TOP 5: High school seasons nearing the home stretch

Jan. 25—The high school basketball seasons are rapidly coming to a close — girls sectionals begin next week, if you happen to see snow in the weather forecast — and yet we're still learning things about them every day.

Here are the Top 5 things we learned last week.

5. Will they meet again? The girls teams from Sullivan and Linton are their usual hypercompetitive selves, and their game on Tuesday at Sullivan is expected to be outstanding. The Arrows beat the Miners two years ago, and Linton went from there to back-to-back Class 2A state championships.

Thanks to the success factor, that means the teams are now sectional rivals in Class 3A; to meet again next week at the Washington Sectional, both will have to reach the championship game (and Linton will have to beat the 18-3 host team to do that). Neither scenario is impossible, however.

4. Better than their records — To say the least, Terre Haute South has had better seasons in both genders than it is having this year. That doesn't mean, however, that good things aren't happening.

South's boys have lost nine straight but have already beaten one ranked team and nearly got another, and T.J. Wilson seems to be emerging as a force for the Braves.

South's girls, in the meantime, are up to four wins and on Saturday visited the Hoosier Gym, where they spanked a Chicago parochial school team.

3. Goals still in mind — Terre Haute North's boys were the ranked team that the Braves almost surprised, but the Patriots bounced back with a three-win week that included an emotional rematch with Northview, a road win at Clay City and a Conference Indiana victory over Southport. Don't scoff at that Clay City win either; the team some consider to be the best in North history — and the one with the school's longest winning streak — had its season end in 1974 in a regional loss to the Eels.

North's girls are also going to finish with an outstanding record, but they don't want that to be the end of it. Two of their losses have come against potential sectional foes, however, so the Patriots will be working to remedy that situation before the end of next week.

2. Didn't see this coming — When the boys basketball season started in November, many people may have taken West Vigo lightly.

Coming off a .500 season, the Vikings had just one returning starter — albeit a good one in sophomore Zeke Tanoos — from a team that didn't go very deeply into its bench. This season's starting lineup was going to include a 5-foot-7 guard in Ethan Kesler and a 5-9 power forward in Ian Beaver.

Recipe for disaster? Hardly. The Vikings are 10-5 and hope to remain in contention for the Western Indiana Conference title with a Friday home game against Edgewood. Their biggest apparent weakness? Getting too far ahead and relaxing after building seemingly insurmountable leads.

1. The debate resumes — North Daviess beat Linton 24-23 on Friday in a game between ranked teams (No. 1 in Class A vs. No. 2 in Class 2A) that may determine the SouthWestern Indiana Athletic Conference championship, and the outcry from 90 1/2 counties in Indiana was deafening: we need a shot clock, said the people who weren't there (and maybe a few who were).

First of all, the game was either a hoot (for the few neutral observers, especially the time when an unguarded Logan Webb of Linton stood apparently conversing with North Daviess coach Brent Dalrymple) or excruciating, peeing-down-the-leg agony for everybody else. And there may be a rule in Greene County and/or the SWIAC that every coach has to have a delay offense in his or her toolbox.

The only problem that cropped up Friday was the fact that low-possession games — and this one was really low, with no points scored the last 4:10 of the first half or the first 4:03 of the second half — mean that every shot takes on a disproportionate amount of importance. That often doesn't lead to great shooting percentages (North Daviess 7 for 21, Linton 9 for 31).