The Howard County boys basketball tournament bordered on predictable in recent seasons. Northwestern and Western combined to dominate the tournament in 2001-08, winning four titles apiece. Further, the Purple Tigers and the Panthers met in the last four championship games with the Tigers winning the last two.

The 2009 tourney, on the other hand, looks wide open — Eastern, Taylor and Western all come in with 5-3 records while Northwestern owns a 3-3 record and home-court advantage.

“I think the coaches would all say that it’s as balanced as it’s been in a long time,” Northwestern coach Jim Gish said.

The HCT looks a little different in terms of schedule too after the bitter cold weather led to a revised plan. Instead of two semifinal games tonight and consolation and final games on Saturday, all four games are now planned for Saturday at Northwestern.

Taylor and Northwestern will meet in the 10 a.m. opener Saturday, followed by Eastern and Western at noon. The consolation and title games are set for 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Another twist to the 2009 HCT comes on the sideline where for the first time in recent memory, all four coaches have won the tourney before. Eastern coach Duane Keisling, back on the sideline after a 17-year absence, led Western to titles in 1982 and ’84.

“It’s exciting to be back into it,” Keisling said. “Growing up in Howard County, I’ve been around it a lot of years. It’s neat to be able to take a group of kids into the tourney and see what we can do with it.”

The semifinal games are rematches of Mid-Indiana Conference games from Dec. 12 that saw Taylor beat Northwestern 56-43 and Western beat Eastern 58-47. Western also beat Northwestern last month, by a 60-58 count.

The following are looks at Saturday’s semifinal round games.

Taylor at Northwestern

Taylor owned a 5-1 record before dropping narrow decisions to Sheridan and Hamilton Heights in the last two weeks.

“We easily could be 7-1,” Taylor coach Jeff Fisher said. “I think both of those games were ours to win and we gave them away at the end by turning the ball over [and] not making some free throws. I think we played as well as Hamilton Heights did, except down at the end. But those are the things you have to do to win the close games.

“I think we’re fine,” Fisher added. “We’re playing better in practice every day.”

Northwestern, meanwhile, opened 1-3 but has won two straight games to even its record. The Tigers had plenty of practice time after their sluggish start with two games postponed right before the Christmas break and another game called off last week.

“Obviously, we’ve had a lot of time to work on some things,” Gish said. “We feel pretty good about where we are right now. The big thing is we just need some games to see what we need to tweak for the long stretch of February and into the postseason.”

In the MIC game between the teams, Taylor led 25-19 at halftime, then used a 13-4 run in the third quarter to build a double-figure lead it maintained throughout the final quarter.

“I felt we played OK in spots, but we made some mistakes that needed to be corrected and I feel like we’ve made advances in getting those things fixed,” Gish said. “Taylor has a very nice team so we’re going to have to come out and play very good basketball to be able to compete with them on both ends of the floor.”

Fisher pointed out the Tigers had a 30-24 rebounding advantage in that game, which is a concern of his for the rematch.

“They are good inside. We’ve had trouble with interior defense. We’re going to have to rebound the basketball against them,” Fisher said. “We’ll also need to stop [Brayden] Merrell’s penetration and make sure [Zech] Sanders doesn’t get loose on the perimeter.”

Eastern vs. Western

Western comes into the tourney on a high note after beating North Central Conference school Logansport 41-39 last week.

“We felt like we made strides defensively,” Western coach Andy Weaver said, noting the Panthers held the Berries to 27 percent shooting from the field and a season-low 39 points. “We feel like we’ve made some strides in our rebounding too from the beginning of the season. Those are areas that have been big focus points for us and we’re going to need both of those be strong for us [Saturday].”

Western beat Eastern by 11 points earlier this season, but Weaver noted the game was competitive throughout and he is impressed with how the Comets have played since.

“They’re 3-1 since our game,” he said. “They’re a team that has different players who have stepped up and done some scoring for them. [Steven] Boomershine scored 23 against Southwood, [Joby] Renbarger ended up with 19 to lead them against Clinton Central and [Brandon] Hainlen and [Wes] Horner, their guards, led them in scoring against Maconaquah last week. You have to defend all their players.”

Western held Eastern to 39.6 percent shooting from the field in their MIC meeting.

Keisling is eager to see how his squad handles the rematch.

“You know when you play Western, you have to be ready to play ball,” he said. “We felt like the first time we played them, we played pretty competitively, but we had the one quarter where we let down and against a good ballclub like Western, you can’t do that. If we’re going to go in there and be competitive with them again and beat them, we’ll have to play four quarters.”

Eastern has already exceeded its win total from last season. Now, it is hoping to make some rare HCT noise. The Comets last won a HCT semifinal game in 1998.

“I think the kids are excited,” Keisling said. “Each game, they’ve seemed a little more upbeat in terms of their mental approach. Now it’s tournament time and it’s nice to see them excited about going and participating in the county.”



Revised HCT schedule:

At Northwestern, all games Saturday

10 a.m. — Taylor (5-3) at NW (3-3)

Noon — Eastern (5-3) vs. Western (5-3)

6 p.m. — Consolation

8 p.m. — Championship