(Jade Moore won the player of the week voting)

Jade Moore likens himself to a wolf. Or, more specifically, part of a wolf pack. The pack travels together, always hunting its prey, always looking out for one another, never letting its guard down. Because when the pack is at its strongest, there’s no telling how much damage it can inflict.

Fort Wayne Snider’s boys’ basketball team is that wolf pack. Moore is one of the leaders at the forefront. By his own admission, though, the senior guard doesn’t see himself as the alpha of the group, rather the one who strikes silently and howls when necessary.

“With basketball, it’s a team sport,” Moore says. “Wolves, they lead in a pack, and obviously there’s an alpha and everything like that, but I’m not going to be able to do anything without my teammates … I can’t do anything without my pack.”

For Snider to reach the lofty goals and capitalize on the golden opportunity that sits before them, it’ll take a complete team effort.

After knocking off DeKalb last Tuesday and East Noble on Friday night, the Panthers are within arms reach of a second-straight sectional crown. The only thing standing in their way, however, is a Carroll (Fort Wayne) team that boasts one of the top players in the state, Jalen Jackson, and took Snider to the very last possession in a 65-63 triumph in late January.

But since that loss, Moore and the Panthers have undergone a bit of an evolution, understanding their strengths while mitigating weaknesses. It’s one of the many reasons why they were able to pull out a thrilling 98-96 victory over Marion in the regular season finale, and then escape DeKalb in triple overtime to survive and advance on Tuesday.

Leading the charge, or the proverbial wolf pack, are Moore and juniors Karson Jenkins and Aidan Lambert. Though the high-scoring, dynamic trio accounts for much of Snider’s offense, it’s their togetherness that has them on the doorstep of a sectional title.

“They make you want to get better,” Moore said. “In practice we’re all pushing each other, we’re all going against each other … it’s like competing to see who’s going to outwork the next best player or the other players.”

With a regular season schedule as ruthless and unforgiving as any in the state, the battle-tested Panthers are ready for anything and everything. They’ve played the best the state has to offer: South Bend Riley, Homestead, Churubusco, Carroll, Blackhawk Christian, Lawrence North, Cathedral. You name it, Snider has probably seen it.

And that’s where Moore enters the picture. As the only senior in Snider’s rotation this season, Moore’s experience and leadership has been crucial.

In the Panthers’ win over Marion to close out the regular season, Moore and Jalen Blackmon went toe-to-toe in a classic battle of ‘anything you can do, I can do better.’ While Blackmon poured in a career-high 52 points on 61 percent shooting from the field, Moore refused to allow himself and his team to be outdone. So what’d he do? Splashed a school-record nine three-pointers to go with 33 points and a win.

“Marion kept on leaving me open and my teammates kept on hitting me,” Moore said. “I kind of just caught fire and couldn’t miss.”

But Moore isn’t a run-of-the-mill, four-year player who has grown little by little each season. In fact, the 6-foot-3 guard has accrued what amounts to just two years of high school basketball experience. As a freshman, his father pulled him out of basketball to focus on academics. As a sophomore, he tore his PCL and was sidelined for the rest of the season. As a junior, he played in just 13 games, averaged 8.6 minutes per game, and scored 4.6 points per game.

It’s a testament to Moore’s confidence and development that, after all the roadblocks he’s faced, he’s increased his scoring average to 15.4 points per game this season while shooting 45% from three-point range.

“I didn’t play as much as I wanted to last year,” Moore said, “but (head) coach (Jeremy Rausch) let me know what I had to do to perform the way I do now, what I had to work on. The biggest part now is just mental.”

As Snider looks to repeat as sectional champions against Carroll on Saturday night at 7 p.m., the wolfpack will need to be at their best, always hunting their prey, always looking out for one another, and never letting their guard down.

In what could potentially be Moore’s final game in a Snider uniform, he’ll also have to be in hunting mode. 

After all, wolves stalk late into the night with their only objective being -- who’s next.

“I can’t control what goes on,” Moore said, “but I can control how I play, how I carry myself on the court.”