Rochester receives sectional bye, could face Oak Hill in final

Valley to see former teammates vs. Wawasee; Caston draws N. White for home sectional while Pioneer gets DeMotte Christian; Argos gets O-D while Culver gets N. Judson; Winamac to face Knox; NM draws Southern Wells

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Rochester was the only RTC area team to receive a bye in the boys basketball draw released Sunday. In addition, the Zebras would not have to face No. 2 Oak Hill until the sectional final.

Also, Tippecanoe Valley will not have to worry about either No. 5 Columbia City or No. 8 Fairfield until the final in their sectional, Caston and Pioneer would not have to worry about No. 9 West Central until their sectional final, Culver would not have to worry about No. 6 Triton until their sectional final, and North Miami would not have to worry about No. 5 Southwood until their sectional final.

As for Argos, they drew Oregon-Davis in what will be the third meeting of the season between the teams.

Rochester

The Zebras will wait until March 6 before playing their postseason opener in the Class 2A, Sectional 38 semifinals at Manchester. They will face the winner of the Eastern (Greentown)-Wabash winner from March 3.

Rochester has not played Eastern this season, but they did beat them 64-51 in last year’s sectional quarterfinals. Rochester beat Wabash in their Three Rivers Conference meeting 55-41 on Feb. 13.

Eastern beat Wabash 67-47 on Jan. 31 in their regular season meeting.

In the other half of the draw, Manchester drew Oak Hill with the winner to face Lewis Cass. Manchester is the defending state champion, but Oak Hill beat the Squires 77-41 on Nov. 29 in their regular season meeting. Oak Hill is 19-1 with their only loss to Class 4A Homestead. Oak Hill has not won a sectional since their state championship season of 2018.

Lewis Cass has won at least one sectional game every year since 2021.

Tippecanoe Valley

Joe Luce was Valley’s coach from 2022-25 before departing for Wawasee last March. Point guard Davis Cowan and center Stephen Akase, who is Luce’s son, followed Luce from Valley to Wawasee as transfers.

Luce is no longer the Wawasee coach. He parted ways with the school Feb. 3. No reason for the parting of the ways was announced. Nate O’Connell, who started the year as an assistant coach, is now the interim coach, and Wawasee drew Cowan and Akase’s former team in a Class 3A, Sectional 20 quarterfinal at Columbia City March 3.

Wawasee won six games last year. They already have 15 wins this year, with Akase, who leads the team with 18.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, being a top player.

Cowan, known for his rugged defense, averages 3.9 points, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

The teams have not played since last year’s sectional semifinals, when Valley won 44-29 behind 13 points and 7 rebounds from Akase. Now he and Cowan will be the opposite side of this year’s sectional rematch.

The game will also be the first postseason game for new Valley coach Eli Henson, who coached Manchester to the state title last year and who won his 200th career game Feb. 10 in a 59-54 win over West Central.

The Valley-Wawasee winner will take on NorthWood, who received a bye, in the semifinals. NorthWood beat Valley 66-28 Dec. 4 and Wawasee 32-30 in two overtimes Jan. 9.

In the opposite half of the bracket, Columbia City drew West Noble with the winner to face Fairfield. Columbia City is the defending sectional champion, and they beat West Noble by 30 points Feb. 14. Fairfield is 15-3 and made it to semistate as recently as 2024.

Caston, Pioneer

Caston drubbed North White 66-11 Feb. 5 in their regular season meeting, and they will meet again in a Class 1A, Sectional 50 quarterfinal at Caston March 4.

Caston has won the last four meetings between the teams; however, the last time they met in a sectional, North White won 63-59 in the 2022 sectional semifinals at Tri-County.

The Caston-North White winner will take on the DeMotte Christian-Pioneer winner in the semifinals. DeMotte Christian is tied for No. 12 in the USA Today media poll, and they beat Pioneer 50-33 in Royal Center Jan. 16.

Though Pioneer has not won a sectional title since 2013, they have won at least one sectional game in eight of the 12 years since.

DeMotte Christian is led by 6-6 senior Tony Bos (18.3 ppg) and 6-1 senior Tanyon Bakker (13.8 ppg).

In the opposite half of the draw, South Newton drew Tri-County, and North Newton drew West Central. Tri-County is the three-time defending sectional champion, but West Central, in search of their first sectional title since 2005, has a 33-point win over North Newton, a 32-point win over South Newton and an 11-point win over Tri-County under their belts.

Argos, Culver

Argos beat Oregon-Davis 53-40 in their Hoosier North meeting at Phil Weynright Gymnasium Jan. 16, but O-D turned around four days later and beat Argos 47-45 in the first round of the Bi-County Tournament in Hamlet.

Both teams have identical 3-18 records, and their third meeting will be March 3 at Culver in a Class 1A, Sectional 51 quarterfinal. This will be their first sectional meeting since Argos beat the Bobcats 50-23 in the semifinals en route to a sectional title in 2020.

The O-D-Argos winner will face the Trinity Academy-Triton winner in the semifinals. Triton, ranked No. 6, is the defending regional champion, and they are 6-0 against other teams in the sectional, including a 58-34 win over Trinity Academy Feb. 10.

In the bottom half of the bracket, the host Cavaliers will square off against North Judson in the quarterfinals March 4 in a rematch of a double overtime game that North Judson won 64-60 on Tuesday.

Culver has upped their win total from two last season to eight this season, but they have not beaten North Judson since Dec. 27, 2016.

The Culver-North Judson winner will take on the South Central (Union Mills)-Elkhart Christian winner in the semifinals. South Central is 18-5 overall and 5-0 against other teams in the sectional. They beat Elkhart Christian 59-49 in the third-place game of the Wawasee tournament Jan. 3, and they also have wins over Culver and North Judson.

North Miami

North Miami handled Southern Wells 66-31 on Friday, and they will meet again in a Class 1A, Sectional 55 quarterfinal at Wes-Del March 3. The winner will take on the Tri-Central-Northfield game in the semifinals March 6.

North Miami also owns wins over Tri-Central and Northfield earlier in the season.

North Miami is 12-8 under first-year coach Chuck Evans and has already clinched their first winning season since 2010. They are now in search of their first sectional game win since 2011, when the Matt Storm-coached Warriors beat Southwood, Lewis Cass and Manchester on their way to a Class 2A sectional title.

North Miami has cut their defensive scoring average from 55.7 last year to 43.0 this year.

In the other half of the draw, defending sectional champion Daleville will play Wes-Del and Southwood will face off with Cowan.

Southwood is 17-3 and 4-0 against other teams in the sectional, and they and North Miami are the only teams in the sectional with winning records. Southwood won 80-67 at North Miami Feb. 7.

State tournament details

Sectionals will be held March 3-7, regionals are March 14, the semistate draw is March 15, semistates are March 21, and the state finals are March 28 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Sectional tickets are $8 per session or $20 for an all-sectional ticket. Regional tickets are $10, semistate tickets are $12, and state finals tickets are $20 per person per session.