BENNETT'S MINUTES: Examining basketball sectional, WIC standings

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Thanks to its earlier start, the high school girls’ basketball season is more than half over and somehow the sectional tournaments begin just six weeks from tomorrow.

The boys’ teams start a little bit later and have completed roughly one-fourth of their seasons.

In the Western Indiana Conference, though, three of the five head-to-head nights of girls-boys doubleheaders have already taken place and one divisional champion can already be crowned.

Here is a look at the conference standings, plus the sectionals in which the Putnam County teams will compete:

WIC East Division girls

Cascade has aleady wrapped up the divisional title with a 4-0 record, actually playing one more league game than most of the other teams.

The Cadets had a convincing 56-45 win at previously-unbeaten Owen Valley on Friday.

The Patriots are the only other team with less than two losses, so even if Cascade were to lose its final game against Cloverdale it would win a head-to-head tiebreaker with OV.

Brown County seems firmly entrenched in last place, with remaining games against Indian Creek and Edgewood left to play. The 2-5 spots are up for grabs.

WIC West Division girls

Northview and Greencastle are tied for first at 3-0, and will meet up on Jan. 6 in Brazil.

South Putnam stands in third place, and the remaining teams have all lost at least nine games overall and figure to fight it out for the 4-6 spots.

WIC East Division boys

Edgewood holds down first place at 3-0, while Cascade and Indian Creek are tied for second at 2-1.

Cloverdale and Owen Valley are fourth and fifth, while Brown County is last at 0-3.

WIC West Division boys

Northview holds down first place at 3-0 and will be tough to beat for the divisional title.

West Vigo, Sullivan and South Putnam all stand tied for second at 2-1, while North Putnam and Greencastle are tied for last at 0-3.

Girls’ 3A Sectional 25

Tri-West has a 6-5 overall record, but has recorded five of those wins against other sectional teams.

Defending sectional and regional champion Lebanon is 9-4, and will be the sectional host this year.

Kristen Spolyar, who had an oustanding career for the Tigers, is now a freshman at Butler.

She averages 30.5 minutes per game, and is scoring 13.6 points per game. Spolyar has twice been named the Big East Conference’s Freshman of the Week.

The Tigers are followed by North Montgomery at 6-7, Greencastle at 7-6, Western Boone at 5-6, Frankfort at 2-11 and Crawfordsville

Girls’ 2A Sectional 44

Tourney host Cascade appears to be the sectional favorite with an 11-2 overall record.

The Cadets have only lost to Martinsville (Class 4A) and Indianapolis Ritter (3A).

South Putnam and Cloverdale are tied for the second-best record in the field at 8-4, while Southmont and Monrovia each has a 7-7 mark followed by North Putnam at 0-11.

Boys’ 3A Sectional 25

Tri-West has the best record among the seven schools at 5-0, while Crawfordsville is second at 4-1.

Lebanon stands third at 3-3, while North Montgomery is 3-4. Sectional host Frankfort is 1-6, while Greencastle is 0-5 and Western Boone is 0-6.

Boys’ 2A Sectional 44

A very good Southmont team, which suffered its only loss to an even better Danville team, has the top sectional record at 6-1.

Cascade stands second at 5-3, while Cloverdale has the third-best mark at 4-4.

Sectional host South Putnam is 3-5, followed by Monrovia at 2-3 and North Putnam with a 1-5 mark.

The tourney run should be interesting.

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