Posted: Thursday, January 7, 2010 4:00 pm
By Peter Adelsen staff writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments
GREENTOWN -- For the last three seasons it has been a tight battle between two Mid-Indiana Conference teams meeting on Friday. The Maconaquah High School Braves travel to play the Eastern High School Comets Friday in a match-up that has been decided by 12 total points in the previous three meetings.
Eastern (3-3), who has not played a game in three weeks, is coming off a solid win against Clinton Central, 82-53. The Comets had four players in double-figures scoring. They were led by Joey Price with 21 points, followed by Dylan Buck who scored 14 points. Also scoring in double-figures was Joby Renbarger with 11 points and Brandon Hainlen with 11 points.
Maconaquah (4-4) is coming off a defeat in the championship game of the Miami County Tournament on Dec. 30 to Peru High School, 59-29. Leading the Braves in scoring was Nick George with 10 points. In the day previous, the Braves defeated North Miami High School, 68-64, to reach the championship game. Against North Miami, George led the Braves with 28 points. The Braves’ Curtis Hyde added 25 points as the team’s second-leading scorer.
In the last three years of this series, defending home court has been an issue for both teams. Last year, Eastern defeated Maconaquah 66-58 in a game that was decided in the final minute at Maconaquah. In 2007, Eastern lost at home to Maconaquah 55-54. In 2006, Maconaquah defended its home court by defeating Eastern 73-70.
Maconaquah coach Lucas Zartman is calling Friday’s game a must win for both teams to compete in the conference race.
“Obviously being a conference game, there is an instant rivalry there,” Zartman said. “We went over to their place two years ago and won by one in a very exciting game. Last year they came here and it was a game that went down to the wire and they were able to pull away with the win last year. The last two years, it has been very competitive, very good ballgames and I expect this year to be no different. For a conference game, it is almost a must-win for each of us in terms of being able to stay toward the top of the conference.”
Both Eastern and Maconaquah have played tough schedules thus far.
For Maconaquah, they handed North Miami its second loss of the season in the Miami County Tournament and, like Eastern, have played 3A’s fourth ranked Peru.
For Eastern, they suffered a tough defeat to county and conference rival Western High School at home, 61-55, on Dec. 11.
The Braves are already within one win of last year’s total of 5.
“Compared to last year, we feel that we are playing much more competitive basketball this year,” Zartman said. “We returned a lot from last year, so we have a lot of experience and we finally have a core group of guys who are beginning to understand varsity basketball and what it takes to be successful.”
Other games Friday (7:30 p.m. starts):
Logansport at Western
Peru at Kokomo
Taylor at Hamilton Heights
Lewis Cass at Tri-Central
Other games Saturday (7:30 p.m. starts):
Kokomo at McCutcheon
West Lafayette at Western
Eastern at Carroll
Northwestern at Clinton Central
Taylor at Mississinewa
Oak Hill at Peru
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