We learned a lot watching high school basketball over the holidays. Too much for one column. Here’s a little bonus “What we learned” from the holiday hoops season:

Park Tudor off to strong start, contender in Class 2A

Park Tudor (6-2) saw its six-game winning streak end Friday with a 64-57 loss to undefeated Lake Central at North Central in the Paul Loggan Memorial Invitational, but the Panthers appeared poised from a strong second half.

Coach Tim Adams, in his sixth year at Park Tudor, carried a heavy heart into the season. His father, longtime college basketball official John Adams, died Sept. 28 after a lengthy battle with cancer. John Adams attended almost all of Park Tudor’s games during his son’s tenure as coach.

“It was something I may have taken for granted in the past,” Tim Adams said. “Always seeing him there at practice and looking behind (at games) to get his thoughts on a couple calls, good or bad. It’s been a challenge. I certainly miss him, and our guys miss him. He had such great relationships with our players and coaches.”

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There is some solace for Adams the season was right around the corner when his father died in late September. John Adams was excited about the upcoming season and the team his son was going to put on the court.

“This is what he’d want me to be doing,” Adams said. “It’s kind of our happy place and we can feel his presence. I try to share with our players how I’m feeling about how I feel about him not being here and also having them understand that dad would be proud of how they are playing. That’s something to kind of hang our hat on.”

Park Tudor, ranked No. 9 Class 2A, lost its opener to Guerin Catholic, last year’s 3A runner-up, before reeling off six consecutive victories, including a 68-46 runaway against 4A Evansville Reitz in the first game of the event at North Central. The Panthers, led by junior guard Hudson Horvath (18.0 ppg, 4.3 rebounds, 37.8% 3-pointers), are scoring nearly 22 points a game off turnovers.

Adams has been playing 11 players, using depth to wear down opponents.

“I haven’t typically played that many guys in the past but I’m learning to trust and play more guys, younger guys, and they are coming in and doing their job,” Adams said. “It’s a really connected group. We’re getting a lot of guys playing their role and that is incredibly important. That’s really the reason for our success as of late. Guys are buying and playing together, and I do think we’re a pretty tough, resilient team.”

Horvath is the go-to offensive player, but the Panthers are also getting good production from junior guard KJ Mark (9.9 ppg, 2.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 44.4% 3-pointers) and junior Eli Bennett (6.5 ppg, 3.6 rebounds, 60% field goals).

Looking ahead, Park Tudor has a favorable first-round matchup in the Marion County tournament next week vs. Beech Grove (2-10) and would face either North Central or Lutheran in a quarterfinal game. The Panthers were 16-9 last year, winning a sectional title for the first time in Adams’ tenure and again looks like the current favorite in the five-team sectional at Sheridan.

“(We looked at the North Central event) as an opportunity to kind of put our names on the map,” Adams said. “It was a chance for us to show that our culture is established and we’re going in the right direction.”

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Attucks looks like a factor in Sectional 10

News flash: Sectional 10 is going to be tough.

Yeah, you probably already knew that if you have been following high school basketball for the past several years. But Crispus Attucks’ championship at the Hall of Fame Classic, with victories over Kokomo and Brownstown Central, further establishes Sectional 10 as one of the toughest (the toughest?) sectional fields in the state.

The teams ranked No. 3 (Lawrence North) and No. 4 (Cathedral) are both undefeated, but Lawrence North’s closest game was a 72-71 win over Attucks on Dec. 19 and Cathedral will not see Attucks until the City tournament (assuming the teams meet in the championship). The rest of Sectional 10 has probably performed beyond expectations:

∎ North Central is 6-2, including a 63-58 win over Attucks (the Tigers’ first game of the season) on Nov. 28. In other games against sectional rivals, the Panthers beat Tech by 29 points and lost to Cathedral by 15.

∎ Warren Central (5-4) has won five of six after an 0-3 start, which included an overtime loss to Attucks. The Warriors were blown out by Cathedral (92-71) in the opener.

∎ Lawrence Central (5-5) had little experience coming into the season but coach Phil Washington, in his first year, has a team that can compete with any team on the schedule. The Bears were tied with Lawrence North going into the fourth quarter before losing by 18 and fell to Attucks, 62-49.

∎ Tech (6-5) lost to both North Central (86-57) and Cathedral (62-49) but has come on recently, defeating Merrillville and Fort Wayne Snider at the Huntington North tournament and nearly knocking off East Chicago Central for the championship.

Attucks has the guard play (Ron Rutland III, Mason Lewis, Chris Hurt) and size (Dezmon Briscoe) to present matchup problems for any team on the schedule.

“We just have to keep getting better,” Attucks coach Chris Hawkins said.

Chesterton still scary in north

Chesterton made a run to the Class 4A state finals two years ago, taking a 29-0 record into the championship game before losing to Cathedral.

This Chesterton team, while not as experienced as that one, has two seniors who played key roles on that state finals team — Justin Sims and Tyler Parrish. The 6-3 Parrish, who recently went over 1,000 points for his career, is averaging 21.7 points and 4.1 assists per game, while shooting 43.3% from the 3-point line (26-for-60).

“I’ve seen a lot of teams come and double him and try to get ball out of his hands,” Chesterton coach Marc Urban said of Parrish. “We have some guys like Tobias (Ray) and Logan (Pokorney) who can really shoot it around him and (Sims) at the rim that you still have to worry about. So as long as he’s making the right decision and trusts his pieces, it works out good. Early, he was probably pressing too hard but as a coach you are happy that he’s willing to take coaching and understands what it takes to get better because he wants to win.”

The 6-6 Sims is averaging 15.0 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds. Parrish was one of six core Junior All-Stars last season and Sims was also selected as one of the 18 Junior All-Stars. That duo is a pretty strong core to build a team around, but the Trojans (6-4) are very young otherwise.

The next two leading scorers after Parrish and Sims, Pokorney and Ray, are a sophomore and freshman, respectively. The 6-3 Pokorney is averaging 8.7 points and shooting 51.4% from the 3-point line (18-for-35) and the 5-10 Ray is averaging 6.7 points and shooting 46.3% (19-for-41) from the 3-point line.

“It’s been a bit of a learning process (for Parrish and Sims) because when they were sophomores and juniors, they had really good seniors,” Urban said. “They could just worry about themselves and hide in certain ways and just play basketball. It’s taken a little time, but I think they are starting to figure out how much more responsibility they have now, especially with the amount of youth we’re playing with. We’ve had some good wins and some tough losses, but I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves early on here.”

Chesterton finished as runner-up in the Fishers tournament, losing 74-42 in the championship to the host Tigers after defeating Lawrence Central (57-54) and South Bend Riley (66-57). The Trojans’ other three losses are to Brownsburg, East Chicago Central and Penn.

“When there is productive discomfort, that’s when you can grow,” Urban said. “We’ve gone through a lot of discomfort, but I also think we’ve grown as a basketball team. That’s why you play those tough games. To our kids’ credit, they’ve done a good job of just sticking with it and coming back for more.”

Carmel’s up and down start

Carmel is off to an un-Carmel-like 3-7 start to the season. It is a young team, the youngest Ryan Osborn has coached in his seven years. That does not necessarily make it an easier, but Osborn has had to recalibrate the day-to-day focus of “trying to win the next one” and look a little more inward with this group of Greyhounds.

“They just need to worry about what we do and become better defenders, better teammates, move the ball better,” Osborn said. “When they do that in practice, you get a sense of confidence and accomplishment from them. When they start to get worried about what everybody else is doing, it’s almost overwhelming for them. So, we have to find some confidence from small victories. It’s a fun atmosphere in practice when we feel like we’re getting somewhere.”

Carmel played one of its best games of the season last week at North Central with a 60-46 victory over Evansville Harrison. Junior guard Alex Couto, the team’s leading scorer, went for 15 points and sophomore Ben Bremer scored 12 points in his first game since moving up from the junior varsity.

The Greyhounds lost the next day, 48-34 to Louisville Trinity, though 6-7 sophomore Evan Harrell finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Couto (12.8 ppg, 35.9% 3-pointers) and Harrell (9.6 ppg, 6.1 rebounds) are Carmel’s top scorers, along with senior guard Ryan Clevenger (8.2 ppg, 2.4 assists).

“The goal is to know exactly where we stand when we get to March,” Osborn said. “They are learning and building confidence. A lot of them are in that position for the very first time, so it’s different. But it’s been a lot of fun to start the season with this group. If we can keep growing, regardless of the result, there’s a good feeling.”

High-scoring shootout and final thoughts

∎ One of the shootouts of the season took place last week at the Miami County holiday tournament, where Maconaquah junior Josiah Ball and Peru senior Matt Roettger put on a show. Roettger and Ball each scored 45 points in Maconaquah's 88-83 victory.

The 6-2 Roettger was 15-for-33 from the field and 11-for-14 from the free-throw line and added 13 rebounds, six assists and six steals. He is averaging 20.9 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 3.9 assists for the season.

The 6-5 Ball, coming off a 34-point game in a win over Caston, was 16-for-19 from the free throw line, and had 16 rebounds and three assists.

Those numbers bring back memories of the Church Street Shootout between Kokomo’s Jimmy Rayl and New Castle’s Ray Pavy (Pavy scored 51 and Rayl 49 in New Castle’s 92-81 win on Feb. 20, 1959) and a game I covered on Jan. 4, 2014, when Tech’s Trey Lyles had 45 points and 17 rebounds and Park Tudor’s Trevon Bluiett had 51 points in Tech’s 95-88 overtime victory.

∎ New Palestine junior Julius Gizzi had a monster week as his team went 3-1 at the Ray Furney holiday tournament in Lawrenceburg. Gizzi went for 30 points and seven rebounds in a win over Jennings County, had 35 points, nine rebounds and three assists in a loss to Newport (Ky.), came back with 24 points and six rebounds in a win over Bethesda Christian and finished with a 30-point game against Pike Central in a win. Gizzi was named IBCA/Franciscan Health Player of the Week, along with Ball of Maconaquah and Bloomfield sophomore Blake Neill, who led his team to a 3-1 showing at the Wabash Valley Classic.

∎ A fun couple weeks coming in January with the Marion County tournament and City tournament.

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

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school basketball: Park Tudor, Chesterton, Attucks, more