The 17th annual Boys Sugar Creek Classic gets underway Friday night at Crawfordsville High School and the opening game will feature a county rivalry rematch when the North Montgomery Chargers and the Southmont Mounties square off. Of course these two teams met up back on Dec. 1 in what was the opening game of the season for the Mounties and game No. 2 for the Chargers. Thanks in large part to Hayden Hess’s 20 point performance, Southmont was able to come away with a 50-42 win.
This time the Chargers will be looking for revenge against their county rivals. North Montgomery comes into the Classic with a 4-5 record but will be getting some much needed firepower back as junior Kelby Harwood is expected to make his return from a thumb injury that's held him out the last three games.
"It's going to be big to have him back out there," North Montgomery coach Chad Arnold said. "Kelby does so much for us and I know he's excited to get back out there as well. South is a big physical team and we have to be ready to go out and compete. Hess really hurt us last time, Hubble is a man down there in the paint and Reimondo is really starting to hit his stride shooting the ball. It's going to be another challenge for us for a full 32 minutes."
Southmont comes in with a 3-3 record and is coming off an impressive 57-52 win over South Vermillion in their final game before the break. First-year coach Michael Byrum notes how while his team does get to see the Chargers for a second time, both teams are different from that first meeting a little over a month ago.
“When I go back and look at that film of the first game I see two teams that have both grown tremendously,” Byrum said. “I think for us we knew that first month in December was going to be up and down and it certainly was. Everyone was getting adjusted to how we were going to run things and new guys and new spots but the break couldn’t have come at a better time. We had guys who were banged up with injuries, guys battling illness really the last two and a half weeks. Now that we’re back and healthy we’re aiming to really put things together.”
Harwood still leads North Montgomery with 11.5 points per game and grabs 6.7 rebounds. Jarrod Kirsch scored right at 11 points per game. Noah Hopkins scores almost eight, and Cam Enlow has been a bright spot at times for the Chargers with his defense and three point shooting. Ross Dyson (4.3 ppg) and Colten Arnold (3.7) have also been scorers for the Chargers.
Southmont has a pair of double figure scorers in senior Carter Hubble who averages 12 a game along with grabbing 6.5 rebounds. Sharpshooting junior Vince Reimondo scores 10.5 and Hess also adds 9.2 points per game. Evan Watson scores 6.7.
The Mounties are also the defending Sugar Creek Classic champions and maybe these current players had different roles a season ago, but they still got to experience bringing back a Sugar Creek Classic title.
“We want to win back-to-back classics there’s no question about that,” Byrum said. “The boys are excited to go in and defend their title. The goal is to do just that but we can’t overlook North and that’s been our focus this entire week. That’s how you have to approach this type of two day tourney.”
North Montgomery will be in search of its first Sugar Creek Classic title since the 2014-15 season. The winner between the Mounties and Chargers will play the winner of the second game of the evening between Western Boone and Crawfordsville in the championship game on Saturday which is slated to begin around 6:30. The consolation game between the two loser’s of Friday’s games is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
