BENNETT'S MINUTES: Clover-PT matchup one of many good ones in TipOff

Any basketball fan going to Southport on Saturday to see the Cloverdale-Park Tudor contest in the Forum TipOff Classic would do well to leave two hours earlier than planned.

The preceding game is between defending 4A state champion New Albany and perennial power North Central of Indianapolis.

New Albany features junior guard Romeo Langford, the No. 2-ranked player in his class nationally. He has offers from Duke, Kentucky and Kansas.

North Central is led by UCLA signee Kris Wilkes, who has been a summer teammate of Cloverdale’s Cooper Neese for several years.

Other high-profile players in the field include 6-10 Jack Nunge of Castle (headed to Iowa), 6-11 Malik Williams of Fort Wayne Snider (Louisville), 6-8 Kevin Easley of Lawrence North and 6-7 Keion Brooks of Fort Wayne North.

The field would be even more impressive had Park Tudor’s Jaren Jackson (Michigan State) and Southport’s Paul Scruggs (Xavier) not transferred to prep schools to finish their high school careers.

Still an impressive collection of talent, actually better than the state finals since some of these players’ teams will eliminate each other before getting that far.

If you’re not going, you can still catch a lot of hoops all day long on Fox Sports Indiana.

The schedule:

10 a.m. — Center Grove vs. Carmel (girls)

Noon — Lapel vs. New Castle (boys)

2 p.m. — New Albany vs. Indianapolis North Central (boys)

4:30 p.m. — Butler vs. Cincinnati (men)

7 p.m. — Indiana Pacers vs. Portland Trail Blazers

• Many thanks to the numerous readers who contributed information for the list of Putnam County single-game basketball scoring leaders.

I’m in the process of compiling the names into a list, and will be doing the same thing for career scoring leaders.

Many readers found it interesting to read about players from a few years back, and it was especially helpful for me as I continue to develop a knowledge base for Putnam County athletic history.

Some things stood out as being especially noteworthy, perhaps the best being the scores of games back in “the day.”

For example, in the 1966 game when Cloverdale’s Rick Ford scored 53 points, the Clovers racked up a whopping total of 103 points — without the benefit of the 3-point field goal, either.

I will explore at some point why older players think today’s teams don’t score nearly that many points; my prediction is that the emphasis on defense has increased dramatically since that time.

As it turns out, Wayne Bright of Belle Union had previously topped the 53-point mark with a 57-point game.

Much later, Ann Hutcheson of Cloverdale scored 60 points in a late 1980s game to take the official single-game crown. At least, until word of a bigger game comes my way.

• Northview senior basketball standout Stacy Payton surpassed the 1,000-point mark for the Knights in their win on Wednesday night over South Vermillion.

Payton will play softball at Ball State.

• North Putnam senior soccer player Kaelynn Abner was recently named to the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association second team all-state soccer team this year.

Abner’s coach, Chase Hiland, noted the ICGSA doesn’t recognize what classification a school is in when they make these teams.

“If you look at the lists, the teams are dominated with schools four to five times the size of NPHS,” Hiland noted. “Last year as a junior, Kaelynn was name to the third team.”

Hiland has high praise for Abner, who will play collegiately for the College of the Cumberlands in Tennessee.

“Kaelynn is obviously extremely talented in soccer, but she also does an incredible job off the field in her leadership roles with the IHSAA and numerous clubs and organizations,” he said. “She did an excellent job committing to her training this past offseason, and Kaelynn had another fantastic soccer season in 2016 — helping our team win the county championship and finish third in the conference.”

• A wild and crazy week of basketball began on Saturday with a memorable game at Southmont, and accelerated as this week began with the boys’ county career scoring record being eclipsed and a standout former coach being inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

For me, the madness continued on Wednesday as I was able to see Indiana State upset No. 16-ranked Butler 72-71 in a crazy Hulman Center.

The Sycamores are now 7-4, and have lost two games by two points and two others by three points.

Unfortunately, this game was the end of a home-and-home series with Butler and the Bulldogs are expected to join Indiana (which lost on both of its last two trips to Terre Haute in 2000-01 and 2005-06) in likely never returning to play at ISU again.

Scheduling has become incredibly difficult for mid-majors like ISU when such upsets happen. Wins like that are worth it, though.