by Austin Bainbridge

The Jeff boys’ basketball team faces one of the top-ranked schools in Indiana, Silver Creek, for their home opener in a big benchmark game tonight in Johnson Arena.

“This is an important game; even though it’s not a rivalry like Floyd or New Albany there is a very good team and a win would be huge,” said sophomore guard Cornelius Weobong.

Silver Creek is looking like one of the best teams in Indiana and is searching for a statement win against Jeff.

“They’re really good at sharing the basketball. They’ve got six guys that could score 20 on any given night. So they do a really good job of moving the ball,” said head coach Sherron Wilkerson.

Jeff isn’t looking as potent as last year’s state championship team but still sees this as a competitive game.

“Our biggest keys are — Number one, we’ve got to guard for basketball. Number two, we’ve got to rebound. Number three, we have to take care of it, we cannot turn the ball over,” said Wilkerson.

The fans are also looking forward to a competitive game like this early in the season.

“I’m excited to see our guys play at home. I hope that we can come away with a win against a team as good as Silver Creek — that would be a big momentum boost,” said English teacher David Kummer.

To come away with a victory Jeff is going to have to capitalize on opportunities and not give Silver Creek very many.

“We have a lot of time where you get a good cut, get the ball, and then we miss, we give them free possession again… and then on defense we have got to know where we were at and we’ve got to sprint to our spot. We can’t give them easy points,” said Weobong.

Silver Creek is good as a team, but they also have players who shine above the rest.

“Brandon Hunter — he just recently had a game where he had 13 rebounds at the point guard position. When you have a point guard putting up 13 rebounds, that means that he is worthy of being able to get you a triple double, which probably makes him the most dangerous player on the floor,” said Wilkerson.

The Red Devils are looking to overcome some of early year struggles.

“Our mental toughness and our physical toughness is probably our biggest hurdle right now. And I think that once we’re able to correct those two issues, I think then you will start to see us jell into a unit,” said Wilkerson.

This game has been on Jeffs’ calendar for some time and they’ve been preparing.

“We’ve been preparing for Silver Creek since the buzzer went off at Seymour; we’ve been gameplanning and preparing pretty intensely,” said Weobong.

This young Jeff team could put itself on the map with a Silver Creek win, and they’re ready for tonight’s challenge.

“A win would be huge for us because this particular group as a unit has not been through the fire yet. So it would be nice to be able to go through the fire and come out successful. These guys are ready to be recognized,” said Wilkerson.

In addition to tonight’s battle with the Dragons, Jeff players and coaches will be honored with the presentation of their state championship rings from last season.