End of the regular season

... and we saw some great individual performances last night during the Mt. Vernon-Yorktown game.

The Marauders finished the regular season 19-2 and 7-0 in the HHC. They've won every title available to them -- Hall of Fame Classic, Hancock County Tournament and HHC. They also won games at Hinkle and Conseco Fieldhouses.

Last night was a heck of an exclamation point. Yorktown came out in a zone and was paying extra-special attention to Daniel Turner and D'Armond Davis inside, but that allowed MV's guards to shine. Jake Stafford was 8-of-10 from the floor and scored 22 points on the night, adding five rebounds. P.J. Hubert was 7-of-9 (including 6-of-8 from deep) and scored 24. Defending them means "pick your poison" on a night like last night, and the guards were hitting. MV was 20-of-33 from the field on the day.

And we also saw an incredible performance from the Tigers, as Elliott Kampen hit 12-of-18 and scored 32 points -- doing a great job of getting himself some openings. He had four three-point play opportunities, often on drives into the lane in which he appeared to have very little room, and still got his shot off. He is one of the best players we've seen at any level this season -- especially at creating shots in traffic.

MV led 17-8 after a quarter, thanks to Stafford's nine points, but Elliott Kampen of Yorktown led a 9-3 run that cut the Marauders' lead to 20-17. MV pushed the lead back to double-digits by halftime, and then used 3s from Hubert and Stafford to fuel a 10-0 run that pushed the lead to 50-30 and they pulled away from there.

Three of the four Hancock County schools finished the year with wins on Friday -- and winning records. New Palestine beat Greenwood and Eastern Hancock knocked off Hagerstown. The Dragons are 11-9, EH is 13-7 heading into tournament play.

Now, we turn our attention to the state tournament. We will be broadcasting the Mt. Vernon sectional, starting with Tuesday's Shelbyville-NP game. They played a 2OT game in the regular season that was one of the wildest of the year, eventually won by Shelby. The Bears like to run-and-gun and score in bunches, while NP's athleticism and speed fits that style of game. It should be an interesting matchup.

The schedule (all broadcasts begin 20 minutes before tipoff on www.crosscomsports.com).
Tuesday: Shelbyville (9-8) vs. New Palestine (11-9), 7 p.m.
Friday: #3 Mt. Vernon (19-2) vs. Hamilton Heights (12-7), 6 p.m.
followed by: Rushville (12-6) vs. NP/Shelby winner, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: Championship, 7:30 p.m.

Also, good luck to the other Hancock County schools. Greenfield-Central (5-15) meets Muncie Central (10-10) at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the New Castle sectional. Eastern Hancock (13-7) faces Northeastern (8-12) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Hagerstown sectional.

G-C's sectional

The Cougars know where they're headed now ... G-C (5-13) meets a very strong Muncie Central (10-9) team in the 6 p.m. Wednesday game at the New Castle sectional. MC has won six straight games going into Thursday's finale against Ben Davis.

Winner gets either Connersville or host New Castle in Friday's second semifinal. G-C sees Connersville Tuesday in its final regular-season game.

Mt. Vernon sectional

The Mt. Vernon sectional pairings are in. You can listen to all games involving Mt. Vernon and New Palestine on www.crosscomsports.com.

Tuesday: Shelbyville (9-7) vs. New Palestine (9-9), pregame at 6:40 p.m.
Friday: Mt. Vernon (17-2) vs. Hamilton Heights (12-6), pregame at 5:40 p.m.
Rushville (10-6) vs. Tuesday winner (we will stay on for this game if NP is playing)
Saturday: Championship game, pregame at 7:10 p.m.

The winner heads to the Shelbyville regional, which could be dynamite, with No. 1 Danville, No. 4 Greensburg and No. 12 Howe potentially feeding in. Again, we plan to broadcast all games involving Hancock County schools at the regional.

EH's draw

At Hagerstown: Royals draw Northeastern in the 7:30 p.m. Wednesday game. The winner faces either Knightstown or Centerville in Friday's second semifinal at 7:30 p.m.

The draw is going on now

... and will be posted as the sectionals that involve Hancock County schools are announced.

We had an interesting game on Friday night, one that has been rehashed rather extensively in the Daily Reporter, as Mt. Vernon held New Palestine scoreless for the first half of the game -- a 19-0 score.

A few things about this game -- obviously, MV's defense is very solid, augmented by its size. The Dragons struggled to find openings against the Marauders' trapping zone. When the Dragons did get shots, they just didn't go down. The thing that we didn't see is that NP played pretty solid half-court defense. Expect a defensive struggle if they play again in the state tournament.

The Marauders' Daniel Turner scored eight of his 12 points in the second quarter. D'Armond Davis scored 10 points and had several rebounds and blocked shots. It was a big night for MV's five seniors -- Turner, Davis, P.J. Hubert, Jake Stafford and Daniel Morales. They cut the nets down at the end of the night as undisputed HHC champions. They've been one of the most decorated classes in MV history, and they've posted a record of 34-6 the last two years ... 54-27 over four years so far.

This Friday will be our final regular-season broadcast, when MV (17-2/6-0) travels to Yorktown (10-7/2-4). MV also has a big game Tuesday at Conseco Fieldhouse against Westfield.

This week's Hancock County game schedule:
Monday: Triton Central at EH (11-6)
Tuesday: MV (17-2) vs. Westfield (@Conseco), Mooresville at NP (9-9); G-C (5-13) at Connersville; EH at Morristown
Friday: MV at Yorktown (LISTEN LIVE), NP at Greenwood; Hagerstown at EH

We then are planning to broadcast the Mt. Vernon sectional in two weeks, with all games involving the Marauders and Dragons as part of the docket.

It's MV-NP night and a big weekend

It's a huge night in high school basketball. After being gone for a couple of weeks, we're back for the end of the regular season. We also will have a special announcement for you hopefully after the IHSAA Tournament draw on Sunday.

Mt. Vernon vs. New Palestine.

Nothing needs to go further. The Marauders, ranked #3 in 3A, are 16-2 and have won 12 straight. The Dragons are 9-8, but they have been very strong against some good teams and are somewhat snakebitten -- losing back-to-back games in 3OT and 2OT on one weekend a couple of weeks back. There are a few storylines going on here:

• MV is looking to clinch the HHC title outright. It would be the Marauders' second HHC championship in a row, but first outright title. MV can clinch with a win in either of its final two conference games OR a Shelbyville loss.
  
• It's Senior Night for a very decorated Marauder senior class, which includes UWGB signee Daniel Turner, IUPUI signee P.J. Hubert, 6-7 center D'Armond Davis, 6-4 guard Jake Stafford and forward Daniel Morales. The first four are all averaging 10+ points per game. As a group, they've been at the forefront of a program that has gone 33-6 the last two seasons. They've won two HHC titles, two county titles and the Hall of Fame Classic in that run.
  
• New Palestine is a tough matchup. The Dragons and Marauders played a five-point game on New Year's Day, and their second regular-season meeting last year ended up a 42-41 game decided on a late FT by Turner. The Dragons have much of the nucleus back from a sectional championship team, led by athletic slashers Pat Feeney and Nathan Penley and a couple of steady senior guards in Trevor Baker and David Anderson, with sophomore Taylor Rainey providing scoring punch from outside. They spread their scoring around -- several players average between 8-10 ppg.
  
• This could be a sectional preview. That takes place in two weeks on the same floor. NP and MV last met in the sectional in 2007, with the Dragons winning that matchup.
  

The broadcast begins at 7:10 p.m. with Andrew & Chris. We'll talk to coaches Steve Lynch & Adam Barton before the game, and have a lot to chat about during and after the contest as well. Listen LIVE here.

Also, the IHSAA tournament draw will be Sunday night at 6 p.m. We will find out where all four of the Hancock County schools go. As the draw is made, we'll post the pairings.

Elsewhere in the county, G-C has a double-weekend with Cambridge City coming to town on Friday and a trip to Delta on Saturday for a make-up game. EH is off, with a make-up game against Triton Central Monday.

Feb. 5 broadcast: Game postponed

The Feb. 5 game between New Palestine & Hamilton Southeastern has been postponed due to heavy snow in the area, so no broadcast tonight.

We will likely add one more regular-season broadcast to our docket to replace the NP-HSE game. Keep posted to our blog and to Audio Sports Online to find out the extra "mystery" broadcast.