Griffith, Lake Central Crack IBCA Top Ten After Wild Weekend in Region Hoops

Griffith, Lake Central Crack IBCA Top Ten After Wild Weekend in Region Hoops

After the dust settled on the wildest weekend in Northwest Indiana High School hoops, Griffith emerged as the last undefeated team in The Region; cracking the Top 10 in the latest IBCA Top 20 rankings at #10.

Former IBCA Boys #2 Merrillville was poised to take the number one position this week, after previous #1 North Central fell to Southport (a team Merrillville beat earlier in the season) in the Marion County tournament, but a determined Crown Point team fueled by the home crowd shocked The Region and put an end to the Pirates’ plans, sliding Merrillville down to #4 in this week’s poll.

Crown Point looked to continue the role of giant killer when they faced up against Griffith the day after taking down Merrillville, but fell 54-51 in a tight match.

Griffith plays Hammond Gavit on Wednesday, while Merrillville looks to get back on track against Portage on Friday.

Area Girls Basketball was not devoid of its craziness this week either as Lake Central looked like they were on the brink of their first defeat in quite some time, heading into the fourth quarter of their game against Gary West Side and trailing by double digits. But a dominant defensive fourth quarter sparked the Lady Indians’ offense and propelled them to a 79-74 win, moving their record to 19-1 and #8 on this week’s IBCA Top 20.

Lake Central plays Lowell on Tuesday before squaring off in a DAC showdown against Valparaiso on Friday.

Other Northwest Indiana teams receiving votes: (Boys) Chesterton, Crown Point, East Chicago Central, Lake Central, Valparaiso. (Girls) East Chicago Central, Gary West Side, Marquette Catholic.