BENNETT'S MINUTES: Recapping girls’ hoop regionals, looking to boys’ draw

Benton Central, winner of the Class 3A Crawfordsville Sectional last week, knocked off two frequent Putnam County opponents on Saturday to win the Danville Regional.

The Bison trailed Indianapolis Chatard by five points after three quarters in the first regional contest, but were able to come back and pull out a 59-58 victory

The host Warriors used their length to cause problems defensively for Northview, beating the Knights 40-30 in a low-scoring affair.

Benton Central (now 26-4) then defeated Danville 51-47 in the finals, earning a spot in the semistate on Saturday against Salem (23-3).

The Bison are surely complaining about their semistate game assignment, which is at Jasper. The other two remaining teams from the North are Marion and Northwestern, who will meet at Logansport.

Many people have understandably speculated why Benton Central, located just northwest of Lafayette, was sent on a tourney path through Crawfordsville and Danville that would eventually lead to a southern semistate location.

If the trip’s too far, I’m sure Danville would happily take their spot.

In Class 2A, Western Boone defeated Covenant Christian 66-51 in the first game of the Speedway Regional before losing 65-41 to Winchester in the championship game.

Western Boone never led in the championship game, and standout senior Madison Jones closed out her career with 14 points on 4 of 14 shooting. She ended with 2,125 points to rank her 25th on the state career scoring list.

In a random bit of an oddity, the three schools where I taught (North Vermillion, North Central and Northview) each won a girls’ sectional and then lost their opening regional game.

North Vermillion lost 57-42 to Blue River in the Tipton Regional, while North Central lost 80-62 to Greenwood Christian in the Southwestern (Shelby) Regional.

University, which defeated South Putnam in the championship game of the Monrovia Holiday Tourney, won the title at Southwestern and will play in the southern Class A semistate at Jasper against Vincennes Rivet.

Saturday’s full semistate pairings are:

NORTH

At LaPorte

Class A - Northfield (25-2) vs. Marquette Catholic (25-2) (1 pm ET / 12 pm CT)

Class 4A - Hamilton Southeastern (25-1) vs. Crown Point (28-0) (3 pm ET / 2 pm CT)

At Logansport

Class 2A - Oak Hill (23-4) vs. Central Noble (27-0) (4 pm ET / 3 pm CT)

Class 3A - Marion (23-4) vs. Northwestern (25-3) (6 pm ET / 5 pm CT)

SOUTH

At Jeffersonville

Class 2A - Evansville Mater Dei (17-10) vs. Winchester (25-3) (1 pm ET / 12 pm CT)

Class 4A - Castle (23-4) vs. Lawrence North (21-6) (3 pm ET / 2 pm CT)

At Jasper

Class A - Vincennes Rivet (28-0) vs. University (24-2) (4 pm ET / 3 pm CT)

Class 3A - Salem (23-3) vs. Benton Central (26-4) (6 pm ET / 5 pm CT)

In other news:

• Boys’ drawing set Sunday — The boys’ sectional tournament draw will take place on Sunday, and will be broadcast online at ihsaatv.org and on radio on the IHSAA Champions Network.

The two-hour program, hosted by Greg Rakestraw and Bob Lovell, will start at 5 p.m.

Fox Sports Indiana will broadcast a state tournament preview show that will air on Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. — strangely at the time the games will be tipping off at 64 sites around the state.

Here is a quick look at both sectionals involving Putnam County schools:

Class 3A

At Crawfordsville

Greencastle should enter tourney play with the best record among the seven teams, standing at 16-3 with three games left to play.

The host Athenians are much improved this year at 14-5, and stand 6-0 in Sagamore Conference play. Their final SAC game is on Friday at Danville.

Benton Central has won its last five games, and currently stands at 12-7.

Western Boone is 8-10, although one of its wins was a one-point victory at Greencastle.

Lebanon, which snuck up on everyone and won the title last year, is 8-13. North Montgomery (5-14) and Southmont (3-16) bring up the rear.

Class 2A

At South Putnam

The host Eagles stand at 12-6 with two weeks left in the regular season, and have still not lost on their new homecourt.

Monrovia also stands at 12-6, but has only gone 2-6 since starting the season 10-0. The Bulldogs are looking to snap one of the state’s longest sectional title droughts, not having won since 2000.

Monrovia won sectional titles from 1998-2000 and also won regionals in 1999 and 2000.

South and Monrovia had a scheduled game snowed out in January, and that game will not be made up.

Two other interesting teams in the field are 8-10 Covenant Christian and 8-12 Cloverdale.

The Warriors have played a tough schedule, losing their last three games to Covington, Tri-West (in overtime) and University. Other losses have come to Indianapolis Tech, Indianapolis Chatard, Tipton, Heritage Christian, Brebeuf Jesuit and Greenwood Christian.

Covenant Christian plays a full-court, chaotic style that will be a stark contrast to the rest of the field. The Clovers have been rapidly improving as of late.

North Putnam and Cascade both stand at 5-15 after tough seasons, and would be considered darkhorses to win the title.

• Steve Fields to be honored — Long-time sports journalist Steve Fields of Greencastle will be honored in April by the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association with the Ron Lemasters Lifetime Achievement Award.

Fields has been writing about Hoosier athletes since 1974 at a variety of stops, but he is best known for his time as the sports editor of the Greencastle Banner Graphic for all but two years from 1978 to 1999. Since 2000, Fields has been a correspondent for the Terre Haute Tribune-Star and also does freelance work for the Banner Graphic.

Fields was named the Corky Lamm Sportswriter of the Year in 1996.

He served as the president of the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association for a total of five years over two different stints.

The 10 honorees will be recognized at the association’s annual banquet at 2 p.m. on April 7 at Valle Vista Country Club in Greenwood.

Tickets are available, with meal included, for $30.