HC, CP, Lowell do well on draw day

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Crown Point assistant coach Brian Elston speaks with Nick Jeffirs during a game against East Chicago on Saturday, December 31, 2011. | Mark Smith~Sun-Times Media

102nd Indiana State

Basketball Tournament

all title games Saturday night, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

CLASS 4A Sectional 1 @ GARY WEST SIDE

2-28 (Tu) Munster [16-3] vs. Lake Central [17-2] 7 p.m,.

2-29 (W) LOWELL [7-11] vs. Highland [13-6] 6 p.m.

2-29 (W) Gary West Side [6-9] vs. Morton [10-8]

3-2-12 (F) East Chicago [10-8] vs. Munster or LC - 6 p.m.

3-2-12 (F) LOWELL/High. vs West Side/Morton - 7:30 p.m.

Class 4A Sectional 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY

2-28 (Tu.) Valpo [12-7] vs. MERRILLVILLE [12-7] 6 p.m.

2-28 (Tu.) CROWN POINT [11-8] vs. Chesterton [6-12]

2-29 (Wed.) Portage [1-20] vs. Hobart [9-10] 6 p.m.

2-29 (Wed) Mich. City [9-9] vs. LaPorte [8-11] 7:30 p.m.

3-2 (Fri.) Valpo-MERRILLVILLE vs. CP - 6 p.m.

3-2 (Fri.) MC/LaPorte vs. Hobart - 7:30 p.m.

CLASS 3A Sectional 17 @ CLARK

2-28 (Tues.) Clark [9-10] vs. Gavit [3-16] 6 p.m.

2-28 (Tues.) Roosevelt [8-8] vs. Griffith [3-15] 7:30 p.m.

3-2 (Fri) Lew Wallace [6-7] vs. Clark/Gavit - 6 p.m.

3-2 (Fri.) Hammond [7-10] vs. Roosevelt/Gavit - 7:30 p.m.

Class 3A Sectional 18 @ RENSSELAER

2-28 (Tu.) Calumet [2-17] vs. Rensselaer [5-14] 6 p.m.

2-28 (Tu.) Kankakee Valley [5-14] vs. Knox [4-15]

3-2 (F) ANDREAN [16-2] vs. Calumet/Renssealer - 6 p.m.

3-2 (F) HANOVER CENTRAL [10-7] vs. KV/Knox - 7:30 p.m.

Crown Point Bulldogs (11-8)

Clint Swan, 79-49 in 6 years

Dec. 2 (W) 53-49 at LaPorte (8-10)

Dec. 6 (L) 55-60 at Morton (10-8)

Dec. 9 (L) 48-62 Lake Central (16-2)

Dec. 13 (L) 49-60 Valparaiso (12-6)

Dec. 16 (L) 60-66 at Michigan City (9-8)

Dec. 20 (W) 67-42 Griffith (3-14)

Dec. 27 (L) 64-65 at Merrillville (10-7)

Dec. 31 (L) 56-62 (OT) at East Chicago (9-89)

Jan. 3 (W) 80-47 at Portage (1-18)

Jan. 6 (W)_ 56-49 Chesterton (5-12)

Jan. 13 (L) 54-74 at Lake Central (16-2)

Jan. 21 (L) 60-63 Michigan City (9-8)

Jan. 27 (W) 48-41 at Valparaiso (12-6)

Jan. 28 (W) 68-46 Boone Grove (5-11)

Feb. 3 (W) 64-52 Merrillville (10-7)

Feb. 9 (W) 61-51 LaPorte (8-10)

Feb. 11 (W) 70-60 (SB) Washington (14-3)

Feb. 17 (W) 63-36 Portage (1-20)

Feb. 18 (W) 91-69 at Lowell (7-11)

Feb. 24 (Fri.) at Chesterton (5-14)

Class 4A Michigan City Sectional

Feb 28 (Tues) quarterfinal

March 2 (Fri) semifinal

March 3 (Sat) championship

Article Extras

Updated: February 24, 2012 2:52PM

I’ve found the best way to watch college basketball is to pay absolutely no attention to it until the pairings come out for the NCAA Tournmant.

The sea of conference tournaments and the 68-team tourney field has made the regular season as important as the Green Party’s nomination for president.

In some respects, that’s always been the way to watch high school basketball in Indiana.

So, “Selection Sunday” was big news for Crown Point — and then again it wasn’t. Crown Point has defeated every team they could possibly face in Class 4A Sectional 2 expect Hobart (which it has not played) and Michigan City.

Now, they just have to play them again, staring with Chesterton in the second quarterfinal game of the eight-team Michigan City Sectional which begins the night of Feb. 28.

After a 1-4 start, CP is now 11-8 with a seven-game winning streak, if CP wins the final regular season game Friday at Chesterton (5-13).

Crown Point will be seen as one of the favorites in a very even field, especially since it opens the post-season against Chesterton next Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.

But the present playoff structure works against CP and Merrillville (12-8), teams that have to take that 45-minute bus ride to Michigan City three times in five days to bring back the sectional trophy while MC and LaPorte are virtually playing in their own driveways. The folks who say that home court does not matter in the postseason are the same ones who insist the price of gasoline will eventually go back down, too.

Hanover Central basically knew its fate before hearing it, too.

In the six team Class 3A Renssealer Sectional, Hanover (11-7) faces four teams with top-heavy losing records, and 3A No. 3 Andrean (17-2).

The Wildcats needed a first-round bye and they got it. There’s no logic in wanting to play three times in a six-team high school basketball sectional where two teams get first round quarterfinal byes. You can’t lose a quarterfinal game that you don’t play.

It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Kankakee Valley could defeat Hanover in the 3A Sectional 18 semifinals on March 2, but HC has already topped KV 51-42 in December.

It looks like a Hanover-Andrean final game and if it seems that HC, which has no one taller than 6-foot-3, is overmatched against the 59ers, who are led by 6-foot-4 junior guard John Davidson and 6-foot-9 senior center Josh James, it’s because they are.

The matchup of Davidson and Hanover’s Nick Bollenbacher will be spotlighted but the Wildcats need a hero who can get rebounds away from James inside. They have a week to find him.

Lowell got almost everything it could have asked for from the draw.

The Devils needee a bye in the quarterfinals of the seven team Class 4A Gary West Side Sectional and didn’t get it. East Chicago did.

But the Devils (7-110 face a Highland team they know they can defeat because they topped Highland 75-70 on on Jan. 7.

It should be noted that Highland has defeated Class 2A No.2 Bishop Noll (16-3), so the Trojans, who start five seniors, may feel that Lowell loss was a fluke.

The Lowell-Highland winner faces Gary West Side or Morton, two teams Lowell has lost to but two teams that are not significantly superior to the Devils.

Munster (16-3), Lake Central (17-2) and East Chicago (10-8) are not in Lowell’s half of the bracket so Lowell could conceiveably avoid either Munster, a team they have not defeated in 11 years, or Lake Central, with all-state guard Glenn Robinson.

The local Class 3A regional is at Plymouth, a place that Hanover has never played and the place that has been a graveyard for Andrean teams over the years.

The winners at Michigan City and West Side go to Michigan City four the four-team regional on March 10.