MERRILLVILLE: Great start for Merrillville. Wins over East Chicago 84-81, Bishop Noll 71-50 and Andrean 54-40. The Pirates swept four games in the Huntington North Holiday tournament, including a 73-72 overtime win over Hamilton Southeastern (7-4) and 79-68 over defending 4A regional champ South Bend Riley (11-3). Senior guards DJ Wilkins and Marcel Cherry combined for 30 in the win over Riley, while 6-foot-4 Jarius Stevens was 10-of-16 for 27 points at East Chicago. The second half of the schedule features a Jan. 29-30 home weekend against Valparaiso (6-4) and Lowell (10-2). The Pirates make the short ride to arch rival Crown Point (5-4) on Jan. 15. I wish they played Griffith (9-0) but they don’t.

GRIFFITH: The Panthers have won every game by 18 points or more and so far, except for an 18-point win over Munster, they have not been challenged. On paper the best win is over 21st Century Academy (7-4) but the big games are yet to come. There’s been a little inner discipline issues, but for the most part, it's been a quiet year for the defending 3A semistate champions. Big weekend coming up Jan. 15-16 against Lowell (10-3) and Crown Point (5-4) and single games of note Jan. 23 against East Chicago (7-3) in the Hammond Civic Center and Feb. 23 against Bowman Academy (6-4). This senior-dominated Panther team should be better than last year with the 6-foot-5 senior twins Tremell and Anthony Murphy plus Bowman Academy transfer Martin Schiele. Ranked No.1 in the state in Class 3A, we are about to find out.

EAST CHICAGO: Lost to Merrillville 84-81, but beat 4A No. 6 Lawrence Central (11-2) and topped 3A No. 8 Crispus Attucks (8-2). 6-foot-5 Damien Jefferson, who averaged 23.4 points last year, scored 37 vs. Lawrence Central. The Cards lost to 4A No. 1 North Central (9-0) by 26 points, but that’s no shock. This schedule is second to none. EC plays 3A No.1 Griffith Jan. 23 at the Hammond Civic Center and they get down to Lowell (10-2) on Feb. 11. There’s also a Saturday afternoon home game with Crown Point on Feb. 6. If EC loses in the sectional again it won't be because they didn’t play a tough enough regular season schedule.

CROWN POINT: The Bulldogs' record is misleading. CP played six of the first nine games on the road and that’s an understatement. All six road games have been in Lafayette, Indianapolis or Noblesville. Let's see if playing the ‘Wander Indiana’ schedule works for them as they take on Lake County foes. 6-foot-6 Andrew Kenneally is averaging in double figures supporting 6-foot-6 All-Area guard Grant Gelon and 6-foot-3 all-area-to-be forward Sasha Stefanovic. Gelon was 43-of-75 (57%) from three-point range after nine games. Kenneally was 10-of-10 from the floor in a win over South Bend Washington on Jan. 2. Guards Blake Bonin and Dominic Tomich figure to make CP tough to pressure. We’ll see about that when they play Merrillville (10-0) and Griffith (9-0) on back-to-back nights Jan. 15-16. EC (7-3), Lowell (10-2) and all the DAC teams are still to come. You just don’t know about the Bulldogs yet.

VALPARAISO: The Vikings were 6-1 before they lost holiday tournament games to Bedford North Lawrence (5-6), Hamilton Heights (8-4) and Fort Wayne North (11-2). The Vikings play at Zionsville (9-1) on Jan. 9, Jefferson (7-2) on Jan. 23 and Merrillville (10-0) on Jan. 29. This is very much the same team that lost the sectional opener to Crown Point last season after winning the Duneland Conference. Like EC, they’re an old team adjusting to a new coach. To have them ahead of a Lowell team they lost 76-71 to is just a guess. I don’t know about the Vikings yet.

LOWELL: Here’s the biggest surprise of the year. Lowell has scheduled seven Duneland Conference teams and is 2-2 so far with losses only to Portage (4-6) and LaPorte (7-3). But the Devils are 8-0 against everybody else and the win over Valparaiso 76-71 was the first in recent history. They swept the small school Caston Holiday tournament, including a 64-57 win over 2A Eastern (7-3). Lowell has not faced the schedule the top five teams here have, but that changes soon. The Devils travel to 3A No. 1 Griffith on Jan. 15 and 4A No. 2 Merrillville (10-0) on Jan. 30. This is very much the same team Lowell had last year, but then again, it isn’t. Lowell only won 11 games last season.

CHESTERTON: The Trojans lost two of three at the Noblesville Holiday tournament, including a 104-87 downer to Fort Wayne South (11-1). When was the last time Chesterton averaged 70 points a game? Two years ago, they scored 55 a game. Last year: 64 per game. Senior guard Rhyss Lewis scored 33 against Fort Wayne South and 24 against Bloomington South. Chesterton shot 55% against Fort Wayne South and still lost by 17. The Trojans want to play fast, but so does much of the DAC. There’s a lot of firepower here and the Trojans are firing up 15-20 3-pointers a night.
Defense hopefully will be the focus in the second half of the season.