The 2010-2011 Indiana high school basketball season is finally here. Heritage Christian faced off with Rushville to start the regular season. Heritage Christian is an overall young team. They only have two seniors on the team and five sophomores. Joel Smith is in his third year as a starter for HC while Basil Smotherman is one of the top college prospects in the 2013 class. So, Heritage Christian definitely has some pieces to build around.

Rushville is led by three seniors. Spencer Comer and Jon Thompson are four year varsity guys that provide leadership and a lot of scoring. Brandon Herbert is in his third year of varsity action and looks to be much improved. The rest of the team has yet to prove themselves. Those three alone will cause major problems for most teams though.

I expected the game to be a match-up of Basil Smotherman vs. Spencer Comer. Whoever won that individual battle figured to have a great chance to win. Brandon Herbert, 6'7" senior, stole the show early though. He was able to find the open elbow area against Heritage Christian's zone. Herbert knocked down 15 footer after 15 footer. He ended up with 11 points in the first quarter and Rushville led 15-12.

The most surprising thing in the first half was the passiveness of Smotherman. He didn't take a shot in the first quarter and he didn't even look to attack the rim at all. Heritage Christian needs Smotherman to get to the rim and to be a scoring threat every time he catches the ball in order to make his teammates better. He was guarded by a great defender in Comer who was in front of Smotherman on every catch. That is not a reason to be ultra passive though.

At halftime, Rushville led 35-27. The third quarter is when things started to heat up. Mid-way through the quarter Basil Smotherman started to get rolling. He made back to back steals which led to a dunk and lay-up for him then he hit a 3. Smotherman had 9 straight points and 13 for the quarter after having 3 points at halftime.

Jon Thompson, also, got on track during the third quarter. He uses the shot fake better than anyone in high school basketball. Then he uses his body really well to get a ton of "and 1's" where most players just get fouled. Thompson has made some of the best players on the AAU circuit look really dumb with his great shot fake.

Through 3, Rushville led 57-52 and Herbert continued to roll. He had 24 points through the first 3 quarters. Heritage Christian tried to extend their pressure to create easy baskets and it worked when the Rushville starters were out. If HC was going to win the game, they needed Smotherman to play in the 4th like he did during the third quarter.

Smotherman was quiet in the final quarter though. Joel Smith was quiet during the middle quarters but was pretty good in the first and fourth quarters. Thompson and Comer made sure that no comeback would happen as they knocked down free-throws late and Rushville won 76-70.

Senior Nick Hoover, 6'1", was a bright spot for HC. He had 16 points mainly off of cutting and offensive rebounding. Junior Joel Smith, 6'6", had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Smotherman finished the game with 18 points on 6-12 shooting.

Senior Brandon Herbert, 6'7", led Rushville with 26 points and 8 rebounds. Fellow senior Jon Thompson added 22 points and 6 rebounds. Spencer Comer ended with 14 points.