The 2014 Greenfield-Central Tournament will attract a lot of attention throughout the state of Indiana with the extremely talented teams that have joined this year's field.
The teams in the tournament combine for a 70-21 record, which means we're set to see some tremendous basketball for all 12 games of this girls holiday tournament.
The matchups look pretty favorable, to an extent, for the teams that are expected to advance, but we all know that the games aren't played on paper. As it looks from a first glance, the host Greenfield-Central Cougars are an early favorite in the top half of the bracket to advance and play Richmond.
In the bottom half of the bracket is where it gets a little bit dicey. The matchups of East Central vs. Lebanon and Noblesville vs. Homestead, in my opinion, are coin-flip games. By that, I mean they will honestly come down to the wire and be decided in the final minutes.
Game 1 - Floyd Central (5-6) vs. Greenfield-Central (9-2) - 10 a.m. :
The Highlanders of Floyd Central come into the opening game of the Greenfield-Central Tournament having won two games in a row over Charlestown (58-53, OT) and at Salem (71-51).
With winning three of their first five over Evansville Harrison (43-29), Scottsburg (60-42) and Bloomington North (47-32), they may be flying under the radar and are hoping to knock off the host Cougars in the opener.
Floyd Central previously lost four in a row and five out of six before getting back on the winning track the week before Christmas.
Fourth-year head coach Kirk Hamsley has kept the Highlanders right around the .500 mark, coming into 2014-15 at 33-33. Hamsley's Highlanders are led by Madison Kaiser at 20.4 ppg and 10.3 rpg.
Hosting your own holiday tournament is great in the fact that you get to play on your home floor and being able to stay in your normal game routines is also a huge plus. What's that toughest thing about hosting a tournament? Yes, you guessed it, winning your own holiday tournament.
Greenfield-Central controls their own destiny in their own tournament with the more favorable draw in the top half of the bracket. A win over Floyd Central and they'll play the winner of the Hamilton Heights-Richmond Game 2 pairing.
In his 7th season at GC, Laker has an 81-56 record. Those include starting this season off winning five of six against Lafayette Jeff (79-21), Pendleton Heights (46-41), at Avon (67-30), Corydon Central (68-25) and Merrillville (49-44). Their first loss of the season was at North Central 58-49.
The Cougars have strung together four straight wins since their last loss to Hamilton SE (55-48). New Palestine (43-27), at Shelbyville (66-33), Delta (75-35) and Connersville (69-61) have been the latest to fall to head coach Doug Laker's squad.
The hosts are led by sophomores Madison Wise (19.3 ppg, 11.8 rpg) and Katie Helgason (12.2 ppg), along with senior Regan Lewis with 10.7 points and 5.9 rebounds.
Game 2 - Hamilton Heights (3-8) vs. Richmond (7-2) - 11:45 a.m. :
The second game features what looks to be in the favor of the Richmond Red Devils, but you never know what Hamilton Heights might have up its sleeve. It's been quite a struggle for Scott Fernung in his 2nd season at the helm of the Huskies, as he's 12-20 thru the midway point of season number two and searching for the identity of his ball club.
Things started out okay with a 65-47 win to open the season at home against Tri-Central. Quickly it shifted downhill with five losses in a row at Noblesville (103-48), Carmel (91-30), at Mount Vernon (Fortville) (76-39), Lebanon (71-54) and at Pendleton Heights (77-54).
Production has been better lately, but still the Huskies have dropped three of five coming into this tournament. Wins over Northwestern (55-53) and at Western Boone (46-37) have given Hamilton Heights a little more confidence as of late.
The Huskies are led by a pair in double-figures with freshman Kayla Kirtley's 13.3 points and 5.2 rebounds, along with senior Caitlyn Hays and her 11.5 points.
Richmond comes on riding a 6-game winning streak that has them standing atop the North Central Conference tied with McCutcheon with a 4-0 league mark.
The Red Devils started the season off 1-2 and not worried in the least bit. Winning their season-opener over Centerville (73-28), Richmond lost two in a row at Heritage Christian (81-55) and fellow tourney competitor East Central (61-56).
Just after Thanksgiving, wins over Muncie Central (51-50), Kokomo (64-35), at Danville (50-44), at Franklin County (77-34), at Anderson (66-59) and at Huntington North (72-61) have the Red Devils hoping to play the spoiler role.
Head Coach Casey Pohlenz has a couple of offensive leaders that include Destiny Perkins at 25 points and Mackenzie Taylor at 18.7.
Game 3 - 4A #13 East Central (13-1) vs. 3A #7 Lebanon (10-1) - 1:30 p.m. :
East Central is one of the hotter teams in the Greenfield-Central Tournament field and to be honest, they probably aren't getting a whole lot of recognition with 13 teams still left undefeated in the state of Indiana. The Trojans have 13 wins, but one glaring loss at Columbus North (65-52) in the second week of December has them sitting at 4A #13 in the latest poll.
Kevin Moore is in his 6th year as head coach and has compiled an 80-38 record. His teams started this season out with 9 wins at Madison (57-45), Shelbyville (77-24), Jac-Cen-Del (72-42), at Columbus East (48-40), at Richmond (61-56), Greensburg (64-35), Franklin County (68-37), Harrison (OH) (60-30) and Jennings County (54-42).
Following that loss at Columbus North, it didn't take long for East Central to get back on track and start winning again. A pair of wins against South Dearborn (64-14) and at Batesville (47-41) helped them as they played in a tournament at Harrison, Ohio, getting victories over Hamilton (OH) (52-45) and Harrison (OH) again (60-19).
The Trojans count on a trio to keep them in control. Allie McCool averages 13.8 points and 9 boards a game, while Claire Volpenhein (12.3) and Kelsey Tippitt (10.2) do their part to keep East Central going.
The Lebanon Tigers are one team that the other seven should be a little weary of. Head Coach Beth DeVinney is 47-11 in her 3rd year at Lebanon and has an overall record of 259-120 in 19 seasons.
DeVinney's offense revolves around 5'11 junior guard/forward Kristen Spolyar (32.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 4.1 apg, 5.1 spg) and a pair of guards named Brooke Montgomery (12.1 ppg, 2.4 apg, 2.6 spg) and Mallory Cast (10 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.7 spg).
Starting the year out with two wins over Indianapolis Ritter (67-42) and at Zionsville (78-35), things got real when they visited Noblesville and left with a 77-60 loss to the Millers.
Now, the Tigers have strung together a streak of eight wins heading into this Greenfield-Central Tournament. Those wins were over West Lafayette (69-50), at Hamilton Heights (71-54), at Crawfordsville (85-62), Plainfield (75-67), Western Boone (86-15), Western (82-31), Danville (73-65) and Avon (73-40).
Lebanon is looking to knock East Central into the loser's bracket and hopes that Noblesville can take Homestead out to set up a rematch of their game back on November 18.
Game 4 - 4A #4 Noblesville (11-0) vs. 4A #3 Homestead (12-1) - 3:15 p.m. :
Homestead is the only team in the field that has kept playing over Christmas break. They only had a week between winning at Carmel (71-38) and playing in a two-day Columbus North Tournament, in which they went 2-1 and lost in the championship game to the host Columbus North Bulldogs, 86-75 to drop the Spartans to 12-1.
Prior to play at Columbus North, Homestead was cruising right along at 10-0 and they weren't sure what would stop them. Taking a look at the Spartans' 12-game streak to start the season, they took Fort Wayne Northrop (82-22), at Fort Wayne Dwenger (85-43), at Marion (84-49), Huntington North (87-29), Norwell (85-45), at Bedford, MI (81-42), New Haven (84-26), Fort Wayne South (80-47), at Carroll (Allen) (86-54), at Carmel (71-38) as victims.
Starting out 10-0, Homestead was winning by an average of 53 points per game and averaged right around 84 per game offensively. Until they visited Carmel, the Spartans didn't know what it was like to score under 80 points, but with a close 3 quarters, the Greyhounds kept Homestead well below their plus-80 a game average for only 71 points.
The Columbus North Tournament was a potently talented field of teams that usually tend to make runs in the state tournament. Columbus North, Merrillville, Penn, Jeffersonville, Homestead, Mooresville, Pike and Crown Point all combine for a collective record of 79-32.
Noblesville is the lone undefeated team in the Greenfield-Central Tournament and they're obviously going to have a target on their backs in each of the 3 games they'll play.
The Millers have put together quite a season to date and look to keep it rolling and get three wins in this tournament, but it won't be easy by any means. Playing previously unbeaten, now one-loss Homestead will be the toughest 1st round game to start.
Their 11 straight wins were at Indianapolis Arsenal Tech (65-48), Hamilton Heights (103-48), Lebanon (77-60), at Brownsburg (78-51), Warsaw (64-39), at Carmel (102-85), Avon (90-27), at North Central (72-55), at Fishers (45-33), at Anderson (92-50) and Westfield (68-55).
Head Coach Donna Keck counts on experience and the togetherness of Alexis Shannon (23.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg), Katelyn O'Reilly (15.9 ppg, 9.3 rpg), Becca Bergman (9.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 5.6 apg, 4 spg), along with Kayleigh Herron (4.5 ppg, 2.3 apg), Brooke Herron (4.8 ppg, 2.7 apg), Erin Wood (4.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.7 spg), Cori Cain (2.7 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1 spg) and Emily Kiser (4.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.1 bpg).
It should be a tremendous two days of high school girls basketball at Greenfield-Central.
All 3 Noblesville Miller games will be broadcast LIVE on hamiltoncountytv.com! If you can't be there, don't hesitate to join myself (Craig Adkins) for the play-by-play and Perry Williams with the color commentary. Coverage for Noblesville's 3:15 game on Friday, January 2nd will start at 3:05.
Here is how the full slate of games looks:
| Jan. 2 | 1 | Floyd Central (5-6) at Greenfield-Central (9-2), 10:00 am | Greenfield | First round |
| Jan. 2 | 2 | Hamilton Heights (3-8) vs. Richmond (7-2), 11:45 am | Greenfield | First round |
| Jan. 2 | 3 | East Central (13-1) vs. Lebanon (10-1), 1:30 pm | Greenfield | First round |
| Jan. 2 | 4 | Noblesville (11-0) vs. Homestead (12-1), 3:15 pm | Greenfield | First round |
| Jan. 2 | 5 | Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 6 pm | Greenfield | Consolation |
| Jan. 2 | 6 | Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 7:45 pm | Greenfield | Consolation |
| Jan. 3 | 7 | Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 10:00 am | Greenfield | Semifinal |
| Jan. 3 | 8 | Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 11:45 am | Greenfield | Semifinal |
| Jan. 3 | 9 | Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6, 1:30 pm | Greenfield | 7th place |
| Jan. 3 | 10 | Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 3:15 pm | Greenfield | 5th place |
| Jan. 3 | 11 | Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8, 6 pm | Greenfield | 3rd place |
| Jan. 3 | 12 | Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 7:45 pm | Greenfield | championship |
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