This was the second game of the Baird Winter Classic hosted by the Southridge Raiders at beautiful Memorial Gym.

For a game that had at least the Southern half of the state talking, it delivered.  As expected Linton came out on fire and was able to capitalize on any shot they wanted.  The Miners shot 7/10 from 2 and 6/10 from behind the arc to take a 32-21 lead into the locker room.  Much like the first game of the day this game was also the tale of 2 halves.  After the first half of settling for shots behind the arc the Vikings came out of the locker room at half and got back to basics.  6'4" Sophomore sensation Hagen Knepp and 6'8" Senior Keegan O'Neill went to work in the paint.  After going 1/6 in the first half Knepp finished 3/3 from 2 and 4/4 from the charity stripe.  O'Neill only touched the ball two times in the first half but went 4/5 in the second half.  The duo also combined for 13 rebounds and stole the momentum from Linton for the Vikings 10th win.

Five Take Aways:

  1. Linton 6'3" Freshman Joey Hart is going to be a great player.  The young man went 3/4 from behind the arc.  He does a nice job defensively and didnt make the typical freshman mistakes.  11 pts.
  2. Linton 6'4" Indiana State commit Lincoln Hale has a very high ceiling.  He can pull up from any where and has a nice stroke.  13 pts
  3. Barr-Reeve 6'4" Sophomore Hagen Knepp is a manimal.  The lefty can shoot from out side, has a nice mid range game and can get to the rim. 14 pts 8 reb
  4. Linton slowed the game down which I think led to the loss.  They are built to get up and down the floor with a ton of possessions.  After shooting lights out in the first half they struggled to get good looks and were limited in possessions in the second half.
  5. Barr-Reeve took advantage of Linton in the paint in the second half.  The Vikings scored 14 points in the paint in the second half.  These points were in a large part due to the play of PG Brycen Graber.  When BR moves the ball and looks for the open shot they are hard to stop.

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