2006 IHSAA Boys Basketball Tourney Class 1A Triton Regional Preview A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith (3-10-2006)

Class A -  Triton Regional

Tri-County (16-7) vs. (FW) Blackhawk Christian (15-8) -- 11:00 p.m., CST

BOURBON (3-11-2006)  Here is the calm before the storm.  One of these small schools (I know Blackhawk is a private school) is going to have to take on small school catholic superpower Lafayette Catholic at the semistate.  You have Tri-County, which is in the middle of nowhere.  Oregon-Davis, which is in the middle of nowhere.  And Hebron, which isn't the middle of nowhere, but they can see it from where they are. All four of these schools are within six points of each other on the computer ratings.

In the next few paragraphs it will appear as if I know who's gong to win here.  But much more than the other three classes, I have no idea.

Oregon-Davis is the ultimate comeback story.  Last Saturday, they came back from a 17-point halftime deficit to beat Westville 59-53.  That comeback epitomizes the O-D program in this decade.  Oregon Davis was 1-20 in 2003, 0-21 in 2002 and 0-19 in 2001.  The Bobcats lost 56 games in a row, one of the longest losing streaks in the history of Indiana high school basketball.

But the three wins last week gave O-D their first title since 1996.  Neither Oregon-Davis nor the schools Hamlet and Groverton, which preceded O-D, have ever won a regional.

Hebron has only eight sectionals, but they have 10, 20-win seasons gong back almost 100 years.  They are 17-4 but they probably do not consider this an outstanding season.  Why?  Because they lost three times to arch 2A rival Boone Grove.  Hebron and Boone Grove, next door neighbors in Porter County, have met 184 times and are the foundation of small school basketball in NW Indiana.  But Hebron has never won a regional title either.

Oregon-Davis and Hebron both want to play the same way:  Push the ball up the floor and get open shots.  The Hawks have six seniors they stay with almost exclusively.  That short bench will affect them if they get to the regional championship, but it should not matter against O-D.  Senior guard Caleb Biggs, a long range shooting senior, scored 31 in a 64-45 win over Whiting.  This is a key point.  Everyone in the PCC knows you cant get away from Biggs at any time.  But Whiting, which does not play Hebron regularly, let him get shots.  If Caleb Biggs gets 10, 3-point shots, Hebron will win Saturday.  He is a game-breaker and the season comes to an end for O-D if they let Biggs shoot for any reason.

The Bobcats are led by 6-3 junior Brandon Johnston (12.6 points, 5.6 rebounds) and 6-foot junior Shaun Johnston.  They will push the pace of the game and use the entire bench to wear out the Hawks.  O-D shot 19 of 27 from the foul line to help the second half rally where they outscored Westville 43-20.

The Oregon-Davis schedule is weak, but the truth is this is the same schedule they went winless against a few years ago.  Nate Ferch (10.5 points, 2.6 assists), a 6-foot-2 junior, scored 19 in the comeback win over Westville and he is a perimeter player.  O-D has no center and that will be a problem against the Hawks and 6-4 Ryan Marshall (10.7 points, 4.6 rebounds).  But the real problem here is the

experience of Hebron.  All five starters returned from last year's teams and they are 11-0 against 1A schools.  Both sides have boys who have played together virtually all their lives, something that is vital at this point.

Of equal interest here may be the crowds.  O-D has had a huge (for 1A) following all season and when the Hebron girls went to the state finals four years ago, they basically shut down the town to follow them.  Hebron buried Class 3A Griffith 71-47 and smoked out 3A Knox 99-85.  All three sectional wins for O-D were by 10 points or less and a really good team does not fall 17 points behind in a playoff game.

The Hawks have not had a bad loss all year.  Hebron wins this game by seven points.

Blackhawk has a strong post player in 6-foot-5  Lance Collins (15.7 points, 6.1 rebounds) and 6-3 wing player Dayton Merrell  (11.6 points, 2.3 assists).  They can go to the bench for 6-5 Brian Hackett and that gives them more size than anybody else here.  Bigger people play bigger as the day gets long.  6-2 junior Matt Mitchell is 38 of 133 from 3-point range for a team that has 92 three-point baskets.  Blackhawk is not a member in the Summit Athletic Conference (SAC), but they play six of those teams and that makes their schedule a lot tougher than Tri-County's.

The Cavaliers actually are in the middle of nowhere.  Tri-County is the school you see just to the east of I-65 as you are driving south of

Rensselaer and they have no big next door neighbors to play.  Tri-County plays no 4A schools and only two 3As, Twin Lakes and Benton Central.  Again, this is not a knock.  There's nothing but farms out there and they've got to drive 45 minutes to find a 4A school.

Junior Derek Smith, a 6-4 center, paces Tri-County. Smith scored eight of his 16 in the fourth quarter of TC's 52-40 win over Pioneer.

The Cavaliers have to slow the game down and that plays right into Blackhawk's hands.  Tri-County is just happy to be here after taking their first sectional title in 13 years.  My favorite adage of the state tourney is that you go as far as your goals.  Tri-County's goal was to win the sectional and they'll go home happy.  The 'Blackhawks have won three consecutive regional titles and they want to go

further.  Blackhawk wins the 1A Triton regional semifinal by 12 points.

If the final game is Blackhawk and Hebron, Blackhawk is the favorite.  The Hawks use six players and are not built to play two games in one day.  The trick here is that Hebron is very experienced.  Blackhawk lost their top two scorers from last year and rebuilt the team with a mix of seniors and youngsters.  The Hawks roll the dice with an all senior lineup and it's winner take all.  They need the game-of-their-lives out of 5-11 Hebron seniors Andy Stalbaum, Eric Luchene (9.5 points, 6.7 rebounds) and Ryan Guzorek.

Hebron has also been playing Whiting (twice) and Kouts (twice) while Blackhawk has played killers like Fort Wayne Snider, Bishop Luers and Bishop Dwenger.  This is the stupidity of state rankings.  If you play decent schools and win them all, you get ranked highly.  If you play mean, nasty schools and get beat, you get ranked low.  But when the team with the decent schedule plays the school with the nasty schedule, the 'Nasty boys' usually win.  Hebron versus Lafayette Catholic would be a very attractive, memorable game.

I would like to see it but I wont.  All the factors favor Blackhawk and they will win in a game which may not carry the emotion and the drama of the Hebron vs. Oregon-Davis game.

(FW) Blackhawk 66, HEBRON 59

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Revised: March 10, 2006 .