2007-2008 Girls Basketball  Week-6 Poll A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith (01-01-2008)

MICHIGAN CITY, IN - (01-01-2008) - Some truth came out at the holiday tournaments.  Top-ranked South Bend Washington won twice out of state to improve to 13-0 and lineup a battle with Michigan City (12-3) in South Bend on Friday night.  South Bend Clay (13-2) won four times to win the Riley Tournament, including a 74-57 victory over Michigan City.

South Bend St. Joseph's (8-6) won the Huntington North tournament and the Indians, after starting the season 0-6, have won their last eight games.  Twin Lakes (13-0) turned back Western, Hamilton Southeastern and Logansport to win the Twin Lakes Invitational, and probably, take the state's No. 1 ranking in 3A.

The DAC marathon continues with Michigan City (12-3, 6-2) holding a one game lead over Merrillville (9-3, 5-3), Portage (9-3, 5-3) and Valparaiso (8-7, 5-3).  The Greater South Shore Conference (GSSC) and the Porter County Conference (PCC) both hold tournaments the week of Jan. 15-19.

The Northwest Crossroads Conference (NWCC) chose to not have a league championship tournament in its first season, a move that is a mistake, because it just doesn't leave much for Andrean, Lowell, KV and Hobart to do.  Munster (6-7, 4-0) has just two league games left so only Highland (10-2, 3-0) and Griffith (12-2, 2-1) can mathematically catch them.  The other four teams play the final month just to warm up for the playoffs and it's hard to get excited about that.

We usually look at the top teams so this Dec. 15 game sneaked by us, where LaCrosse (0-9) rallied to record their first win 43-38 on the road at South Newton (1-11).

It's a tough week for the rankings because almost everybody has lost recently.  I'd put a lot of the losses off to mid-season blues... where you can't even see the playoffs on the horizon.  But I think we can all agree now there aren't any great teams this year.

MICHIGAN CITY:  Give Michigan City credit for playing a tough schedule because they certainly paid for it over the holidays.  In the eight-team pool play South Bend Holiday Tournament, the Wolves won easily three times.  But playing for the fourth time in two days resulted in their getting sauced 74-57 by Clay.  Northwest Indiana newspapers pretend Michigan City doesn't exist so locals may not know that the Wolves shot just 19-of-62 and got smoked as Clay's Ariel Eaton scored 25.  The Wolves better forget about it quickly as they face the state's reigning giant, undefeated South Bend Washington (13-0) Friday night, Jan. 4 in South Bend.  What's tough is that MC has to come back Saturday night Jan. 5 and play Valparaiso in DAC play.  Oddly, a loss before this game might make the Wolves a little more desperate.  They'll need everything they can get Friday against the nation's No. 6 team.  For those who do not know, South Bend Washington has won 41 games in a row.

2.  (4A) MERRILLVILLE (10-3)
2007 (16-6), 2006 (19-3), 2005 (12-10), 2004 (12-8)

MERRILLVILLE: The Wolves smoked out Crown Point by 23 points to end the calendar year.  Britney Cruse scored 23 and 5-foot-9 freshman Melanie Stubbs had eight points and nine rebounds.  Stubbs and 5-7 soph Bryonna Davis are more important to this team than I thought earlier.  They have to contribute in the big games against Portage and Michigan City.  Cruse displayed that she can be an impact shooter, a force the Pirates badly need because everybody's going to zone them with their quickness dribbling to the basket.  I think the Pirates' inconsistency (3-2 in their last five games) is due to the lack of any highlights on the schedule.  The DAC is a 14-game mine field and they've been blown up a couple of times.  But there are no injuries here and they should be 'up' for Saturday night's game with Portage.

3.  (4A) Portage (8-3)
2007 (16-9), 2006 (4-17), 2005 (4-17), 2004 (10-12)

PORTAGE:  Portage lost 55-50 to Lake Central Saturday, but they're fine.  This is a team that won 16 games last year and they're still on-line to do better than that.  The Indians have to be intense to get scores in transition, because they simply aren't a good offensive team.  That's not how they roll.  Pace will be the key this weekend when Merrillville and Portage meet for the second time.  The Indians did a good job of slowing the game earlier, winning 48-46 in November.  Portage needs better non-conference games than 1A Attica, Lew Wallace and Washington Township.  That's not getting the job done and they can't improve like Michigan City does with their schedule.  Everybody knows where the good teams are and you can play them if you want.  Munster is playing Penn (12-1) this week and Michigan City is playing South Bend Washington (13-0).

4.  (4A) Gary West Side (10-1)
2007 (16-6), 2006 (16-7), 2005 (23-5), 2004 (22-3)

GARY:  The Side got to the Gary Holiday Tournament championship where they were spanked by Marshall high of Chicago (11-3).  West Side has to win the Gary Holiday Tournament or they have little to say about anything.  Marshall's best player is out for the season and still the Side loses 50-41 in Gary?  I love the way this team plays.  The all-out style.  The full-court defense.  But they are inexperienced and beating Lew Wallace 54-17 proves nothing.  You can't lie about the Cougars.  The Cougars have 2 wins over teams with winning records (3A Hammond and Chicago's Maria high).  They have not beaten a good 4A school.  I read where they feel they haven't received enough credit.  Beat 4A powerhouse Clay (13-2) on Jan. 11.  Beat born-again St. Joseph's (8-6) on Feb. 2.  The Side has eight of their last nine games on the road.  The truth has yet to be told here.

5.  (4A) Valparaiso (8-6)
2007 (8-14), 2006 (13-8), 2005 (21-2), 2004 (23-3)

VALPARAISO:  It's hard to keep them in front of Chesterton after the Vikings lost to Chesterton 51-44 on Dec. 27, but it's not all about week-to-week results.  Oddly, although Merrillville is clearly better than Chesterton, the Trojans match up with Valparaiso better than the Pirates do.  Chesterton dominated this game, leading 41-24 in the fourth quarter.
Chesterton has two 6-foot juniors to take on the Valpo front line, while Merrillville starts no one taller than 5-foot-8.  Valpo out-rebounds everybody (they out-rebounded Valpo).  Valpo plays at Michigan City Saturday (Jan. 5) and I wouldn't want to be wearing green.  Valpo beat Michigan City 75-64 last month in a game where Valpo got 55 free throws and MC thought they were swindled.  MC is probably going to get smoked Friday night against South Bend Washington and then they go home to take on Valpo.  A very tough assignment.

6.  (4A) Chesterton (6-7)
2007 (7-14), 2006 (16-8), 2005 (11-11), 2004 (14-8)

7.  (4A) Highland (10-2)
2007 (20-6) 2006 (12-11), 2005 (19-5), 2004 (17-6)

HIGHLAND:  The Trojans come off a two-week break to play Hobart Friday night, but they won't have to bring the heavy fire until they travel to Griffith on Jan. 12.  I like holiday tournaments as a time to simulate sectional play, but there is a benefit to two full weeks off.  Anyone who is not out for the season can recover from injury and the players can mentally shorten the season into six weeks, which would put the Trojans in the regional.  I'm sure they scouted Gary West Side over the Holidays.  I don't know how much weight they should put on the Griffith game, but they need a 'big' game to play and win.  Highland still has Munster and Chesterton to play, but those teams cannot simulate West Side.  I'm not sure Highland is better than Griffith and Oregon-Davis, but they are older and more experienced.

8.  (3A) Griffith (12-2)
2007 (15-7), 2006 (14-8), 2005 (15-8), 2004 (13-9)

GRIFFITH:  The Panthers rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to beat Hanover Central 50-42 and that was a good game for them.  The 28-19 deficit was the largest halftime bridge they've had to cross.  Guard Lauren Hansen had six assists in the win at Hanover, but the Panther girls would probably admit the game shouldn't have been that close.  That may say more about Hanover than it does about Griffith, but the Panthers are strong enough to be a little more physical than they are.  With that said, the freshman and sophomore class here is a gifted and balanced team that has a good chance to reach the semistate the next two years if they can stay together.  But they start two sophomores and two freshman so they aren't favored to do anything right now but keep playing.  The Panthers have Highland (10-2) and Hammond (11-1) left to play, but behind the scenes, I know they're keeping an eye on undefeated Twin Lakes (13-0) and undefeated Northwestern (12-0), who are both in 3A Sectional 20 and block everyone's path to the state finals.

9.  (1A) Oregon-Davis (13-0)
2007 (25-3), 2006 (14-8), 2005 (11-11), 2004 (7-14)

HAMLET:  Down time is a killer and the one thing that could stop Oregon-Davis, a two-week layoff, did.  While the O-D girls were shopping and opening presents, other teams were doing hard time at Holiday tournaments.  You don't get better eating figgy pudding and 14 days of watching 'One Tree Hill' reruns is not the way to repeat as state champs.  The Bobcats are fortunate to come out of the break against Westville (4-7), a team that has trouble winning because they can't score points.  O-D has won 31 games in a row and the only team that can beat them right now is in their mirrors.  If 3A John Glenn cannot beat O-D, they will go 21-0.  Here's one of those teams that Northwest Indiana's 'weak schedule club' should call.  No, Hammond wouldn't beat them.  Lake Central wouldn't either.

10.  (3A) Hammond (11-1)
2007 (17-9), 2006 (15-8), 2005 (15-7), 2004 (8-12)

HAMMOND:  The Wildcats beat Andrean by 12 and Hobart by 13 to win the Hammond Holiday Tournament, but those are teams they should beat.  Athletically, they rate in the top-10 here, but they have to get a little bit better at shooting the basketball.  5-10 junior Sancheon White had 18 points and 18 rebounds in the 68-55 win over Hobart, but you've got to see that for what it is.  No offense to White, who is a skilled player.  But a guard getting 18 rebounds means she's rebounding a lot of her teammates (or her own) missed shots.  That's how it works.  Hammond was 17 of 27 from the line.  I'm not convinced.  The Wildcats have defeated two teams (Highland and Roosevelt) with winning records and Roosevelt (10-3) is NW Indiana's most deceptive team with two 25-point-plus losses.

HEY, WHAT ABOUT US??????

(4A) LaPorte (7-6)
2007 (11-11), 2006 (8-13), 2005 (8-14), 2004 (4-17)

LaPORTE:  The Slicers have lost to Michigan City (12-3), Merrillville (11-3), Portage (9-3), Chesterton (6-7), and South Bend powers Clay (13-2) and Washington (13-0).  Again, check the strength of schedule here.  Nobody in NW Indiana plays a schedule like this.  You have two choices.  Play 20 bags of 'Cheetos' and brag about your record.  Or take on heavyweights and peel yourself up off the canvas occasionally.  The Slicers only have seven games left and five of them are on the road.  A 10-10 record will be a huge achievement.

(1A) Kouts (11-1)
2007 (20-3), 2006 (12-9), 2005 (12-9), 2004 (13-9)

KOUTS:  I want to give credit to the Fillies for winning almost all their games is far.  They have wins over Boone Grove (7-5), West Central (8-4) and North Judson (8-4), but I'm not sure they're better than Boone.  They do play 4A Hobart (6-6) at the end of the year and the Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament will be a struggle for them.  The sisters Juliette and Ann Marie Keller both average in double figures and they are obviously 30-4 in the last two seasons.  But any game against a halfway decent team is such a battle.  I'd like to see them win 20 again before we can talk about the Top-10.

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Revised: January 02, 2008 .