Noblesville is looked at as the so-called favorite in this loaded group. But let's be honest, there really is no clear-cut favorite. Yes, the Millers are 6-0 against this year's sectional field, but struggled in their final two regular season games last week, at 2A #1 Heritage Christian (66-52) on Tuesday and their home finale on Thursday vs. 4A #2 Lawrence North (61-40).
Winning the Hoosier Crossroads Conference championship this season for the first time since the 2001-02 season, the Millers have spent a good portion of the season ranked in the #5 slot in Class 4A, but started the season unranked in both the IBCA and 4A polls. The Millers are 4A #5, Fishers finished the regular season at #9 and Carmel #14 in the 4A poll. In the final IBCA poll, Noblesville is #7, Fishers #16, Carmel #19 and Hamilton Southeastern is #20.
Hamilton Southeastern, Fishers and Westfield finished at a three-way tie in the HCC this season, all with 4-2 league records. Zionsville went winless in the HCC at 0-6. Carmel wound up at 5-2 in the MIC, in a three-way tie for 2nd, while North Central was 4th with a 2-5 mark.
Below is a look at the blind draw:
| 4A Sectional 8 at Hamilton Southeastern | ||
|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | Tue. | Noblesville [19-3] vs. Carmel [17-7] - 7:00 |
| Game 2 | Wed. | Zionsville [4-15] vs. Fishers [18-5] - 6:00 |
| Game 3 | Wed. | Westfield [16-6] vs. Hamilton Southeastern [15-6] - 7:30 |
| Semifinal 1 | Fri. | North Central (Indianapolis) [9-12] vs. Winner Game 1 - 6:00 |
| Semifinal 2 | Fri. | Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 - 7:30 |
| Championship | Sat. | Semifinal #1 vs. Semifinal #2 - 7:30 |
Game 1: Noblesville (19-3) vs. Carmel (17-7), Tues. Feb. 10:
The odds of this 1st round match-up mirroring their high-scoring regular season game at Carmel two days before Thanksgiving is pretty unlikely. That night, Noblesville busted out the big guns offensively, as they outran the host Greyhounds on the scoreboard, breaking the century mark for their second time in just the sixth game of the season, 102-85.
Noblesville started off the season 11-0 and then after 13 days without playing a game, suffered their first loss of the season to 4A #3 Homestead in the 1st round of the Greenfield-Central Tournament, 58-44. After that defeat, the Millers rattled off another solid winning streak of eight games. Their final two regular season games last week were their toughest competition all season long, dropping both to Heritage Christian and Lawrence North, two of the most talented teams in the state.
Carmel started this 2014 portion of their regular season with a 7-5 mark, which is decent for Tod Windlan in his 1st season at the helm of the Greyhounds. Since the new year started, Carmel is 10-2 and is playing some great basketball. Trying to up the ante on the schedule, the Greyhounds played in a holiday shootout at Bedford North Lawrence. In their second game, Carmel kept their ground, but lost a close one to 4A #1 Bedford North Lawrence, 44-40. Having not lost a game since January 9 to Center Grove, Windlan's team has a 7-game winning streak heading into sectional play.
Game 2: Zionsville (4-15) vs. Fishers (18-5), Wed. Feb. 11:
These two met in the regular season just a couple days before Thanksgiving. Fishers won at Zionsville in that match-up, 56-28. It might be a pretty safe bet that the Tigers could very well just about double-up the Eagles again in their sectional meeting Wednesday night.
Zionsville has had a rough season, to say the least. Starting out 0-8, they were finally able to get their first two wins before Christmas, winning at Hamilton Heights (54-50) and on their home floor against Guerin Catholic (54-32). The inexperience of the Eagles became glaringly obvious with a four-game losing streak before a home win over Frankfort (55-42) and a three-game skid before winning the regular season finale over Indianapolis Northwest (67-46), Zionsville's highest output of the season.
Fishers are one of the hotter teams coming into sectional play. Starting off the season 8-1 by early December, the Tigers came back down to reality with two losses in a row at home to Noblesville (45-33) and at Hamilton Southeastern (45-40). The second half of their season has been highlighted with key wins at Center Grove (61-60) and at home vs. Pike (63-55). Fishers also dropped tough games at Carmel (55-43) and a home game to 4A #2 Lawrence North (47-43). Head coach Michael Gaines has the Tigers rolling since December 26 with 11 wins and only two losses to finish the regular season at 18-5.
Game 3: Westfield (16-6) vs. Hamilton Southeastern (15-6), Wed. Feb. 11:
On January 16, these two met in regular season play in the HCC. In a low-scoring affair at Hamilton Southeastern, Westfield held on for a 38-37 road victory. The Shamrocks will look to spoil things again, but the Royals will be hosting and looking for a victory at home.
Westfield has the longest winning streak of any of the 7 teams in the sectional field at Hamilton Southeastern. The Shamrocks have rolled off 9 consecutive wins and 10 of their last 11 on their was to their current 16-6 record heading into the state tournament.
Hamilton Southeastern hasn't had the best run as of late, losing four of six to close out the regular season. Chris Huppenthal's squad started off the season with an outstanding 10-1 record, but with some slight injuries, the Royals had a blowout loss at home to #2 Lawrence North (59-32), along with road losses at Pike (60-58) and Noblesville (68-57) before ending their slate with home win over Ben Davis (57-39).
Semifinal #1: Noblesville/Carmel winner vs. North Central (9-12), Fri. Feb. 13:
It's tough enough to draw the bye game in the sectional. Some see it as having that much more preparation and practice for your next opponent. Others, like last year's Noblesville team see it as way too much time off after the last regular season game. The Millers weren't happy drawing the bye last year for sectionals, because that extra time off came back to haunt them as they were whipped by eventual sectional champion Fishers, 58-43.
North Central has a lot of youth and some experience to their team this season. Head coach Dee Ann Ramey and company have endured quite a lot with a grueling MIC schedule and a tough non-conference slate.
The Panthers didn't fare the best against either potential semifinal possibilities. Keeping Noblesville in-check for the most part, the led the Millers at half by 2 and trailed them by one after three before Noblesville pulled away for a 17-point, 72-55 win. Carmel also handled NC well, taking down the Panthers 45-29.
Semifinal #2: Zionsville/Fishers winner vs. Westfield/Hamilton SE winner, Fri. Feb. 13:
More than likely, Fishers will easily find themselves in the semifinals. Zionsville just really doesn't have the personnel and offensive firepower to compete with Fishers, unless they were to pull off the biggest upset of the sectionals throughout the state.
It will be an extremely tough battle with Westfield and Southeastern to get to this semifinal match-up with Fishers. This one for sure will be worth the price of admission on Friday night.
If Westfield meets Tigers in this game, the Shamrocks will be looking to avenge their loss in the second game of the season at Fishers, 45-42. If Southeastern knocks off Westfield, the Royals will look to go 2-0 over their neighbors for the first time since 2006-07, the first year the schools were split.
Championship: Semifinal #1 winner vs. Semifinal #2 winner, Sat. Feb. 14:
From what it looks like the two semifinals should pan out, most are seeing the championship to be Noblesville vs. Fishers.
It's plain and simple, if this is the match-up that we see. These two met one time this season back on December 12th at Fishers.
Fishers slowed the tempo down to their style and Noblesville wasn't able to break the game open in the first half, like they had been used to. The Millers came into that game with an 8-0 record and the Tigers were 7-1. Trailing 11-6 after one and 15-13 at halftime, Noblesville was methodically finding their way back into their usual groove. It was a 7-7 third quarter to cut the deficit to 22-20 through 3. Noblesville took over in the 4th, outscoring Fishers 25-11 to pull away by a dozen, 45-33.
Broadcast schedule for Sectional 8 on HamiltonCountyTV.com (hctv1.com):
Tuesday: Noblesville vs. Carmel - 6:50 pregame, 7:00 tip-off
Wednesday: Zionsville vs. Fishers - 5:50 pregame, 6:00 tip-off
Westfield vs. Hamilton SE, to follow
Friday: Semifinal #1 - 5:50 pregame, 6:00 tip-off
Semifianl #2, to follow
Saturday: Championship game - 7:15 pregame, 7:30 tip-off
Noblesville started off the season 11-0 and then after 13 days without playing a game, suffered their first loss of the season to 4A #3 Homestead in the 1st round of the Greenfield-Central Tournament, 58-44. After that defeat, the Millers rattled off another solid winning streak of eight games. Their final two regular season games last week were their toughest competition all season long, dropping both to Heritage Christian and Lawrence North, two of the most talented teams in the state.
Carmel started this 2014 portion of their regular season with a 7-5 mark, which is decent for Tod Windlan in his 1st season at the helm of the Greyhounds. Since the new year started, Carmel is 10-2 and is playing some great basketball. Trying to up the ante on the schedule, the Greyhounds played in a holiday shootout at Bedford North Lawrence. In their second game, Carmel kept their ground, but lost a close one to 4A #1 Bedford North Lawrence, 44-40. Having not lost a game since January 9 to Center Grove, Windlan's team has a 7-game winning streak heading into sectional play.
Game 2: Zionsville (4-15) vs. Fishers (18-5), Wed. Feb. 11:
These two met in the regular season just a couple days before Thanksgiving. Fishers won at Zionsville in that match-up, 56-28. It might be a pretty safe bet that the Tigers could very well just about double-up the Eagles again in their sectional meeting Wednesday night.
Zionsville has had a rough season, to say the least. Starting out 0-8, they were finally able to get their first two wins before Christmas, winning at Hamilton Heights (54-50) and on their home floor against Guerin Catholic (54-32). The inexperience of the Eagles became glaringly obvious with a four-game losing streak before a home win over Frankfort (55-42) and a three-game skid before winning the regular season finale over Indianapolis Northwest (67-46), Zionsville's highest output of the season.
Fishers are one of the hotter teams coming into sectional play. Starting off the season 8-1 by early December, the Tigers came back down to reality with two losses in a row at home to Noblesville (45-33) and at Hamilton Southeastern (45-40). The second half of their season has been highlighted with key wins at Center Grove (61-60) and at home vs. Pike (63-55). Fishers also dropped tough games at Carmel (55-43) and a home game to 4A #2 Lawrence North (47-43). Head coach Michael Gaines has the Tigers rolling since December 26 with 11 wins and only two losses to finish the regular season at 18-5.
Game 3: Westfield (16-6) vs. Hamilton Southeastern (15-6), Wed. Feb. 11:
On January 16, these two met in regular season play in the HCC. In a low-scoring affair at Hamilton Southeastern, Westfield held on for a 38-37 road victory. The Shamrocks will look to spoil things again, but the Royals will be hosting and looking for a victory at home.
Westfield has the longest winning streak of any of the 7 teams in the sectional field at Hamilton Southeastern. The Shamrocks have rolled off 9 consecutive wins and 10 of their last 11 on their was to their current 16-6 record heading into the state tournament.
Hamilton Southeastern hasn't had the best run as of late, losing four of six to close out the regular season. Chris Huppenthal's squad started off the season with an outstanding 10-1 record, but with some slight injuries, the Royals had a blowout loss at home to #2 Lawrence North (59-32), along with road losses at Pike (60-58) and Noblesville (68-57) before ending their slate with home win over Ben Davis (57-39).
Semifinal #1: Noblesville/Carmel winner vs. North Central (9-12), Fri. Feb. 13:
It's tough enough to draw the bye game in the sectional. Some see it as having that much more preparation and practice for your next opponent. Others, like last year's Noblesville team see it as way too much time off after the last regular season game. The Millers weren't happy drawing the bye last year for sectionals, because that extra time off came back to haunt them as they were whipped by eventual sectional champion Fishers, 58-43.
North Central has a lot of youth and some experience to their team this season. Head coach Dee Ann Ramey and company have endured quite a lot with a grueling MIC schedule and a tough non-conference slate.
The Panthers didn't fare the best against either potential semifinal possibilities. Keeping Noblesville in-check for the most part, the led the Millers at half by 2 and trailed them by one after three before Noblesville pulled away for a 17-point, 72-55 win. Carmel also handled NC well, taking down the Panthers 45-29.
Semifinal #2: Zionsville/Fishers winner vs. Westfield/Hamilton SE winner, Fri. Feb. 13:
More than likely, Fishers will easily find themselves in the semifinals. Zionsville just really doesn't have the personnel and offensive firepower to compete with Fishers, unless they were to pull off the biggest upset of the sectionals throughout the state.
It will be an extremely tough battle with Westfield and Southeastern to get to this semifinal match-up with Fishers. This one for sure will be worth the price of admission on Friday night.
If Westfield meets Tigers in this game, the Shamrocks will be looking to avenge their loss in the second game of the season at Fishers, 45-42. If Southeastern knocks off Westfield, the Royals will look to go 2-0 over their neighbors for the first time since 2006-07, the first year the schools were split.
Championship: Semifinal #1 winner vs. Semifinal #2 winner, Sat. Feb. 14:
From what it looks like the two semifinals should pan out, most are seeing the championship to be Noblesville vs. Fishers.
It's plain and simple, if this is the match-up that we see. These two met one time this season back on December 12th at Fishers.
Fishers slowed the tempo down to their style and Noblesville wasn't able to break the game open in the first half, like they had been used to. The Millers came into that game with an 8-0 record and the Tigers were 7-1. Trailing 11-6 after one and 15-13 at halftime, Noblesville was methodically finding their way back into their usual groove. It was a 7-7 third quarter to cut the deficit to 22-20 through 3. Noblesville took over in the 4th, outscoring Fishers 25-11 to pull away by a dozen, 45-33.
Broadcast schedule for Sectional 8 on HamiltonCountyTV.com (hctv1.com):
Tuesday: Noblesville vs. Carmel - 6:50 pregame, 7:00 tip-off
Wednesday: Zionsville vs. Fishers - 5:50 pregame, 6:00 tip-off
Westfield vs. Hamilton SE, to follow
Friday: Semifinal #1 - 5:50 pregame, 6:00 tip-off
Semifianl #2, to follow
Saturday: Championship game - 7:15 pregame, 7:30 tip-off
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