Five points driving NWI hoops

Updated: January 5, 2012 10:36PM

Welcome to the midway point of the girls basketball season.

Two months ago, the campaign began in early November. Two months from now, the state finals will take place at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute.

Yes, it’s yet another change of location for the girls state finals. For those losing count, the four class championship games have been played at four different sites in the last five years.

The last two years it was at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. In 2009 it was at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and before that it was at Conseco Fieldhouse (now called Bankers Life Fieldhouse) in Indy.

All the while, the boys state finals haven’t changed since 1999.

At this pseudo halfway point, there are plenty of intriguing storylines across Northwest Indiana girls hoops, from exciting conference races to surprise teams.

Oh, and there’s also a possible undefeated regular season, which doesn’t happen often.

So let’s get on with the Post-Tribune’s midseason report as the games start getting more important.

Best conference race

All of the region girls conference races are pretty good. The Duneland will come down to Merrillville (8-0) and Michigan City (7-1), who meet on Jan. 27 at Merrillville. The Northwest Crossroads is between Lowell (3-0) and Griffith (3-0), which face off on Jan. 20 at Griffith. The Great Lakes also has a tie atop the standings between Hammond (3-1) and Morton (3-1), which next face on Jan. 14 at Hammond High.

Even the Porter County Conference race isn’t settled. The unbalanced schedule has Boone Grove on top again at 6-0, going for its fourth straight PCC round-robin title (it earned a share of first in 2008), while in the midst of a 20-game PCC regular season winning streak. But Hanover Central is also unbeaten in PCC play, but has only played two games. The Wildcats will host the Wolves on Jan. 26.

But the best race has to be the Greater South Shore in which three teams are still unbeaten.

Wheeler (5-0) faces Whiting (4-0) tonight, while Calumet (4-0) is the big surprise. It’s not because Calumet hasn’t been here before. In fact, the GSSC has been owned by Calumet since the conference began. The Warriors have now won 44 straight GSSC regular season and tourney games

But Calumet coach Dori Downing said in the preseason this was going to be a rebuilding season. And outside the GSSC, it has been (0-8). But until someone beats the Warriors in GSSC play, they’re still the champs.

Best kept secret

It’s tough to notice someone on a 4-11 squad, but Nicki Monahan is carrying on a tradition of standout players at Portage in recent years.

A junior, Monahan has played with and learned from all-area players Tori Bliss and Bri Wischman, as well as very good basketball player and all-area soccer standout Tara Ellis. Now Monahan is the leader averaging 16.4 ppg.

“Nicki has a tremendous basketball IQ,” said Portage coach Chris Seibert. “She really understands the game; it’s like having another coach on the floor. She has improved her overall game this year and is transitioning from being a great shooter to a great all around player. She leads our team is almost every statistical category and is our unquestioned leader.”

Can Merrillville pull it off?

It’s a theme in sports. Fans have an affinity with undefeated seasons, whether it was Packers in football or the Hoosiers in college basketball, or Merrillville in NWI girls hoops.

Coach Amy Govert’s Pirates are 12-0 with eight games left in the regular season. But don’t mention it to them since it truly is the cliche “one game at a time” for Merrillville.

“No, we don’t talk about being undefeated,” Govert said. “We know that every team is going to bring their ‘A’ game against us, so we have to be prepared. We can’t have an off night. Our first goal coming into the season was to win conference, and there are still a lot of conference games left.”

A couple of those Duneland games won’t be easy — the last two with Michigan City coming to Merrillville on Jan. 27, and the season finishing at Crown Point on Feb. 2. There’s also two tough non-conference games — at Lowell next week and Hobart at home.

Is it important for the Pirates to go undefeated? Absolutely not. But is it fun to talk about it? Absolutely.

Biggest surprise team

Wheeler has followed up its sectional championship season with a possible GSSC title if it can keep rolling with its 9-4 overall mark.

The bigger surprise isn’t that the Bearcats are doing this well. It’s that they have three players scoring in double figures for a pretty potent offense — Nickole Finch (14.7 ppg), Tijana Raketic (11.9) and Paige Finch (10.6). Wheeler averages more than 54 points per game, up from 42 last year and the most since the memorable Becca Bruszewski days.

Semistate bound?

Last year no region teams reached the semistate with three playing in regional finals — Chesterton in Class 4A, Griffith in 3A and Bowman Academy in 1A.

Can the region break through this season? It doesn’t look good. Powerful ranked programs such as Fort Wayne Luers (2A), Penn (4A) and FW Canterbury (1A) and Oregon-Davis (1A) are waiting in regionals. Griffith might have the best chance since its trademark defense always keeps it in games and revenge could be on their minds against Benton Central, which defeated the Panthers in last year’s regional final.

Repeating last year’s disappointment looks more probable than returning to 2010 when Merrillville and Griffith won regionals.

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