Holiday Basketball Tournament Preview: Hanover Lady Cats face uncertain fate at Momence Holiday Tournament

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Momence Holiday Tournament
Fri-Sat., Dec. 27-28, 2002 (Momence High School)

Quarterfinals: Paxton-Buckley-Loda (PBL) vs. Peotone (4-8) - 12 noon, Dec. 27

Neuqua Valley (junior varsity) vs. Watseka - 1:30 p.m., Dec. 27

South Newton (3-3) vs. Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley (GMSC) - 6:30 p.m., Dec. 27
Momence (8-0) vs. HANOVER CENTRAL (3-4) - 8:00 p.m., Dec. 27

Semifinals: Paxton-Buckley-Loda (PBL) or Peotone vs. Neuqua Valley (JV) - 12 noon, Dec. 28

South Newton or Gibson City vs. Momence or HANOVER - 1:30 p.m., Dec. 28

Momence Holiday Tournament Championship - 8:00 p.m., Dec. 28

MOMENCE, IL - Clearly this is a difficult tournament to predict. You have to look back on past years to judge some of these schools. First of all, you can probably throw Peotone, PBL, Watseka and Gibson City in the same bag. Peotone has 481 kids, PBL has 487, Watseka has 355 and Gibson City has 302. But Hanover Central didn't get to play any of them.

Momence has just 411 kids but they are 8-0 after a 23-point victory Tuesday night.
In that game, 5-9 senior Sally Schaafsma scored 24 points and 5-8 senior Kellie Mullin added 21. Momence has no one taller than 5-10 but they will probably start five seniors. They think this is their year to win here but there is pressure involved in being undefeated.

South Newton has wins over Attica (54-33), Milford, IL (50-45) and Donovan, IL (48-26) but they have a 43-38 loss to Tri-County, which is 4-5. With a Dec. 19 game against Rensselaer and a Dec. 21 gave at LaCrosse, South Newton will probably head for Momence with a 4-4 record. They returned five starters off an 8-13 team including 50-10 center Nickie Winkler. That experience should get them past the first round.

The wild card here is Neuqua Valley, a 2,969 teen school in Naperville, Ill. which is sending their junior varsity to this tournament. That is the equivalent of Ben Davis sending their junior varsity. Most players at giant schools begin on the JV, no matter how good they are. And decent players without much talent are still on the JV as juniors. Nequa Valley's JV will certainly have plenty of depth. It is also a testament to what they want to do with their girls basketball program (not to mention the financial wealth of their school) that they are sending their JV 87 miles (Naperville is a northwest suburb of Chicago, Momence is 53 miles south of downtown Chicago) to a holiday tournament.

Neuqua Valley could blow everybody out of the water here.

What about Hanover? They did not get a good draw, having to beat Momence, South Newton and Neuqua Valley to win the whole thing. That's unlikely. But Hanover traditionally has success here because of their depth. The HC style of play becomes very annoying to the opposition on the second day of the tournament. The Lady Cats could upset Momence and get to the finals but that probably would see a blowout loss to Neuqua Valley. Momence is more familiar with HC and they are targeting the Lady Cats in that first game. I'm saying that HC loses to Momence, then beats Gibson City and Watseka to win fifth place. Not a bad weekend.

2003 HANOVER CENTRAL (3-4)

Start times are junior varsity starting times

11-12-2002: 43-51 at Gavit (3-6)
11-22-2002 : 39-40 WHEELER (7-4)
11-27-2002: 34-49 at Lowell (3-5)
12-6-2002: 60-45 HEBRON (0-9)
12-7-2002: 68-53 KOUTS (2-7)
12-14-2002: 59-37 at LaCROSSE (1-7)
12-17-2002: 36-79 North Newton (6-0)
12-19-2002: River Forest (3-6)

Momence Holiday Tournament (Momence, IL.)
12-27-2002 (F) at Momence (8-0) 8 p.m.
12-28-2002 (S) Semifinals and finals (TBA)

1-4-2003 (S) Crown Point (7-2) 6 p.m.
1-9-2003 (Th) at Calumet (4-4) 6 p.m.
1-11-2003 (S) WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (8-4) 6 p.m.
1-18-2003 (S) Kankakee Valley (6 p.m.)

Porter County Conference (PCC) Tournament
1-20-2003 M) PCC quarterfinals (6 p.m.)
1-21-2003 (Tu) PCC Quarterfinals (6 p.m.)
1-24-2003 (F) Semifinals (6 p.m.)
1-25-2003 (S) PCC Girls Championship (6 p.m.)

1-30-2003 (Th) at BOONE GROVE (6 p.m.)
2-4-2003 (Tu) at Momence, Ill (6 p.m.)
2-8-2003 (S) at MORGAN TOWNSHIP (6 p.m.)

Boone Grove (2A) Sectional
2-11-2003 (Tu) Quarterfinals (6 p.m.)
2-14-2003 (F) Semifinals (6 p.m.)
2-15-2003 (S) Championship (7:30 p.m.)

North Judson (2A) Regional
2-22-2003 (S) Semifinals (11 a.m.)
2-22-2003 (S) Championship (7 p.m.)