We keep getting better. We had two concerns going into the season. One was developing a couple more scorers to go with Eaton and Troyer. Smith and Miller have showed signs that we are more than a two-man team.

“The other was rebounding. We basically play five perimeter players and, while we are not always winning the rebounding battle, we are keeping it close. Clemens is a strong post player and that is one of the reasons Warsaw is a tough matchup for us.”

NorthWood is led in scoring by 6-3 junior Skyler Titus (18.3), 6-5 senior Aaron McDowell (12.6), 5-10 senior Dustin Bussard (5.3) and 6-2 junior Micah Horner (3.0).

“NorthWood is very fundamental and Titus is a real matchup problem, because he can step outside to hit the ‘3,’ is strong enough to score inside and is a good passer,” Wawasee coach Phil Mishler said.

“How you go about defending him depends a lot on where he is on the floor. You have to be aware of where McDowell and Bussard are so you can’t just flat out double team Titus.

“We have competed in the games we have played and the kids have learned from that. It is important for us to get a good start in the NLC. The way the conference is this season there is littler room for error.”

Top point producers for Wawasee are 6-5 senior Brandon Geiger (17.9), 6-1 junior Ross Stichter (12.6), 6-5 senior Chas Amadeo (10.2) and 6-1 junior Grant Ruch (8.1).

“Wawasee is playing extremely good,” NorthWood coach Aaron Wolfe said. “They have a threat from the perimeter as well as potential to score inside. That presents a problem on defense of trying to figure out what to try and take away from them.”

The Westview Warriors have taken the early lead in the NECC title race.

Leading scorers for the Warriors are 5-11 senior Justin Yoder (18.6), 6-2 senior Ryan Sindle (11.9), 5-8 junior Adam Christner (11.8) and 6-3 senior Taylor Aspy (10.9).

Six-five senior Andy Curry (12.8), 6-0 senior Grant Baumgartner (11.6), 6-0 senior Robby Gingerich (10.4), 6-3 senior Adam Miller (3.6) and 6-3 junior Colin Holmes (3.6) are leading scorers for Fairfield.

“Eastside is very big,” Falcon coach John Wysong said. “Orry Moughler (6-4 senior) is a very good player. I was impressed when they played DeKalb (60-49 loss).

“We are going to have to play good against them. Two things I want to see more of from us are a purpose on offense and playing with some intensity. I think we can be doing more of those things than what we have showed so far.

“We gave the kids some time off for the holidays and now have a short time to get ready for Eastside.”

West Noble’s top scorers are 6-0 junior Nick Spencer (17.4), 6-0 junior Kyle Grimm (9.7), 6-0 senior Jeff Wysong (8.7) and 5-8 junior Federico Ramirez (5.6).

Leading scores for Lakeland are 5-9 senior Skyler King (13.0), 6-2 senior Doug Bontrager (12.4), 6-1 junior Tanner King (10.9) and 5-10 senior Kyle Witham (10.9).

Skyler King missed the Goshen holiday tourney with a stress fracture in foot and Laker coach Tim Sirk is unsure when he is going to return.

Six-three senior Stephen Pettifor (11.1), 6-4 junior Mark DeLeeuw (10.6), 6-3 sophomore Seth Kauffman (8.6) and 5-10 junior Jordan Weaver (6.9) are leading scorers for Bethany.

“Argos and Canterbury are both very competitive teams.” Bethany coach Jim Buller said. “Argos has given us trouble the last couple of years and Canterbury is a team in our sectional.”

The Bruins are coming off losses to Bremen (35-33) and Fairfield (53-36) in the Bethany holiday tourney.

“We had a huge increase in turnovers in those games,” Buller said. “The kids had been making progress in that area and in shot selection, but we took a step backwards during the tourney. No matter what team we are playing, right now the focus has to be on ourselves.

“We always debate how much time to give the kids off for the holidays. Basketball is important, but so is having the players spending time with their family and giving them some mental rest.”

Respond: (574) 533-2151, ext. 326 greg.keim@goshennews.com