Winless Watch (Girls): Down to the wire.

Two weeks ago, there were 11 winless teams on the season in Indiana high school girls basketball. Now, in the last week of the season before sectionals begin, chances are becoming fewer and farther between for those teams to get the "0" from around their necks. And teams are aware that they're up against the wall and reacting pretty positively, if this week's exodus from the Winless Watch is any indication.

Falling out of the Winless Watch this week includes West Vigo's Vikings, who turned in a 54-41 victory at Riverton Parke on 1/24. Meanwhile, Union (Modoc)'s ignominious season in all things basketball took a slight turn for the better, as their girls team is now off the list thanks to a 42-39 defeat of fellow WWer Indianapolis Howe. Hope the boys can do the same before the season ends!

Poor Lake Station. Ex-WW member LaCrosse posted their first win of the year over the Fighting Eagles - 38-36 on 1/26; two nights later, Lake Station had another contest against another to-that-point-winless squad, only to see it also end in defeat: the Pioneers of Hammond Clark defeated the Fighting Eagles, 38-27, on 1/28. If Lake Station's games were on TV this week, this graphic would be shown:

"Lake Station has lost two games in a row when the opponent scores 38 points."

Actually, the graphic would be more likely to read:

"When opponent scores more than 0 points, Lake Station is 0-18."

Sorry - that was a little rude.

Lastly, FW Keystone also finds itself off this week's WW, as they ran up the score on Howe Military, 25-17, on 1/21.

That leaves 6 teams left on the girls' version of the Watch this week. Ranked in order by average margin of defeat, with remaining regular season games and opponents' records also listed:

1. Lawrence Central (0-18) - (-35.9) - remaining opponent: Southport (5-12)
2. Gary Wallace (0-8 - limited schedule) - (-35.4) - remaining opponents: Gary West (13-5), SB St. Joseph's (16-2)
3. Indpls Howe (0-17) - (-34.8) - remaining opponents: Park Tudor (5-13), Indiana Deaf (13-5)
4. Sheridan (0-18) - (-30.6) - remaining opponents: W. Lafayette (12-8), Clinton Central (2-16)
5. Lake Station (0-18) - (-26.6) - remaining opponent: Westville (7-11)
6. Churubusco (0-17) - (-17.4) - remaining opponents: Central Noble (11-7), West Noble (3-14), Lakeland (14-6)

One neat note: None of the remaining winless teams are from Class A, the class for schools with the smallest enrollments. Lawrence Central is a 4A school, Gary Wallace and Indianapolis Howe are 3As, and the other three schools listed are 2As. Hooray for the little guys!