Hamilton Southeastern won its Hoosier Crossroads Conference opener on Friday, taking care of Avon 70-46 in an away game.
The Royals were tied with the Orioles 29-29 at halftime. Southeastern began to pull away in the third quarter, leading 50-43 by the end of the period, then dominated the fourth quarter by outscoring Avon 20-3.
Chaz Birchfield led the HSE scoring with 20 points. Noah Smith scored 14 points and came close to a quadruple-double: Smith made nine steals, dished out eight assists and pulled seven rebounds. Aaron Etherington also had seven rebounds.
The Royals are 2-0 overall and will host Fort Wayne North Side tonight in a 7:30 p.m. varsity start.
Shamrocks drop HCC opener to Zionsville
Westfield lost its Hoosier Crossroads Conference opener Friday, falling to Class 4A No. 8 Zionsville 63-38 at The Rock.
The Eagles led 22-12 after the first quarter and 38-14 at halftime. Zach Banks led the Shamrocks in scoring with 18 points while Camden Simons and Eli Patchett both pulled five rebounds.
Westfield is now 0-2 for the season. The ‘Rocks will play again at home on Tuesday against Greenfield Central.
Sheridan drops season opener at Prairie
Sheridan dropped its Hoosier Heartland Conference and season opener on Friday, falling to Clinton Prairie 53-42 at the Gophers’ gym.
The Blackhawks trailed 32-26 at halftime, then Prairie outscored Sheridan 10-3 in the third quarter.
Ange Gnamkey had a great game for the ‘Hawks, scoring 20 points in addition to six steals, five rebounds and four blocked shots. Jack Waitt drained three 3-pointers on his way to 11 points. Nick Burnell pulled five rebounds as well.
Sheridan will play its home opener tonight, taking on Anderson Prep in a 7:30 p.m. varsity start.
Balanced ‘Blazers cruise past IMSA
Senior Foster Flamion’s career high 16 points led University to a wire-to-wire 85-48 over Indiana Math & Science Academy Friday night at The U Center.
Flamion led a balanced scoring attack for the Blazers as Josh Watson (13), Zack Hodgin (10) and Quinn Steiner (10) hit the double figures. Ethan Sickels and Sam Mervis had nine each with Eyal Friedman chipping in with seven.
University scored 15 seconds in to the game and never trailed, although the lead was just 12-9 halfway through the first quarter before the Trailblazers started to break the game open. Sickels had seven points in the first period.
The Blazers opened the second quarter on a 14-2 run to break the game open, eventually leading by as many as 28 in the quarter before taking a 49-24 lead the break. Flamion had nine points in the second quarter and 14 in the first half. Sophomore Sam Mervis came off the bench for three steals that he converted in to six points in the stanza.
University coach Brandon Lafferman was pleased with his team’s fast start. “I liked how we started the game,” said the coach. “We wanted to work on playing in the paint and Foster did a really nice job. Our pace of play was excellent.”
The Trailblazers moved the ball well, with 17 assists on 33 field goals. Hodgin led the way with eight helpers.
Emanuel Lewis had 11 and Jonny Porter 10 to lead the Knights.
University improves to 3-0 on the season while IMSA falls to 1-2. The Trailblazers are back in action Saturday evening when they travel to Speedway to play the Sparkplugs.
Roncalli tops Guerin Catholic in Circle City Conference opener
Guerin Catholic’s boys basketball team could not hold on to a one-point halftime lead, and lost their first game of the season to Roncalli 65-49 at the Eagles Nest Friday night.
After 10 lead changes in a seesaw first half battle, Roncalli (2-0, 1-0 Circle City Conference) held the Golden Eagles to eight third-quarter points and ran out to 48-36 lead entering the final stanza. GC could only cut the deficit to seven points in the fourth quarter as the Rebels missed only one shot from the field goal and converted 8-of-9 free throw attempts.
Roncalli shot 58.5 percent (24-41) from the field, and the Golden Eagles (1-1, 0-1 CCC) could never find a defense to play that could slow the Rebels’ strong shooting, said GC coach Pete Smith.
“They out-physicaled us, and they got good looks in their offense. We shot only 40 percent on our two-point attempts the entire game, and were 0-8 from behind the three-point line. They (Roncalli) had a lot to do with that; they were very good tonight.”
Jack Hansen scored a game-high 22 points for Smith’s squad. Kian Sills added 11 points and had team-best six rebounds, but the junior did not score in the second half.
Guerin Catholic will host Heights tonight in a 7:30 p.m. varsity start.
‘Hounds cruise past Bearcats
Carmel got its first win of the season on Friday, cruising past Lawrence Central 63-49 in its first Metropolitan Conference game, which took place at the Bearcats’ gym.
The Greyhounds got off to a fast start, leading 14-3 after the first quarter. That momentum carried Carmel through the remaining three periods; the ‘Hounds led 30-16 at halftime.
Luke Heady dominated the offense, scoring 31 points on an outrageous 19-of-22 performance from the free-throw line. If that wasn’t enough, Heady threw in four 3-pointers.
John Michael Mulloy added 11 points and pulled seven rebounds, with Andrew Owens right behind by scoring 10 points and grabbing six rebounds. Jalen Whack handed out five assists, while Mulloy had two blocked shots.
Carmel is now 1-1 for the year and hosts Pendleton Heights tonight in a 7:30 p.m. varsity start.
Huskies fall to New Castle
Hamilton Heights fell behind early against New Castle on Friday, and eventually lost to the Trojans 72-63 at the Husky Dome.
Heights trailed 13-5 after the first quarter. The Huskies played even with New Castle in the other three quarters, but couldn’t recover from the slow start. The Trojans led 33-26 at halftime.
Camron Knott and Tyler Wiltermood both had exceptional shooting games for Heights, with both scoring 19 points. Wiltermood was 7-8 from the field and made all four of his free throws, while Knott shot 7-of-10, including five 3-pointers.
Michael Cross, Caleb Bean and Wiltermood all had four rebounds. Hudson Hochstedler dished out eight assists.
The Huskies are 0-3 for the season and play at Guerin Catholic tonight. Tip off for the varsity is 7:30 p.m.
Heights lost a tough junior varsity game 52-49. The Huskies missed a 3-pointer to tie with three seconds to go. Gus Etchison scored 18 points, while Ethan Rodriguez blasted in four 3-pointers for 12 points. Brent Pennington added 10 points.
Westfield’s Eli Patchett takes a shot as the Shamrock crowd cheers him on during the Westfield-Zionsville boys basketball game Friday at The Rock. (Kirk Green)