Regional 5 Preview: Breakdown

Kyler Staley February 24, 2021 @ 07:47 AM

The high school season is almost over and we are getting locked in for the State Playoffs. It is that time of year where we start looking ahead and previewing each and every Sectional. Today, we look at Regional 5.   Sectional 17: Calumet The Teams: Lighthouse CPA, Calumet, Hammond, Griffith, Gavit Our Contenders: Hammond Player To Watch: [player_tooltip player_id="874159" first="Harold" last="Woods"] (2021) Prediction: This Sectional is all Hammond here. They are currently the number 1 ranked team in 3A and have won 13 straight as of this writing. It also helps them that they received a bye and will play the winner of Griffith and Gavit game, both of whom Hammond should role past with ease. Then on the top part of the bracket you have the game of Lighthouse and Calumet in which Calumet should win pretty easily. That sets up Calumet and Hammond in the finals with Hammond winning it all there. Jarrell Johnson and Calumet may put up a good fight at the start but in the end Hammond is just too loaded with players like [player_tooltip player_id="874159" first="Harold" last="Woods"] and [player_tooltip player_id="963120" first="Darrell" last="Reed"] leading them.   Sectional 18: New Prairie The Teams: Kankakee Valley, Knox, Hanover Central, River Forest, Wheeler, New Prairie Our Contenders: Hanover Central, New Prairie Player To Watch: [player_tooltip player_id="870216" first="Landen" last="Babusiak"] (2022) Prediction: This Sectional comes down to two teams, Hanover Central and New Prairie. Both are on opposites sides of this pretty balanced bracket and both have a really good shot at meeting in the finals. On the top part of the bracket you have Hanover starting it off with Knox where the winner will go onto face Kankakee Valley in the top semis. On the bottom part you have New Prairie starting things off with Wheeler where the winner of that one will face River Forest in the bottom semis. You should see both Hanover and New Prairie getting to the finals easily and there you should have a pretty good finals matchup between PFs [player_tooltip player_id="870216" first="Landen" last="Babusiak"] (Calumet) and [player_tooltip player_id="1077032" first="Braydon" last="Flagg"] (New Prairie). Going to give the slight edge to New Prairie to win it all here. They have the home court advantage and just think that they have the slightly better team overall.   Sectional 19: South Bend Washington The Teams: John Glenn, South Bend Washington, Jimtown, South Bend St. Joseph, South Bend Clay, Mishawaka Marian Our Contenders: John Glenn, South Bend St. Joseph, Mishawaka Marian Player To Watch: [player_tooltip player_id="870217" first="Kaleo" last="Kakalia"] (2022) Prediction: This is probably going to be the best Sectional in all of Regional 5 with things really getting hot in the semi-finals. John Glenn got the best draw here with their bye and playing the winner of South Bend Washington and Jimtown, both who have only won 4 games each this season so expect John Glenn to get to the finals easily. The other side of the bracket is where things get really interesting. Mishawaka Marian opens things up with South Bend Clay and will probably win that game easily before facing the really good St. Joseph team, who was the other team to draw a bye in this one. The second round game of Mishawaka Marian and St. Joseph is going to be barn burner and I think St. Joseph gets the big here. So that sets up St. Joe and John Glenn in the finals and once again I am going with St. Joseph to win this game and be the Sectional 19 Champion. St. Joseph easily has the most stacked roster in this one with [player_tooltip player_id="647193" first="Douglas" last="Konieczny"], [player_tooltip player_id="783233" first="Jack" last="Futa"], [player_tooltip player_id="783186" first="Adam" last="O’Dell"], and others and really has a chance to make a deep run in the entire postseason.   Sectional 20: Twin Lakes The Teams: Maconaquah, Northwestern, Peru, Benton Central, Twin Lakes, Western, West Lafayette Our Contenders: Peru, Twin Lakes, Western Player To Watch: [player_tooltip player_id="963938" first="Kyle" last="Sanders"] (2021) Prediction: This one also has a legit case of being the best Sectional in Regional 5 with things also really picking up in the semi-final round. Our 3 contenders all open up with first round matchups with Peru vs Northwestern, Twin Lakes vs Benton Central, and Western vs West Lafayette. After that round you should see the two semis as Peru vs Maconaquah (1st round bye) and what should be a great game between Twin Lakes vs Western. There you should see [player_tooltip player_id="958403" first="Matthew" last="Ross"] and Peru beating Maconaquah and Western beating Twin Lakes in a very close contest. That sets up Peru vs Western in the finals with Western winning it all there. Western has beaten both Twin Lakes and Peru already this season and with the dangerous combo of [player_tooltip player_id="963938" first="Kyle" last="Sanders"] and [player_tooltip player_id="963929" first="Cooper" last="Jarvis"] it will be tough for any of these teams to matchup well with them.