It's been noted that Southport has looked much better now that they're healthy. They handled the pressure of Decatur Central, but North Central comes in with more intensity. That puts pressure on AJ Dancler and Keyon Miller. Keeping Nickens Lemba off the glass will be a challenge for North Central. He could be a problem too if he gets more post touches.

Possessor of a handful of D1 offers, Joey Brown contiues to be active on the glass himself and is the focal point of North Central's offense. He has help and gets just enough production from David Lloyd and their trio of guards. They really amp up the pressure, and they darn near get quicker as they go to the bench.

Meeting early each season, it's been awhile since these two teams have entered County with the records they've had. Pike has won eight in a row coming in, and their only loss was 63-60 to Ben Davis. BD enters on a ten game run. They haven't lost since a one point loss to Zionsville.

Ben Davis is balanced, both in terms of production and rotations. In other words, they have the guards, they have the bigs. Pike has length, but they will have to get big on the boards. They will, however, have the best player on the floor, Ryan Conwell.

Eastern is centered offensively around Cade Jones and Jake Cherry. Running their show is Kaden Temple. Cherry anchors their defense and has been a double-double machine of late. This will be one of the few school games when Cherry will be nose to nose with someone his size, Ethan Oakley. This is their first 10 game winning streak in the class basketball era.

Logan McIntire, an Evansville recruit, is the key to their offense, but they are able to run a lot of it through Oakley, which could stretch Cherry away from the rim. Kaleb Kellems, one of their primary ball handlers, does a ton of stuff for them. He's their best perimeter defender, rebounds well for a PG and is among the leaders in assists among juniors.

If Homestead will get out and run with Snider, this game could get into the 90's. Aiden Lambert and Karson Jenkins have to be the highest scoring duo in the state this year. (Wapahani guards not too far behind.) Flethcer Loyer soaks up a lot of shots, understandably so, but this would be a game where the Leeper brothers could thrive.