Comets, Tigers meet Friday in county tournament rematch

Posted: Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:44 pm

By Peter Adelsen staff writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments

After losing to the Eastern Comets in the opening game of the Howard County Tournament 60-55, the Northwestern Tigers are looking to even up the season series 7:30 p.m. Friday at Northwestern High School.

"We felt like the last time we played Eastern that it was a pretty even matched-up game," Northwestern coach Jim Gish said. We had a really poor second quarter and took some really poor shots that allowed Eastern to outscore us 20 to 8 in that quarter, a quarter on which we shot 18 percent. We're going to come into the game looking to take good shots, taking care of the basketball and rebounding well."

The Tigers (10-7) and Comets (9-7) are battling in the middle of the pack of the Mid-Indiana Conference with a 2-4 record.

"We're really pleased with the way we're playing right now," Gish said. "We're going into a stretch of games here where we're playing almost 25 percent of our season in about six days. Our schedule is not really light with Peru, Hamilton Heights, Eastern and then turn back around with Tipton. We've got a really tough stretch of games here."

Northwestern, like Eastern, have had many games postponed because of snow and because of that they are each playing an NBA-like schedule until the sectional round begins.

"We feel like we have enough (practice) to go into a game, but it really cuts down in preparation time that you can prepare the kids on what the opponent is going to be doing," Gish said.

The Tigers are coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Hamilton Heights Huskies (12-5, 4-1 MIC) Wednesday where they led by 10 points going into the fourth quarter. The Huskies came back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter with a 15-0 run to beat the Tigers 60-56.

The Comets are coming off a 58-52 loss to the Lewis Cass Kings on Feb. 11, where the Kings won its first conference game of the season after starting 0-5.

In the last meeting of the two teams, Eastern senior Joby Renbarger led his team with 14 points and seven rebounds. Also in double-figures scoring were juniors Wes Horner and Blake Donson who scored 13 and 10, respectively.

Senior Jared Treadway's 18 points and nine rebounds led the Tigers. Sophomore Kylan Dubbels added 13 points and senior Brayden Merrell scored 12.

Other games Friday:

Kokomo (13-5, 5-1 NCC) at Richmond (13-6, 1-5 NCC), 7:30

Western (11-6, 4-2 MIC) at Lewis Cass (7-11, 1-5 MIC), 7:30

Carroll (9-8, 3-0 HHC) at #16-2A Taylor (11-7, 4-3 MIC), 7:30

Maconaquah (6-11, 1-5 MIC) at Hamilton Heights (12-5, 4-1 MIC), 7:30

Rochester (12-5, 4-3 TRC) at #2-3A Peru (16-1, 6-0 MIC), 7:30

#4-2A Tipton (13-3, 6-0 Hoosier) at Frankfort (8-10, 2-3 Sagamore), 7:30

Clinton Prairie (4-13, 1-2 HHC) at Tri-Central (7-10, 2-2 HHC), 8:00

Saturday games:

Clinton Central (1-16, 0-5 HHC) at Western (11-6, 4-2 MIC), 7:30

Eastern (9-7, 2-4 MIC) at Elwood (3-15, 1-5 CIC), 7:30

Northwestern (10-7, 2-4 MIC) at #4-2A Tipton (13-3, 6-0 Hoosier), 7:30

Hamilton Heights (12-5, 4-1 MIC) at Madison-Grant (11-5, 5-1 CIC), 7:30

Monday game:

Tri-Central at Maconaquah, 7:30

Tuesday games:

Northwestern at Oak Hill, 7:30

Wabash at Eastern, 7:30

Lewis Cass at #4-2A Tipton, 7:30

#2-3A Peru at North Miami, 7:30