Wawasee’s Peyton Felger fights off two Elkhart Christian players for possession of the ball during the Warrior’s 58-30 win Tuesday night.
Wawasee’s Peyton Felger fights off two Elkhart Christian players for possession of the ball during the Warrior’s 58-30 win Tuesday night.
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SYRACUSE - A dominant and total team effort led the way for Wawasee Tuesday night as the Warriors picked up a 58-30 win over visiting Elkhart Christian at the Hardwood Teepee.

Wawasee featured two double-digit scorers in Collin Ziebarth (14 points) and Maddux Everingham (12 points) but the story of the game was the well-rounded effort from everybody involved. Out of the six other Warriors players to get onto the scoreboard, five of them (Myles Everingham, Weston Hoffert, Peyton Felger, Collin Roberson and Weston DeLong) scored at least five points.

“That’s when we’re at our best,” Wawasee head coach Jon Everingham said. “When we can find the open man, and we have several guys that are dangerous scoring the ball, we can be a tough team to beat.”

The Warriors began their prolific shooting night from the opening tip, using an incredibly fast-paced, pass-heavy offense that looked to get Wawasee’s best shooters open looks. The pace worked wonders for the home side, as the Warriors burned Elkhart Christian on more than one occasion by making one last extra pass that turned into a wide open three-pointer. Using this deadly offensive game plan, Wawasee scored the first eight points of the game.

“We did a lot of things right tonight, we came out with something to prove,” Everingham said. “We looked really good on offense and we needed that.”

On the other end, the Eagles had no answer of their own, causing the lead to grow exponentially. Wawasee’s quickness was evident on both ends, as the Warriors caused a plethora of ECA turnovers that were then converted into easy buckets. With no other way to keep up, the visitors would resort to fouling players in the open court to prevent Wawasee’s deadly transition offense. The Eagles compiled five fouls in the first quarter.

Heading into the second period of action with a 14-point lead after a first quarter that saw the team splash four three-pointers, The Warrior offense cooled off significantly. The open looks were still there but were not falling as frequently as they did in the first. On the defensive side however, the Wawasee defense remained stout, holding Elkhart Christian to just three points in the quarter. Despite the offensive wheels turning a tad sluggishly, the home side seemed to remain in firm control of the outcome as they took a 19-point lead into the halftime locker room.

The lead would grow even larger in the third quarter as the home court returned to the court with their groove back. Wawasee stuck with the system that had put them up big time and got the results they were looking for. The Warriors blitzed ECA with a 14-0 run to begin the third that got the team’s lead higher than 30. With the three-pointers going down once again and some timely steals leading to some easy transition offense, Wawasee had all but closed it out heading into the fourth.

“The message at halftime was simple: We’ve had some disappointments this year. We’ve had some distractions this year. Tonight, this week, next week, the rest of the season, we’ve got something to prove,” Everingham said.”

With the game no longer very competitive, both sides took turns making substitutions throughout the fourth and final period, giving some players that typically spend most of the game on the bench some run time. The highlight of the fourth came after an Elkhart Christian steal. Not wanting to give up the easy bucket, Roberson sprinted across the court and used every inch of his 6’5” frame to earn a massive chase-down block to the delight of the crowd.

The Warriors were able to get their lead to 34 on multiple occasions but did not hit the 35-point threshold to trigger the running clock. Wawasee (7-12) is back in action Friday night at Goshen for a Northern Lakes Conference showdown.