Ten Best: Ben Davis vs. North Central
4A #8 Ben Davis visited 4A #1 North Central on Friday night and didn’t give the hosts an easy game. Ben Davis came out quick and opened up a 19-11 lead at the end of the first half. Ben Davis…
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Continue Reading4A #8 Ben Davis visited 4A #1 North Central on Friday night and didn’t give the hosts an easy game. Ben Davis came out quick and opened up a 19-11 lead at the end of the first half.
Ben Davis extended that lead to 29-15 with five minutes left in the half but North Central’s Mateo Rivera hit two big three-pointers late to cut the deficit down to 31-26 in favor of Ben Davis at the half.
North Central outscored Ben Davis 21-6 in the third quarter and the game was pretty much on ice. North Central ended up winning 68-57 in a game in which they controlled the second half. North Central outscored Ben Davis 37-21 in the half.
Leading scorers: North Central: Emmanuel Little 23, Kris Wilkes 18, Mateo Rivera 14. Ben Davis: Josh Brewer 13, Jalen Newsome 11, Datrion Harper 10, Aaron Henry 10.
Leading rebounder: North Central: Emmanuel Little 14, Donald Lee 5. Ben Davis: Aaron Henry 11, Trevaughn Bush 6.
MVP: Emmanuel Little (North Central)
Little was a superstar for North Central tonight. He got off to a slow start but then in the last three quarters really got going. He went 7/15 from the floor and made 7/9 from the line to score 23 points. Little also grabbed 14 rebounds and was a huge task to handle for Ben Davis.
Best offensive performance: Kris Wilkes (North Central)
Wilkes turned it on in the second half scoring 12 points that North Central really needed from him. He was 7/15 from the floor and made his last four field goal attempts. He was really impressive as he had multiple and-1s and threw down two thunderous dunks at the end of the game.
Best defensive performance: Datrion Harper (Ben Davis)
Harper played pretty solidly on defense gaining three steals and shutting down Mateo Rivera for the most part besides a few threes he hit. Harper is an ultra quick guard that uses that to his advantage where tonight it got him a few run outs off of steals. Harper is up in your face and is really good at coming out of screens.
Best under-the-radar performance: Mateo Rivera (North Central)
Rivera struggled a bit but made two threes at the end of the second quarter and two in the fourth which pushed North Central ahead even further. He is good at running the point and can be deadly if he shoots the ball when he is set. He was 4/9 on the night
Best guy off the bench: Trevaughn Bush (Ben Davis)
Bush came off the bench for Ben Davis and actually accumulated a lot of playing time. He scored four points and hauled down six rebounds. He gave breaks to Ben Davis players when they needed then and didn’t really lose any ground on North Central while he was in there.
Best shooter: Josh Brewer (Ben Davis)
Brewer continues to shoot the ball well. He has been stroking it from deep with the best of them this year and he continued that shooting 4/6 from deep tonight. It was impressive as he had a guy in his face all night long.
Best clutch shooter: Jalen Newsom (Ben Davis)
Newsom made two big fourth quarter three-pointers to keep North Central from blowing it open. The first brought his team to within five points and the second pulled them back to within seven. Newsom, like Brewer, is a threat from deep even with a man in his face.
Best plays: Kris Wilkes throws it down
With less than three minutes to play Wilkes stole the ball twice and threw it down hard at the other end. First, with a windmill and second with a reverse dunk. This was basically the end of the game for Ben Davis.
Best takeaway: North Central is for sure the team to beat in 4A this year. Now being nationally ranked they have a target on their backs. Between Little, Rivera, and Wilkes this team will be a tough one to upset as any of these three can go off for 30 any night. Ben Davis is also a very solid team but will need to get more players involved. Aaron Henry is their best player but he can’t do it all.