Sectional week begins with Tiger Cubs, Wolves Tuesday; Clovers, Cougars jump in Wednesday while Eagles keep tabs for Friday

Game One (Tuesday, 7 p.m.)

Greencastle (7-16) v Parke Heritage (15-9)

Last Meeting: Parke Heritage def. Greencastle

52-38, Dec. 28, 2022 (Wabash Valley Classic)

John Harrell Prediction: Parke Heritage 57-43

The Southmont Sectional begins with the Tiger Cubs and Wolves facing off for the second time this season and the third time the teams have met on neutral floors in their four meetings.

Parke Heritage jumped out to a 12-point lead after a quarter and led 31-10 at halftime in the consolation semifinal at the Wabash Valley Classic as Greencastle struggled for consistent offense in the first half.

Since then, the Wolves have gone 9-3 with losses to Fountain Central, Covington and West Vigo since the turn of the calendar while wins have come against fellow sectional teams Cloverdale, Riverton Parke and Southmont, the latter on the road last Tuesday.

The loss to the Wolves was the first of an eight-loss streak, having just broken a six-game slide against Casey-Westfield the day before.

Greencastle has found its wins at the right time of the year, however, losing only one of its past six games, the Putnam County Classic final against North Putnam, while beating Cloverdale and Cascade in overtime along with wins against Owen Valley and North Montgomery in recent weeks.

Freshman Treigh Schelsky leads Parke Heritage with 19 ppg , around five rpg and three apg while Renn Harper averages 11.1 ppg and four rpg.

Cole Hutcheson leads three Greencastle players averaging double-figures with 14.7 ppg while adding six rpg while freshmen Codey Evans averages 11.9 ppg and Sam Gooch adds 11.3 ppg.

Game Two (Wednesday, 6 p.m.)

North Putnam (14-9) v Southmont (15-7)

Last Meeting: North Putnam

def. Southmont 46-36, Nov. 22, 2022

John Harrell Prediction: Southmont 53-48

Way back at the start of the 2022-23 season, the Cougars gave opponents an idea of what end-of-game situations would look like in holding off the Mounties in the second half, the two teams combining for fewer points in the second half than the hosts had at halftime.

The strategy has remained largely the same for North Putnam, namely to grind teams out in the final quarter of play with controlled, smart ball movement and plenty of trips to the free throw line.

North Putnam was 7-1 on the season against sectional opponents, only falling to Parke Heritage 56-40 during a six-game losing streak; the Cougars are 10-1 in their last 11 games, only dropping a contest to Covenant Christian and starting the run with a win over current A No. 3 Fountain Central.

Southmont has only lost consecutive games once this season in back-to-back losses at Crawfordsville and Lebanon but have otherwise been a team that has chained wins together, going 4-2 against the conference field with losses to the Cougars and Wolves, the latter coming in the Mounties’ last outing Feb. 21.

Three Southmont players average double-figure scoring nights with Carson Chadd (11.9 ppg, 8.7 rpg) chief among them while EJ Brewer adds 10.4 ppg and Trip Ward added 10 ppg.

Brayden Monnett (12.3 ppg, 3,8 apg) leads the charge for North Putnam while Nolan Hackleman adds in 11 ppg and Kaden Helderman adds in 9.4 ppg.

Game Three (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

Cloverdale (2-21) v Riverton Parke (9-14)

Last meeting: Riverton Parke

def. Cloverdale 69-65 (OT), Dec. 27, 2019

John Harrell Prediction: Riverton Parke 55-47

For the first time in four years, the Clovers won’t be seeing the northern half of Parke County in the opening round of sectional play.

Instead, it will be the Panthers taking on Cloverdale, though the last time the two teams met was in the current senior classes’ freshman seasons, a win for Riverton Parke in the Wabash Valley Classic.

The Panthers have split their last six games, picking up wins over North Vermillion, Shakamak and South Putnam.

Cloverdale has struggled heavily this season, retooling for much of the campaign though it did close the regular season by picking up its second win of the year, a 65-44 win over Eminence.

Darron Hazzard leads Riverton Parke in scoring, averaging 18.1 ppg, while Pierson Robins averages 9.2 ppg and several seniors help fill out the rest of the lineup.

With limited stats, Noah Betz and Mcguire Lee lead the Clovers with 8.9 and 8.6 ppg respectively while Betz averages five rpg.

Later in the week

Game Four (Friday, 6 p.m.

Game Five (Friday, 7:30 p.m.)

Game Six (Saturday, 7 p.m.)

South Putnam will join the sectional fray on Friday night, taking on the winner of Greencastle and Parke Heritage from Tuesday.

The Eagles have been in a state of flux since the Putnam County Classic, losing the final to North Putnam while also seeing the rotation shrink to six players due to injury and other factors, losing all three games against sectional opponents in the Cougars, Southmont and Riverton Parke.

Drew Hill leads the Eagles with 17.8 ppg and six rpg.