Ten Best: Indianapolis Pike vs. Ben Davis
In years’ past, the matchup between Indianapolis Pike and Ben Davis is always a must attend early in the year. It’s typically a close game and comes down to the minute or a final play. On Friday night, it was…
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Continue ReadingIn years’ past, the matchup between Indianapolis Pike and Ben Davis is always a must attend early in the year. It’s typically a close game and comes down to the minute or a final play. On Friday night, it was a little different as Ben Davis took it to Pike and walked away with a 68-41 win.
MVP: Aaron Henry (Ben Davis)
The player of the night, with ease, was Aaron Henry. He was perfect. Well, nearly perfect, he did miss a free throw. The 6’6 wing had 17 points on 6/6 2FG, 2/2 3FG, and 3/4 FT. He also had 9 rebounds and 5 assists. He was so smooth and controlled tonight, so much so that whenever he decided he was going to try and score everyone in the gym knew it but nobody could do anything about it. This was a more impressive game than had he scored 30 and shot 30% from the field. He did everything he wanted, was the star of the game, but didn’t hog the spotlight by overshooting. I also really loved his second quarter. He was quiet early but about a minute into the second he started going after the ball on defensive rebounds. He was aggressive and racked them up quickly like he made it a goal and tried to get everyone of them.
Play of the Game: Darian Porch (Pike)
The play of the game came from Pike’s Darian Porch. The 6’6 forward had a few good plays on the night but the best one was a catch just in from the elbow, dribble baseline to miss a defender and up for a big two-hand dunk. Pike didn’t have a ton of plays on the night but they had a few like this that really were thorns in the side of Ben Davis early in the game, before it became a blowout.
Best Offensive Performance: Datrion Harper (Ben Davis)
Talked a lot about Henry so I’ll switch to the second best offensive performance of the night. Harper had a great night himself and would have been the best had Henry actually missed a field goal. However, Datrion was the more aggressive but still patient scorer. Loved the looks he got tonight and picked his spots better than he usually does. He had 18 points on 7/8 shooting. The key was he had 6 points off of turnovers. He was at the head of a lot of the defensive press towards Pike and was big down the stretch helping to pad the lead. Want to see this heads up play become a trend for him.
Best Defensive Performance: Josh Brewer (Ben Davis)
Brewer had some really highlight reel plays tonight on defense. Could easily talk about his offense too but his defense was the star tonight. He had a pair of great transition blocks that seemed to turn the game around at key times. Both came on plays that were set for Pike to get an easy bucket had he not been there. Pike stuck around for a long time but in the last 12 minutes of the game it got stretched out. Those blocks were a part of why the comeback never happened. Also, Brewer was looking for rebounds tonight. Typically, he’s not a guy that tracks boards a ton but was active tonight and looked good doing it. He had 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
Best Guy Off The Bench: Trevaughn Bush (Ben Davis)
Last season, we saw Bush as a starter for Ben Davis. Now, he is coming off the bench. That is a huge weapon for Ben Davis and just shows the depth of this program at the moment. Trevaughn had a solid night and gave the kind of minutes you would think a person in his position should give. He gave starter production from the bench going for 10 points on 4/7 shooting and 5 rebounds and 2 assists.
Best Intangibles: Isiah James (Pike)
James had a solid night but a lot of it came from his ability to be all over the floor. He’s really done a good job expanding his game, not so much in the aspect of scoring and shooting from further out but the ability to just be more comfortable making plays away from the basket. He showed that tonight grabbing some long rebounds, attacking from the perimeter, and a big block in the halfcourt. He can give Pike so much now, a far cry from what he was a year ago. James had 10 points on 4/10 shooting to go along with 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and a block.
Best Under-The-Radar Performance: R.J Turner (Ben Davis)
The under-the-radar performer was close between Turner and Vernon but not knowing who Turner was gave him the edge. R.J. is a 6’2 wing who had 8 points on 3/6 shooting as well as 3 rebounds. He got most of his points in the paint on drives or second chance opportunities. Didn’t hit from behind the arc but the release looked solid and he has some skill to him. Ben Davis has a lot of options to score the ball but not sure anyone expected a guy like Turner to step in and produce along with them.
Best Underclassmen: Brandon Vernon (Pike)
While his play isn’t that surprising because anyone that knows Vernon knows he can light it up from deep, but it was the fact that he had stretches of the game where he took it over for Pike that was eye opening. Brandon was the only real player that was able to make a shot for Pike in this game. He had 11 points on 4/12 shooting. While that seems like a lot of shots, Pike was struggling at times to even get one off so Brandon was within reason to have those. He hit back-to-back jumpers for 5 points in the second quarter of the game that kept Pike within reach. He showed that he can put the ball on the floor a bit as well. Had a couple dribble in pullups in the 15′ range and a drive to the rim. Still needs work on that but was something completely unexpected.
Best Stat Of The Game: Pike’s Rebounding
The one area that Pike did a great job tonight was the rebounding, specifically the offensive glass. They had more offensive rebounds than defensive. While Pike didn’t shoot the ball well tonight, having good offensive rebounding from guys like Isiah James, Darian Porch, and Brandon Vernon will give them chances in other games to get wins. They just happened to shoot the ball so poorly from everywhere on the court tonight that it didn’t really factor in like it should.
Best Storyline To Watch Moving Forward: The thing to look at going forward is how Ben Davis does against more patient teams. Pike was scatterbrained all night and really didn’t take their time to look for good shots. Now, Ben Davis isn’t going to be a team that shoots the ball extremely well so they need turnovers and transition points to be able to score a ton. The one way to combat that is to slow things down and match their efficiency. It isn’t going to be your typical teams that are going to beat Ben Davis. Look for matchups like Warren Central and Brebeuf Jesuit to be tougher than a Pike or Southport this year.