'Tough' South Bend Riley finishes third at Kokomo Tournament; Mishawaka finds growth opportunities
KOKOMO — Alex Daniel feels like he has a resilient team.
They showed it in the third-place game of the Kokomo boys basketball holiday tournament Saturday.
Trailing by two as the clock wound down, Daniel’s Riley Wildcats found a way to win. Junior Marvin Schindler drained a ‘3’ with 3.1 seconds left, and one more defensive stand secured the 49-48 victory over Mount Vernon Fortville.
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“They’ve been through the ups-and-downs of a high school basketball season,” said Daniel of his team. “… I’m super proud of them. It tells me a lot about their character and who we are moving forward.”
Riley (9-2) trailed by as many as eight points to the Marauders. They rallied from that deficit to go up five midway through the fourth quarter, only for Mount Vernon to retake the lead a few minutes later.
Marauder sophomore Elijah Parra split a pair of free throws with 18.6 seconds to go, opening the door for Schindler’s heroics.
“We’re tough,” Schindler said. “We’re going to stick together no matter what, and we’re going to fight.”
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The victory over Mount Vernon capped a 2-1 showing for the Wildcats. They opened the tournament Friday with a 62-49 win over Mishawaka. That was followed by an 81-54 loss to host Kokomo in the semifinals Saturday morning, sending Riley to the consolation bracket.
Kokomo features one of the most dynamic players in the country in Flory Bidunga. The favorite to win the 2024 Indiana Mr. Basketball award had 19 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks against the Wildcats, making eight of his nine shot attempts. Bidunga is rated as the eight-best senior prospect by 247 Sports and is committed to Kansas.
Even though they lost the game, Riley battled back-and-forth with the hosts in the first half, only trailing by six before Kokomo took over in the second stanza. That’s an experience the Wildcat players know will be useful for them throughout the rest of the season.
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“Kokomo is a great team,” senior Payton Baird said. “It was only good for us to play them. Playing that game made us stronger, made us more competitive. It’s getting us ready for more games down the road.”
Baird proved to be the Wildcats’ MVP across the tournament. He had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Mishawaka, 12 points against Kokomo and 24 points and eight rebounds against Mount Vernon.
“His confidence level — he thinks every shot he takes is going to go in,” said Daniel of what sticks out the most to him about Baird. “He works really hard at his craft, and so when you put the work into it, the game is the opportunity to go showcase that. He’s doing that really well right now.”
This won’t be the only holiday tournament the Wildcats play in, as they’ll head to Fishers High School next week to compete in a two-day event on the 28th and 29th. They’ll start the tournament against Jeffersonville, who played Kokomo in the title game of the Kokomo tournament.
“Going to play in these holiday tournaments, I knew what my team was made of,” Daniel said. “I told them before we even started this tournament: we could come back from these two tournaments and be 7-7. We were 7-1, but every team we play can beat us. We wanted that challenge. To come out of here 2-1 – you look at this field of teams, and you feel pretty good about it.”
Mishawaka knows there’s room to grow from tourney performance
While Riley finished the tournament strong, Mishawaka struggled in the fifth-place game against Warren Central. After taking a 17-11 lead after the first quarter, the Cavemen were outscored by 17 points over the final three frames to lose, 61-50.
Mishawaka’s only victory across the two days came against New Haven, 55-39, Friday night.
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“I thought we had some bright spots,” said Mishawaka coach Bodie Bender on his team’s overall performance in the tournament. “I also thought we had some spots where we had some brain farts and didn’t follow what was needed to be successful. We came down here and played some good teams, and that was good for our kids to see that going forward.”
A bright spot for the Cavemen (6-3) against Warren Central was the play of senior Brady Fisher. He had 22 points and five rebounds before fouling out with two minutes to go in the game. He and senior Rasauun Johnson combined for 37 of the team’s 50 points against the Warriors.
“He’s a kid where we need him to score in the paint and sometimes guard the best player in the post,” said Bender of Fisher. “He’s done that since last year for us. We ask a lot of him every night. … He never complains, steps up to the challenge and most nights has success. He ran into a little adversity in this tournament, which is good.”
Mishawaka will be off the rest of the holiday break. Its next game is Jan. 5 at home against Plymouth.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Riley finishes strong while Mishawaka looks to grow from Kokomo Tournament
