What we learned from the week in high school basketball:

Another unbeaten falls, courtesy of Carmel

Is there a team that has had a better two weeks than Carmel?

The Greyhounds, a 2-6 team after a 23-point loss at Cathedral on Dec. 22, upset Class 4A top-ranked Fishers 54-46 on Saturday night to hand the Tigers their first loss.

Red-hot Carmel (8-9) will now take a four-game winning streak into another home game against 4A second-ranked Lawrence North, which will bring a 17-0 record into the matchup. Can the Greyhounds knock off No. 1 and No. 2 in the span of six days?

Certainly possible. Alex Couto’s 26 points, including 11-for-14 from the free-throw line, certainly stand out from Carmel’s win over Fishers. But a couple of other numbers, do, too: 9 and 60.

The first number is Carmel’s turnovers against Fishers, which relies on its full-court press to speed up opponents and flip turnovers into points. Carmel was plus-3 in the turnover category. The second number represents Carmel’s 3-point shooting percentage (6-for-10), led by Couto’s 3-for-6 performance.

Carmel did not shoot it as well the previous night in a 39-36 win over Ben Davis (3-for-12 from 3), but only committed eight turnovers to keep even in that category with the Giants.

Carmel coach Ryan Osborn, even when his team was 3-7 in late December, believed the Greyhounds were on the right track. Senior guard Ryan Clevenger and 6-8 sophomore Evan Harrell have played major roles for the Greyhounds, along with Couto.

“They want to win,” Osborn said. “And if we can keep growing, regardless of the result, there’s a good feeling in the locker room.”

There is a better feeling, of course, when the wins start piling up. Carmel now must be considered a major factor in Sectional 8, which will be played at Noblesville in about a month. Fishers (16-1), Westfield (14-1) and Noblesville (15-2) have four losses between them and Hamilton Southeastern (12-6) and Zionsville (9-8) are also capable of making a run.

There are two undefeated teams remaining: Lawrence North (17-0) and Greenfield-Central (16-0).

High-scoring individual performances

In the span of four days, I watched New Palestine junior Julius Gizzi score 36 points in a 57-48 loss to Lawrence North, Greenfield-Central junior Braylon Mullins score 51 points in a 74-72 double-overtime win over Pendleton Heights and Brownsburg senior Jordan Lomax score 40 points in an 82-57 win over Maconaquah.

Three players for a combined 127 points.

All were impressive, obviously, though Mullins’ performance, including the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer is the most memorable. He scored 41 of those points in the second half and two overtime periods, carrying the Cougars as Pendleton Heights kept matching him with Seth LaRavia (22 points), Josiah Gustin (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Cooper Sims (19 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the 3-point line and six assists).

Of course, a lot of the social media chatter after the game centered around how much IU could use a player like the 6-5 Mullins, who is averaging 27.9 points and shooting 41.4% from the 3-point line. That was magnified even more when the Hoosiers made all of zero 3-pointers in a 70-62 loss at No. 11 Illinois on Saturday.

IU is in play for Mullins, who can shoot it from the outside. But I think people are also miscalculating Mullins to classify him only as “a shooter.” His athleticism and driving ability are major parts of his offensive game, as he showed on Friday night.

“We call plays, but it really has to be up to the kids,” Greenfield-Central coach Luke Meredith said. “When you have a special player like Braylon who can go for 50 and kids understand their roles, it helps.”

New recruiting rankings

The recruiting site 247Sports unveiled new recruiting rankings for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 classes this week. A look at where the in-state players and players of local interest landed:

∎ 2024

No. 10 – Flory Bidunga, Kokomo: The McDonald’s All American and Kansas recruit is averaging 18.3 points, 12.9 rebounds and 4.6 blocked shots per game.

No. 15 – Liam McNeeley, Montverde Academy (Fla.): The 6-7 Indiana recruit averages 12.5 points and shoots 50% from the 3-point line for his loaded team, which also has the No. 1 player in the country in Duke recruit Cooper Flagg.

No. 32 – Kanon Catchings, Overtime Elite (Ga.): The 6-8 Purdue recruit and former Brownsburg wing is averaging 15.7 points and 6.1 rebounds and shooting 40% from the 3-point line for his team at Overtime Elite.

No. 38 – Sir Mohammed, Charlotte Myers Park (N.C.): The 6-7 Mohammed is a Notre Dame commit averaging 13.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists.

No. 88 – Gicarri Harris, Loganville Grayson (Ga.): The 6-4 combo guard is signed with Purdue.

No. 97 – Cole Certa, IMG Academy (Fla.): The 6-4 combo guard is a Notre Dame signee.

No. 126 – KJ Windham, Ben Davis: The 6-3 Windham, a Northwestern recruit, is averaging 15.5 points, 2.7 assists and shooting 38% from the 3-point line.

No. 127 – Garrett Sundra, Fairfax Paul VI Catholic (Va.): The 6-10 Sundra is a third Notre Dame commit on this list for coach Micah Shrewsberry.

No. 139 – Raleigh Burgess, Sycamore (Ohio): The 6-10 center is headed to Purdue, the third player listed in this class for the Boilermakers.

∎ 2025

No. 11 – Jalen Haralson, La Lumiere: The 6-6 former Fishers standout is a five-star prospect with offers from Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Purdue and many others.

No. 62 – Trent Sisley, Heritage Hills: The 6-7 Sisley is averaging 24.9 points, 11.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Purdue have been most involved for Sisley.

No. 96 – Braylon Mullins, Greenfield-Central: The 6-5 Mullins is a four-star prospect with offers from Butler, Indiana, Iowa, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and others.

No. 126 – Azavier Robinson, Lawrence North: The 6-1 guard is averaging 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Robinson has offers from Butler, Illinois, Indiana, Notre Dame, Ohio State and others.

No. 147 – Dezmon Briscoe, Crispus Attucks: The 6-8 Briscoe, averaging 14.5 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.3 blocked shots, has offers from Butler, Cincinnati, Iowa and more.

∎ 2026

No. 49 – Steven Reynolds, South Bend Washington: The 6-5 guard averages 21.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. Nebraska, Notre Dame and Purdue have offered.

Teams of the week

This is from the “other than Carmel” category, but Class 3A No. 1 Danville continues to get it done, defeating Western Boone (62-37) and Tri-West (60-48) this week to improve to 15-1 for coach Brian Barber.

Danville, which lost only to Avon in the Hendricks County tournament, is led by junior Jace Scrafton (12.4 ppg, 4.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists), senior Evan Lawrence (12.4 ppg, 11.6 rebounds) and sophomore Elijah Tricker (10.8 ppg, 5.1 assists, 4.0 rebounds). There are tough games ahead at Avon (Feb. 13) and at Plainfield (Feb. 22), but those are 4A programs.

The toughest challenge for Danville in Sectional 25 will be Tri-West, which is 11-5 with two of those losses coming to the Warriors. Lebanon (9-8), which lost by seven to Danville earlier in the season, could also challenge. But don’t be surprised if Danville is holding the sectional trophy for the fourth time in five years.

Final thoughts and observations

I don’t pretend to have all the answers but if you have made it this far, some random, quick-hitting thoughts and observations to leave you with:

∎ Flory Bidunga is closing in on the 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound club for his three-year career at Kokomo. He has 1,394 points and 996 rebounds going into Kokomo’s home game on Thursday against Cathedral. According to Leigh Evans’ Hickory Husker record book, Bidunga would have to reach 1,127 rebounds to make the top-10 on the state’s all-time list. Eric Wahl of Frankfort (1992-95) is No. 10 on that list. No. 1 is former Washington star George McGinnis with 1,638 rebounds from 1966-69.

∎ First time I have seen this: A referee with his back turned to the action on the court, talking to a coach near the scorer’s table for several seconds. The coach eventually redirected him back to the action. The old taunt, “You’re missing a great game, ref!” was true in this case.

∎ There is something different, and better, about high school basketball on Friday nights over any other day of the week. Better crowds, better student sections, better games.

∎ You can’t beat popcorn that comes in a white or brown paper bag.

∎ Decatur Central senior KC Berry is 19 points from reaching the 1,000-point mark for his career. Berry had 26 points in Decatur Central’s 66-55 win over Plainfield.

∎ Noblesville played about as well as any team I’ve seen this season in a 71-41 win over Guerin Catholic, especially early. The Millers led 38-8 at one point and enacted the 35-point running clock late in the third quarter. Stunning, really. “We probably had our best week of practice all year,” said senior guard Aaron Fine, who had 16 points and four assists. Fine, who has a preferred walk-on offer from Purdue, should get a long look for the Indiana All-Stars. He is already over 1,000 career points and has a sectional title under his belt.

∎ The City tournament championship was an awesome atmosphere. Don’t change a thing when it comes to the location (Tech) and date (Monday night). Now we just need more City teams to rise to compete with Crispus Attucks and Cathedral.

∎ Maconaquah 6-5 junior Josiah Ball has an unorthodox game, but he can play. Ball had 28 points against Brownsburg in an 82-57 loss on Saturday night but fouled out with about 6 minutes remaining. Ball has great balance and finds way to create space to score. There is a reason he came in averaging 30.0 points per game.

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA basketball wrap: Carmel is back, updated recruiting rankings