PREP ROUNDUP: Logan boys split with Muncie Central, Rochester

Dec. 11—The Logansport boys basketball team had the response that coach Matt Lange was looking for Saturday night at Rochester.

After the offense disappeared for long stretches in a 46-37 loss at Muncie Central Friday night, the Berries bounced back with a 58-43 victory at Rochester Saturday night.

Jacob Taylor led the Berries (3-2, 0-1 NCC) with 21 points one night after Logansport's leading scorer was held scoreless at Muncie Central.

Logansport coach Matt Lange spoke with WSAL's Joe Stetz and Dave Packard following the Rochester win.

"I thought we played well. Jacob Taylor played unbelievable tonight," Lange said. "I don't care that he had 21 points, he rose to the challenge everywhere else. I told him, 'that's how you keep on the floor' and he was on the floor all but the last 38 seconds because I wanted to congratulate and hug him on what a great job he did. He's not the only one who played exceptionally well. It was rough last night. We talked about it this morning and we talked about it again before the game. These guys just came up and played really well. It was just a really good game for us and a good comeback after a tough loss last night."

Chrisanthony Del Valle and Loran Taylor added 12 points each for the Berries. Isaac Russell added eight.

Drew Bowers led the Zebras (2-2) with 23 points. Owen Prater scored eight and Carson Paulik added seven.

The Berries led 14-13 after one, 34-25 at halftime and 47-35 after three.

The Zebras got to within 50-43 on a Bowers basket with 3:30 remaining. Del Valle answered with a 360 layup to push the lead to nine. Loran Taylor scored back-to-back baskets followed by a hoop by Jacob Taylor to push the lead to 15.

"They really had a lot of trouble guarding Chris getting downhill," Lange said. "So we told him to put a little bit of pressure on them. So we'll take some good with the bad on that. We put a lot of pressure in transition. This is the kind of team I really want us to be because we score a lot better when we're playing in transition as opposed to when we're playing in the halfcourt. I thought we did really well with that. Once we turned up the transition game it was pretty much light's out for us."

It was a stark contrast from Friday night when the Berries struggled getting much going offensively at Muncie Central. It was possibly Logansport's last game at the Muncie Fieldhouse, at least for the foreseeable future as the Berries are moving to the Hoosier Conference starting next year.

Lange was dejected in his postgame comments with the radio.

"I just think we maybe should have stayed on the bus tonight. We just really didn't look very well," he said. "I don't know what else to say. I thought our defense was OK at times. I thought we had a pretty decent athletic team down playing 2-3 zone. I sound a little down because I am because I think this is one of the games we needed to win. I just don't think we performed tonight. I think their pressure got to us a little bit. I told the coaching staff I feel like we weren't even prepared because we couldn't even get into an offense and when I was calling and offense we wouldn't even get into it. I want to blame myself on this because I just don't think we were prepared."

Del Valle led the Berries with 14 points. Cooper Smith was also in double figures with 11. Loran Taylor added six. Deagan Kitchel chipped in five.

DeMarkis Cole led the Bearcats (2-2, 1-0) with 19 points.

Muncie led 6-4 after one and Cole hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Bearcats a 17-16 lead at halftime. Muncie led 32-30 after three.

Kitchel's three-point play gave Logan a brief 33-32 lead with 7:00 remaining. But the Bearcats responded with an 8-0 run, scoring six of the points at the foul line to take a 40-33 lead. Del Valle's basket got Logan to within five. But the Berries were called with for an intentional foul with 57 seconds left that the Bearcats turned into a three-point possession to make it 43-35. Del Valle again made it a two-possession game at 43-37 before the Bearcats made 3 of 4 free throws to close out the win.

Logan travels to Lafayette Jeff Friday night and hosts Maconaquah Saturday night. Both games are girls-boys doubleheaders.

PIONEER SPLITS

Pioneer dropped its HNAC opener at Triton Friday night before winning its home opener against North Miami Saturday.

Drew McKaig, playing through a dislocated finger injury, had a big weekend for the Panthers (1-3, 0-1). He had 21 points against Triton and 19 more against North Miami.

Lucas Perry and Brayden Erickson added eight points each against Triton. Rylahn Toloza added five.

Julian Swanson led four Trojans (4-0, 1-0) in double figures with 14 points.

Triton led 19-7 after one, 32-16 at halftime and 44-36 after three.

Micah Rans added seven points, Erickson had six and Perry added five in the win over North Miami.

Luke Musall led the Warriors (1-4) with 15 points. Jake Riley added nine.

North Miami led 17-10 at halftime before Pioneer outscored them 19-10 in the third to take a 29-27 lead. The Panthers outscored the Warriors 12-11 in the fourth.

McKaig scored 17 of his 19 in the second half, including nine in the third and eight more in the fourth.

"Overall I was pleased with our effort at Triton," Pioneer coach Darren McKaig said. "We still were having trouble rotating properly in our 2-3 zone and Triton ran some nice plays against it and hit some timely shots. Our 21 turnovers were the main reason we lost the game, however. We shot the ball well but didn't get enough opportunities because of the turnovers. Drew had a nice game with 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting and five rebounds.

"I was really proud of how our guys gutted out the North Miami game. North Miami always comes into this game with fresh legs because they don't have a game on Friday night. Our guys were pretty tired from the Triton game but knew this was a game we had to win. We made some adjustments to our zone and they did a really good job of limiting wide open shots. We struggled shooting but our defense and rebounding won us the game. We had 32 rebounds as a team. Drew led us with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Brayden Erickson had a nice game with six points, six rebounds and four assists. Micah Rans hit two clutch free throws and scored the last four points of the game to seal the win."

LAVILLE 69, WINAMAC 55

Winamac (2-3, 0-1 HNAC) dropped a league game at LaVille (2-1, 1-0) Friday night.

John Malchow had 16 points, five boards and four assists to lead the Warriors. Will Malchow and Justin Potthoff scored 10 points apiece. Brendan Hines had nine points and seven assists. Jayse Bentle added eight points.

Michael Good had 20 points and eight boards and Lucas Plummer and Collin Czarnecki each scored 18 points to lead the Lancers.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

LOGANSPORT SWEEPS

It was a good weekend for the Lady Berries, who picked up their first two wins of the season.

They had a 44-28 win at Muncie Central Friday night. Lydia Goad scored 16 points and Aracyn Good added 15 to lead the Berries. Kellyn Cripe chipped in six.

Logan turned around and beat LaVille 32-26 Saturday night in the Berry Bowl. Cripe led with 10 points, Goad had nine, Good seven and Rylinn Spradling six.

WINAMAC SWEEPS

Winamac (8-4, 2-1 HNAC) recorded a 46-30 league win at LaVille Friday followed by a 64-34 win over visiting DeMotte Christian Saturday.

Marissa Iverson had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the win over LaVille. Kandace Kroft also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards. Piper Link added 11 points and seven boards.

Kroft had 14 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in the win over DeMotte Christian. Sadie Popejoy scored 13 points. Maggie Smith had 12 points, five assists and four steals. Iverson had 11 points, Link added eight and Corinne Ulerick chipped in six.

PIONEER 42, LAPORTE 24

Makenna Strycker scored 13 points and Mia McKaig had 11 in Pioneer's win at LaPorte Saturday.

Lois Layer added seven points, Kynzie Hathaway and Casey Webb added four apiece and Gracie Hopper chipped in three.

The Panthers (3-5) have won three of their last four. The Slicers dropped to 1-10.

CASTON 50, TRITON 20

Caston improved to 10-0 and 3-0 in the HNAC with a 30-point win at Triton (3-9, 1-2) Saturday afternoon.

The Comets have moved up to No. 2 in this week's ICGSA poll, trailing only Lanesville (11-0) in Class A.

Isabel Scales had 12 points, eight boards and four assists for the Comets. Addison Zimpleman had 12 points, three assists and three steals. Madisyn Douglass had nine points and four steals. Annie Harsh scored eight points. Macee Hinderlider had six points and five boards. Olivia Thomas chipped in three points. Alexa Finke played tremendous defense against Triton's Addyson Viers, who was held to five points.

CARROLL 60, CULVER ACADEMIES 48

Madison Wagner and Laney Johnson scored 18 points apiece to lead Class 2A co-No. 8 Carroll past visiting Culver Academies. Wagner also had nine rebounds.

Also for the Cougars (8-2), Alli Harness had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.

WRESTLING

CLINTON CENTRAL INVITE

Cass went 5-0 on the day to win the event. The Kings defeated Clinton Central 54-30, Attica 58-24, Eastbrook 48-27, Taylor 63-18 and Indianapolis Tech 60-24.

Levi Bell (106), Dominic Sebastian (113), Eli Grist (120), Eli Bowyer (138), Kamaron Hall (144), Hunter Sellers (175) and Nick Park (190) each went 5-0 on the day for the Kings. Eli Auten (285) went 2-0. Braysen Highley (215) went 1-0. Max Grist (125) and Eli Martin (215/285) each went 3-2.

GIRLS SWIMMING

TWIN LAKES INVITE

Logansport placed second.

Second-place relay teams included Libby Evans and Ashley Murillo in diving, the 200 butterfly relay of Emma Brown, Emma Leffert, Jerika Razer and Ximena Lopez and the 200 breaststroke relay of Addie Porter, Leffert, Bella Nicoles and Lopez.

Third-place relay teams included the 200 free relay of Lopez, Murillo, Evans, Natalie Graham, the 400 free relay of Nicoles, Razer, Kennedy Klinkhamer and Marilyn Macias, the 500 crescendo relay of Macias, Brown, Porter and Graham and the 300 pyramid relay of Klinkhamer, Leffert, Razer, Nicoles, Graham and Lopez.

BOYS SWIMMING

TWIN LAKES INVITE

Logansport placed second.

The LHS divers won diving, with Micah Rogers, Arian Castro-Martinez and Kaleb Loman teaming for the win.

Second-place finishers included the 400 IM relay team of Jacob Morrow, Braydon Ferris, Jake Fincher and Scott Loman, the 200 fly relay team of Scott Loman, Morrow, Anderson Woodhouse and Fincher, the 400 free relay team of Mick Bibian, Mateo Lopez, Rogers and Atlee Franklin, the 300 pyramid relay of Cristain Arias, Ferris, Fincher and Woodhouse and the 200 backstroke relay of Morrow, Franklin, Woodhouse and Fincher.

Third-place finishers included the 200 medley relay of Morrow, Ferris, Hudson McKinney and Lopez, the 500 crescendo relay of Rogers, Arias, Woodhouse and Scott Loman and the 500 sprint relay of Arias, Bibian, Lopez, Rogers and McKinney.