ELNORA —
With the area digging itself out from under Wednesday's blizzard, high school basketball will begin again Friday.
That means the Graber Post Building Tournament moves its schedule back one day, playing Friday and Saturday with the same time slots as Thursday and Friday.
The final day is now Monday, with those games set for noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
"We (North Daviess School officials) thought it was better to make a decision as early as possible," North Daviess coach and athletic director Brent Dalrymple said. "I tried to get out of the house Wednesday, and SR 231 wasn't passable. We thought this was a good decision to let everyone have 24 hours to get their kids together and get acclimated. We all thought the earlier times on Monday was good because of everything going on that day." No matter the dates or times, state ranked Barr-Reeve and North Daviess are both ready to begin.
The Vikings play Friday¹s opening game against South Knox. That means that former Viking Mark Rohrer will be making his coaching debut against his old team and coach. North Daviess plays Southwestern Indiana Conference foe Clay City in the 7:30 p.m. nightcap.
Barr-Reeve enters with a 7-0 record and continued improved play.
"I'm pretty happy with the progress that we have made as a group," Barr-Reeve coach Bryan Hughes said. "We seem like we have different people stepping up on different nights. Addison (Wagler) has been consistent and Micah (Bullock) has been pretty consistent. We've had other players put together nice nights of shooting the ball. It makes us better to have both the inside and outside game." While Wagler has been an obvious strength around the basket, the outside game has been improved with the play of freshman guard Logan James.
"He's been doing a nice job at point guard," Hughes said. "He's had some nights when the stats don¹t pop up, but he's been very steady. He hasn¹t been turning it over and he's a threat offensively. I've been doing this long enough to know that you have to have guards who can take care of the basketball. I like the direction we¹re heading." The Vikings have three games to play just like every tournament team. Hughes prefers his three to have importance.
"The biggest thing is that we want to play in meaningful games," Hughes said. "I'm sure everybody is in the same boat." Dalrymple said his team (6-1) was looking forward to playing games against good competition.
The Cougars welcomed guard Alex Wittmer back to practice this week, but isn¹t expecting him to play until the team starts its January schedule at the earliest.
Wittmer has been recovering from a knee injury that all involved thought was healed earlier this summer before discoving a second procedure was needed in July.
The Cougars have been practicing with a short squad as fellow guard Nick Crays continues his recovery from knee procedures.
"We just need some games," Dalrymple said. "It's one of the few times that we are really together. It's an unusual situation that I've never faced before not having everyone in every practice. We keep getting to know each other, and games are the times we have to do that." Dalrymple likes the field.
"You'd better show up to play all three days because if you don't every team in this tournament can beat you at any time. We've been fortunate to have good fields every year, and this year is no different. We think it is a good tournament. We're trying to think about Clay City and prepare for them right now." Playing the third round on Monday should help each team in the final round.
Most have had the opportunity to play at least one weekend of Friday-Saturday games to date.
"Depth has been a benefit for us," Hughes said. "I think I've played more kids this year than I ever have. I don't think it's going to hurt us at all in this tournament."
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