Ramsey’s Notebook – Madison County Tournament Semifinals

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On Wednesday evening I made the trip up to Lapel, Indiana for the semifinals of the Madison County Tournament. In front of a nearly capacity crowd, host Lapel took down Frankton 49-30 while Anderson moved past Liberty Christian 72-60. Now, on Friday night, Frankton and Liberty Christian will face-off in third place game while Lapel and Anderson will battle for the championship of Madison County. Let's dive in to some of my takeaways from the two games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Lapel is a team that could make some noise in the future. Senior guard Jaden Cash played a good game on Wednesday night scoring 12 points, but it is primarily the sophomore and junior classes that carry the Bulldogs. [player_tooltip player_id='1381459' first='Brode' last='Judge'], a versatile 6'3" wing, led the way with 14 points in the win over Frankton and was the team's leading scorer last season as a freshman. 6'5" sophomore forward [player_tooltip player_id='1534945' first='Bode' last='Judge'] is more a physical presence around the basket compared to Brode's perimeter skill. Then, in the junior class both [player_tooltip player_id='1275767' first='Nick' last='Witte'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1547492' first='Matthew' last='Carpenter'] are key pieces for Lapel. Their 5-7 record doesn't look great on paper this season, but they have only suffered one loss to a fellow Class 2A team. Sectional 40 obviously runs through Wapahani, but the Bulldogs could be the second best team there this season.</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>The Bulldogs used a 13-0 run to start the second period to pull away from Frankton. After a 4-3 first period, Lapel was up 17-3 by the 4:42 mark in the second. The Eagles could just never get back in the game at that point. In the loss, Tyler Bates hit five three-pointers to lead all scorers with 15 points.</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Liberty Christian tried to make things interesting to start the second half against Anderson. They whittled a 12-point, 40-28, halftime deficit down to six points at 44-38 late in the third, but could never quite get over the hump. The Indians just had too much firepower and pulled back away to win 72-60. [player_tooltip player_id='1391283' first='Ahmere' last='Carson'] led all scorers with 24 points and 4 assists in the game while [player_tooltip player_id='1297010' first='Damien' last='King'] added 15 points and 9 rebounds for Anderson. Both [player_tooltip player_id='1391284' first='Jaquan' last='Ingram'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1556394' first='Jaylen' last='Murphy'] chipped in 12 points. For the Lions, Ethen Troutman finished with 16 points and [player_tooltip player_id='1554067' first='Kobe' last='Watson'] had 14 points.</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Most people at this point know about the supreme scoring ability of Anderson's senior guard [player_tooltip player_id='1391283' first='Ahmere' last='Carson']. The left-handed playmaker is an excellent shooter, plays through contact at a really high level, and can flat out put the ball in the basket. However, I cam away extremely impressed once again by sophomore wing [player_tooltip player_id='1297010' first='Damien' last='King']. Ranked as the #33 prospect in the Class of 2025 by Prep Hoops Indiana, King has good positional size, is very versatile on the offensive end, and is always under control with the ball. He gets his points without needing to dominate the ball and is an elite rebounder from the wing. I would expect to see his stock continue to rise throughout this season and going into next summer.</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list -->