Balanced scoring is one of the reasons the Indian Creek boys basketball team is off to one of its best starts in years.
Another is the improved play of senior guard/forward Colby Marker.
Marker, who sat out his sophomore season after transferring from Brown County, was one of the Braves’ top players off the bench a year ago, averaging 2.6 points a game for a squad that finished with a 14-8 record.
This season, he’s good for 11.4 points, two assists and three steals for the 8-1 Braves.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
“I think I improved a lot. I worked in the gym every day in the summer to improve my ball-handling skills,” Marker said. “My coach (Drew Glentzer) really pushed me on that because he knew I was capable of being a starter. I think my ball-handling has put me in a position where he can trust me more.”
“Being a starter is a great opportunity, especially having teammates who challenge each other to be at the top of their game.”
Marker’s numbers might be higher on a less selfish squad, but has three other teammates averaging double figures in points — senior post Jordan Watson, junior guard Mason Britt and junior forward Ethan Williams — with sophomore Javan Crouch and senior guard Xavier Ferris not far behind.
Averaging 72 points as a team, the Braves are one of the highest-scoring teams in the state. On a team with so many scoring options, it’s sometimes easy to overlook everything Marker brings to the court.
But his coach doesn’t.
“Colby has gotten that much better,” Glentzer said. “He started out as a sophomore and really didn’t know how to play and kind of learned the hard way. He was a kid that learned by sitting, and his desire to get better has been off the charts.
“He’s a good teammate. He loves to be part of the team, and his biggest improvement has probably been on the defensive end. That was probably what kept him out of more games (last season) than his offensive ability. Colby has always had a gift offensively.”
Marker’s career-high of 25 points came in the season opener, a 76-68 loss at Franklin. He followed that with 16 in a lopsided victory over Edinburgh.
In the end, it’s all about Ws, and Indian Creek’s current eight-game win streak is the longest in at least a quarter of a century for a team that’s been averaging 15 wins per season over the past five years.
“This is probably the most unique group of kids I’ve ever had in the fact that we have eight kids who play a lot of minutes,” Glentzer said. “Everybody has a pretty good understanding of when it’s the other guy’s night, it’s the other guy’s night. At the end, we’re all just trying to win the game.”
