2015 - Day 1 Chatter from WLDS/WEAI
WINCHESTER CHATTER - ISSUE #1 - Saturday, January 10, 2015
The first three games of opening day this year involve teams that played in the identical games a year ago. Camp Point opened as the 6th seed last year, and the 9th seed this year, both playing at 9 AM. Greenfield/Northwestern was rated 3rd last year, 8th this year, and played in the 10:30 game both years. And, Brown County was 15th a year ago, and 12th this year, playing in the 12 noon games. There are no re-matches from the opening round last year.
Thanks to the tournament organizers for flipping the tournament bracket right side up. It’s a lot less confusing. By the way, three teams have the same seed as a year ago..Western at number 10, Routt at 14, and Pleasant Hill at 14.
4th ranked Payson is working on a winning streak at the Winchester Invitational Tournament. The Indians won it all last year, and lost in an upset two years ago to Liberty to post a 7 and 1 mark over two years at Winchester. Maybe even more impressive, Liberty has been in the title game for three straight years and is 10 and 2 over that stretch. Pleasant Hill is suffering through a 13 game losing streak at Winchester. The Wolves last won at the WIT in 2008 over Waverly on the consolation side.
Carrollton has the 2nd seed this year, and is heavily favored to move on to the winners’ bracket. If the Hawks do, it would be the 13th year that Carrollton has won in the first round. And, when Carrollton was pushed to the consolation bracket in 2002, the Hawks won the consolation title.
There are four teams that had votes in the latest Associated Press boy’s basketball polls. Porta/AC is rated 8th in the Class 2A poll. Three other teams received consideration, but not enough votes to crack the top ten in the 1A poll. In order, they are Carrollton, Payson, and Liberty.
It would be easy to nick name the Porta/AC Bluejays the M and Ms. Four starters have MM as their initials. They include the Mullers, Mitch, Max, and Matt, and Michael McCurdy.
By the way, the last four Winchester Invitational Tournaments have ended with upsets in the title game. A year ago, top rated Liberty fell to number 2 Payson 49-35. Two years ago, it was 7th ranked Liberty upsetting top ranked Payson 54-52. 5th ranked Liberty was the upset victim at the hands of number 6 Routt 47-37 in 2012. And, host school West Central upended top ranked Camp Point 38-35 in 2011. West Central was ranked 2nd that year. The last time the favored team won in the title game was in 2010, when 4th ranked Carrollton held off 7th ranked Liberty 48-32.
Maybe a good omen for Porta/AC is the fact the last time the top rated team won here was Porta in 2008, beating number 3 Carrollton that year 40-22.
Here’s a trend that we hope comes to an end this year. At least one of the two teams has been held in the 40s or less in 5 of the past 7 years. And, the last time a team scored at least 70 points in the title game at the WIT was in 2006, when Barry-West Pike beat Liberty 76-69.
Porta/AC Central became the eighth team that played in the Winchester Invitational Tournament and then went on to place in the state. Porta/AC finished 4th in Class 2A boys basketball state tournament last year. Porta/AC finished 3rd in the tournament a year ago, beating Camp Point 54-51. The last team to win the WIT, and then place in the state was West Central. The Cougars won the Winchester Invitational tournament in 2011, and finished 2nd in the Class 1A state tournament that year.
Returning all-tournament selections from a year ago include Luke Palan of Carrollton, Connor Vincent of North Greene, Mitchell Bick and Gus Baalman of Calhoun. Bick is a junior this year, and the rest are seniors.
Quick re-cap from a year ago, in case you’ve forgotten, Payson upset Liberty in the title game 49-35, Porta/AC edged Camp Point for third place, Carrollton went into overtime to be Griggsville Perry for fifth place, and North Greene survived Calhoun for the consolation title game.
We apologize for incomplete stats. It is getting harder to get box scores because of cutbacks at newspapers. And, a few coaches did not respond to requests for stats.With that thought in mind, here’s our best guess on the top scorers coming into this tournament. We think that Camp Point’s Taylor Hieman, and Western’s Weston Billings may need to be included, but we have no stats.
-
Luke Gillingahm - Carrollton - 17.5
-
Manning Plater - Rushville - 17.2
-
Colin Slagle - West Central - 16.8
-
Connor Vincent - North Greene - 16.7
-
Max Muller - Porta/AC - 16.5
-
Michael Mast - Liberty - 16.1
-
Mitchell Bick - Calhoun - 16.0
-
Russell Miller - P Hill - 15.7
-
Carter Lewis - Brown Co - 15.6
-
Reed Wolfmeyer - Liberty - 15.1