BOYS’ TEAM OF THE WEEK | Panthers win at Eastern for seventh straight victory

By GREG MENGELT

For the second time in three weeks, Corydon Central is the Hoosier Hills Hoops Team of the Week.

The Panthers won their sixth and seventh straight games and moved up to third place in the Mid-Southern Conference standings with a pair of conference road wins.

Corydon, which is 11-1 in its last 12 games, won at Austin (4-12) by an 89-71 margin on Friday then defeated Class 2A No. 13 Eastern (14-3) on Saturday.

“Our guys have started to figure things out, especially since Christmas break,” Corydon’s third-year head coach Joseph Hinton said.

Junior wing Anthony Martin earned the Hoosier Hills Hoops Boys’ Player of the Week honor by putting up 33 points and 10 rebounds against Austin and 11 points in the low-scoring win over Eastern. Junior enter Austin Vaughn had 21 points and 10 boards against Austin and 13 points against the Musketeers. Senior Bryce Weber added 11 and junior Tyler Fessel eight to help the Panthers end Eastern’s 3-game winning streak.

“We have several guys who can score in double figures, which makes us hard to guard,” Hinton said.

The Panthers (13-6) hosts Christian Academy (9-11) on Tuesday and 2-time defending state champion Silver Creek (8-11) on Friday before closing the regular season next Tuesday at Harrison County-rival South Central (7-11).

“We want to be playing our best basketball possible at the end of the season,” Hinton said. “Our guys are ready for the tournament. We’ve been underdogs all season. We’ll probably be underdogs again and that’s okay. Tournament time anything can happen.”