2012 PCC Girls Basketball Tournament Preview (Jan. 16-21) A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 01-12-2012

Hebron High School will be the host school for both the girls and boys in the Porter County Conference Tournament finals.

Boone Grove coach Candy Wilson enjoying some good times at the PCC Tournament.

Porter County Conference (PCC) Tournament
$5 per night, $9 all week

GIRLS - QUARTERFINALS at Morgan Township
1-16-12 (Mon) Kouts (9-6) vs. Hebron (6-7) 5:30 p.m.
1-16-12 (Mon) South Central (6-8) vs. LaCrosse (3-10)
1-17-12 (Tues) BOONE GROVE (13-1) HANOVER CENTRAL (10-3) 5:30 p.m.
1-17-12 (Tues) Wash. Township (5-9) vs. Morgan Township (6-9)

SEMIFINALS at Morgan Township
1-20-12 (Fri) Kouts/Hebron vs. SC or LaCrosse - 6 p.m.
1-20-12 (Fri.) BOONE/HC vs. WT or MT - 7:30 p.m.

FINALS at Hebron
1-21-12 (Sat) Girls PCC Championship - 6 p.m.
1-21-12 (Sat) Boys PCC championship - 8 p.m.
 

MORGAN TOWNSHIP, IN (01-16-2012) We love the 'blind draw' for tournaments in Indiana high school athletics. We do it in every sport. It means that instead of matching up teams according to their records in the first round of a tournament you pick them 'blind.' Just put the names in a hat and draw them to face each other purely by chance. Dumb? Maybe. Unfortunate? This year? Definitely.

The top two teams in the eight-team Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament next week drew each other which is good news for the lesser six teams and bad news for Boone Grove (13-1) and Hanover Central (10-3). The two top teams in the PCC, and two of the few that haven't already met this season, will go head-to-head at 5:30 p.m. next Tuesday night (1-17-2012) to decide who's going to be the favorite in the 39th PCC girls championship tournament.

Boone has been the favorite here before. They were 13-1 last year and they swept the PCC tournament on the way to a 20-2 season. Two years ago, Boone was also 13-1 and they also swept three PCC playoff games that year, too. In 2009, Boone was 10-4 heading into the PCC tournament, which they won including a 59-56 victory over Hanover, the last playoff matchup between the two schools.

The most memorable matchup between these two was eight years ago when Hanover, coached by Chris York, faced a 14-2 Wolves team in the PCC quarterfinals. HC, which would finish only 11-11 that season, beat Boone 42-40 and went on to win their last PCC title with a 53-52 overtime victory over Kouts the night of Jan. 24, 2004.

These teams don't match up on paper. Boone starts 5-foot-10 Brittany Shaffer (16.2 ppg.) and 5-foot-11 senior Julie Hogg (8.5 ppg.) in front of 5-foot-5 senior guard Emily Bobrowski (13.7 ppg.), a top three-point shooter. Junior Claudia Cooper (5.0 ppg.), another 5-foot-10 forward, gives the Wolves an edge up front over HC, which starts a lineup with no one taller than 5-foot-7. Coach Candy Wilson can also bring soccer star Paige Aguilera (5.9 ppg.) off the bench.

But Boone's only loss was 58-44 to Bowman Academy, an up tempo team that could run some. Hanover's not Bowman, but present a difficult match up in 5-foot-7 junior Blayr Poston, who averages 16 points a game.

Hanover's small inside, but 5-foot-7 Kristin Roper averages more than eight rebounds per game and the Lady Cats can go to the bench for 5-foot-10 Hannah Blue and 5-foot-9 Danielle Schwalm.

Guard Rylie Singleton, a good three-point shooter, was hurt in the Hanover Holiday tournament but she was back in action last Tuesday in a 55-39 victory over Morgan Township. Boone Grove won twice in the South County tournament, but they didn't play anybody like Oregon-Davis (11-2), the team that defeated Hanover Central in the holiday tournament semifinals.
You can't make a really good argument for anyone other than Boone or Hanover being the favorite next week, but the draw gives one team a big chance.

The girls that got the best draw were from Kouts (9-6), which opens the tournament Monday night at 5:30 p.m. against host Morgan Township, a team they have already defeated by 17 points. Kouts has lost four of their last seven, including one to Knox (5-10), which isn't strong this year, and if the Fillies, led by 5-foot-6 senior guard Jenna Jessen (12.2 ppg.) and 5-foot senior Lexi Sippel (12.9 ppg.) gets to the PCC title game, they could face a Boone team that has already defeated them twice, 56-42 and 48-32.

Kouts' biggest advantage is that if they win Monday, they get three days off while Boone and Hanover must play three times in five days to take the league title. Monday's winners don't have as difficult a week.

HC has a big victory over Lowell (11-1) so they are unlikely to be intimidated by Boone. The HC-Boone game could be a test of nerves. Boone was shaky with 28 turnovers in the loss to Bowman. Hanover has two freshmen who will play in this tourney for the first time including 5-foot-9 point guard Frankie Turturillo, a key player if Singleton is limited or slowed.

The essence of a small school single-elimination tournament is that anybody can beat anybody. But Boone Grove has defeated Hebron and Morgan Tonwhsip twice each. There's nobody here they're worried about except for Hanover, a team they don't see very often. Boone certainly thinks Oregon-Davis just ran HC into the ground 73-47, but that was HC's second game in the same day. Up tempo is how Hanover wants to play. Hanover Central saw Bowman roll over Boone, but HC doesn't have the size that Bowman has.

There is a regular season PCC title and Boone, which is 6-0 with only Hanover to play (after the PCC tourney), is well on their way to half or all of the title. Anybody who tells you that the PCC regular season is as important as the tournament must have lost the tournament.

The PCC holds the perfect tournament. Because of its week-long neutral site design, a fan or parent can conceivably watch every single game in the tournament. And every player on every team can also watch (or play in) every game of the tournament. Why the big school Duneland Athletic Conference does not copy this tournament is one of the great mysteries of Northwest Indiana sports.

The Saturday championship night with the girls final game at 6 p.m. and the boys title game at 8 p.m. is always played before a standing room only crowd. A DAC tournament championship night would also be played in front of a capacity crowd, only that crowd would fill Michigan City, not Hebron or Boone Grove.

The key is, there are no excuses and no exceptions. Most who have been around the PCC for many years will tell you that the winner of the eight-team single-elimination tournament in January is the 'true' league champion.

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Revised: January 12, 2012 .