Indiana Preps | Games to Watch | Girls Basketball
The road to February starts now.
Indiana girls basketball officially opens the 2026-27 season this week, with the IHSAA allowing its first regular-season contests beginning Monday, Nov. 2.
For Indiana Preps, opening week is less about finding the biggest names on the schedule and more about identifying the games that can tell us something early. How does the defending Class 4A champion replace one of Indiana’s best players? Can an established sophomore guard take another step toward becoming a statewide name? What does one of the preseason favorites look like with a Big Ten commit in the middle? And which young players are ready for larger roles after showing flashes last winter?
Here are six games we will be watching from Nov. 2-7.
1. Center Grove at Franklin Central
Thursday, Nov. 5 | 7:30 p.m.
Key player: Lillia “Lils” Tapak, Center Grove
This may be the best immediate measurement of the defending Class 4A champion.
Center Grove finished last season 29-0 and defeated Norwell 56-53 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to complete a perfect season. But Gracyn Gilliard, who averaged 25.6 points and was the centerpiece of that championship group, has graduated. That puts more responsibility on a new group, beginning with Tapak.
As a freshman, Tapak started at point guard for the state champions and averaged 6.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and a team-best 2.7 assists. She finished with 75 assists and 42 steals and scored eight points in the state championship game. Now she enters Year 2 without Gilliard absorbing nearly 26 points per night.
Franklin Central gives Center Grove an immediate test. The Flashes enter the season No. 3 in the all-classes IBCA preseason poll after returning enough talent to create significant expectations of their own.
What to watch: Tapak already proved she can operate a championship offense. Now we get the first look at whether she can expand from facilitator into one of Center Grove’s primary creators.
2. Pendleton Heights at Westfield
Saturday, Nov. 7 | 1:30 p.m.
Key player: Adah Hupfer, Pendleton Heights
No team enters opening week with more preseason attention than Pendleton Heights.
The Arabians are No. 1 in the all-classes IBCA preseason poll after finishing 23-4 last season, winning a second consecutive sectional and pushing eventual state champion Center Grove to a 50-45 regional game. The centerpiece is Hupfer, a 6-foot-3 senior who averaged 20.5 points and 13.0 rebounds as a junior while shooting 53 percent from the field. She recorded 24 double-doubles, earned IBCA Supreme 15 Underclass All-State honors, played for the Indiana Junior All-Stars and has committed to Northwestern.
Those are already established credentials. The next step is championship contention. Westfield provides an early large-school road test for a Pendleton Heights team carrying expectations it did not have to the same degree a year ago.
What to watch: Hupfer is going to produce. The more interesting question is how defenses attack her now and whether Pendleton Heights has enough perimeter balance to punish teams that load the paint.
3. Homestead vs. Fort Wayne Snider
Saturday, Nov. 7 | 11:45 a.m. ET | Lawrence North | Lady Wildcat Invitational
Key player: Janaya Cooper, Snider
No. 2 Homestead enters the season after going 24-3 last winter. No. 7 Snider brings one of the state’s most productive returning players.
Cooper averaged 19.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.2 steals and 1.4 blocks as a sophomore while shooting 54 percent from the floor. Despite playing only 18 games, she earned IBCA Supreme 15 Underclass recognition and helped Snider win 18 games. At 5-foot-11, she can affect possessions as a rebounder, defender and transition threat. Snider also returns Mackenzie White, who averaged 10.9 points and 7.6 rebounds as a freshman.
The Spartans must replace six graduated seniors, including Myah Epps, now a freshman on Louisville’s roster. That makes this an especially useful opening-week game.
What to watch: Can Cooper dictate a game against one of the preseason favorites in northern Indiana? If Snider is going to make the jump from dangerous to legitimate postseason contender, games like this are where that case begins.
4. Valparaiso at Penn
Saturday, Nov. 7 | 7:30 p.m. ET
Key player: Jillian Sanderson, Penn
Penn went 24-4 last season, won the Northern Indiana Conference and a sectional championship, and much of the production behind that success came from players who were not seniors.
That starts with Sanderson, who led Penn in scoring as a freshman at 14.4 points per game while averaging 3.6 assists and 2.6 steals. She earned first-team All-NIC honors, first-team underclass All-State recognition and a spot on the Indiana Futures team. She already has Division I offers entering her sophomore season. This year is less about introduction and more about progression.
Valparaiso provides a good opening benchmark after finishing 23-3 last season.
What to watch: Sanderson’s decision-making. The scoring is established. Her next jump could come from consistently controlling pace, creating advantages for teammates and becoming the type of guard who dictates an entire game rather than individual stretches.
5. Warren Central at Brownsburg
Tuesday, Nov. 3 | 7:30 p.m.
Key player: Ava Emberton, Brownsburg
Brownsburg begins the season with a backcourt worth watching.
Sophomore Ava Emberton showed enough as a freshman to earn increasing responsibility during the season, and the Bulldogs now need more from her after losing an experienced senior group. Brownsburg finished 12-10 last season but showed its ceiling with a regular-season victory over Westfield before losing 51-46 to Plainfield in the sectional.
The challenge for Emberton is different now. She is no longer simply the freshman guard providing minutes alongside established players. The Bulldogs need her to become a more consistent creator, both as a scorer and a distributor. Warren Central visits Tuesday night for both teams’ season opener.
What to watch: How comfortable Emberton looks with greater possession responsibility. Can she create against pressure, get Brownsburg organized and manufacture offense when the initial action breaks down? Those possessions will tell us more than her point total.
6. Lawrence North at Brownsburg
Thursday, Nov. 5 | 7:30 p.m.
Key player: Jordyn Suggs, Lawrence North
Two nights after opening against Warren Central, Brownsburg gets another young guard worth tracking.
Suggs led Lawrence North in scoring as a freshman last season, averaging 10.3 points and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 47 percent from the floor for a Wildcats team that finished 10-14. Those numbers came while she was still learning varsity basketball. The Wildcats lost 57-54 to North Central in last year’s sectional, and the path to improving on that season starts with more dependable offensive creation.
What to watch: How much the sophomore’s game has expanded. She was efficient as a freshman. The question is whether she can increase usage without sacrificing that efficiency, particularly against a Brownsburg team that will have already played a game two nights earlier.
The First Week Will Not Answer Everything
Nobody wins a championship in the first six days of November. But opening week can reveal plenty.
Center Grove gets its first chance to show what the defending champion looks like without Gilliard. Pendleton Heights begins carrying No. 1 expectations. Cooper and Snider get an immediate test against Homestead. Sanderson begins Year 2 running Penn’s offense. And a group of sophomore guards, Tapak, Emberton and Suggs, move into seasons where the responsibilities should be considerably larger.
By February, some of these storylines may look like the first signs of what was coming.
Statistics via MaxPreps and school-reported figures. Rankings via the all-classes IBCA preseason poll (Nov. 1). Indiana Preps covers high school athletics, recruiting, and athlete development across the state of Indiana.
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