Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union Senior Keaton Dukes of Wawasee makes a hard cut to the basket en route to scoring during Friday night's home game against Manchester.
Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union Senior Keaton Dukes of Wawasee makes a hard cut to the basket en route to scoring during Friday night's home game against Manchester.
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SYRACUSE — Wawasee took the momentum away from visiting Manchester and earned a 52-45 non-conference boys basketball victory Friday, Dec. 3 at the Hardwood Teepee.

The Warriors (2-1) closed on a 19-5 run to beat the Squires (1-2).

A basket by senior Keaton Dukes with 3:09 to go pulled Wawasee even at 40-all.

At 2:33, freshman Myles Everingham buried a 3-pointer for a 43-40 Warrior advantage.

A layup by senior Caden Welty at the 1:41 mark made it 45-40.

Freshman Gavin Betten’s bucket for Manchester at 1:29 cut the lead to 45-42.

A three-point play by Dukes at 1:04 gave Wawasee a 48-42 edge.

The biggest lead of the night for other team came on the two free throws by Myles Everingham that put the Warriors up 50-42 with 19.2 seconds to go.

A 3-pointer by sophomore Gavin Martin got the Squires to within 50-45 with 12.5 ticks left.

A pair of foul shots by junior Collin Roberson at :10.3 closed out the scoring for Wawasee.

Warriors coach Jon Everingham cited a play at the end of the third quarter where Myles Everingham made a steal and layup to knock Manchester’s lead down to 36-31 going into the fourth quarter.

“We were struggling with energy the entire game,” said Everingham. “I don’t know exactly why, but that particular play got us going a little bit.

“We just played with more energy in the fourth quarter.”

Squires coach Eli Henson talked about how his team built its lead then saw it get away.

“We made sure they were taking tough shots and taking it out of Dukes’ hands a little bit (in the third quarter),” said Henson. “We were getting stops. In the fourth quarter, things started to go wrong and nobody stepped up for us.

“It’s a game we should’ve won. When you’ve got a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter you’ve got to figure out a way to get a win.

“The last five minutes was all about toughness.”

Dukes (24 points — nine in the second quarter and seven in the fourth), Myles Everingham (14 — all in the second half) and freshman Maddux Everingham (6 — all in the first half) led Wawasee scorers.

“Our offense was sputtering for a long period of time,” said Everinham. “But we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter and then we made big plays.”

The Warriors made four 3-pointers — two each by the Everingham twins.

Robertson pulled down four of Wawasee’s 20 rebounds.

The Warriors committed seven turnovers — two in the second half.

The 6-foot-5 Betten (26 points — nine in the first quarter and 10 in the third), senior William Rickerd (9 — five in the second half), Martin (5 — all in the second half) and senior Cade Jones (5 — all in the first half) accounted for all Manchester’s scoring.

“Betten’s got great footwork,” said Everingham. “He’s going to be a really good player. We struggled with him. He’s got a variety of moves. When he starts hitting that outside shot, he’s very difficult to guard.

“We fronted him and sent a player at him toward the end of the game and maybe that was the difference that we held him down in the last two or three minutes.”

Henson commended Betten.

“That’s a dude that showed up ready to play and that’s a freshman,” said Henson. “We’ve got to have more than one guy step up for us because (opponents) are going to key in on him.”

Betten, Rickerd, Martin and Jones canned one 3-pointer each for the Squires.

Of Manchester’s 27 rebounds, Betten collected seven and Rickerd 6.

The Squires finished with 10 of their 15 turnovers in the second half.

Wawasee led 23-21 at halftime.

The Warriors were up 20-13 and 23-16 in the last few minutes of the second quarter.

The Squires cut the gap to 23-21 with a pair of free throws by Rickerd with 35.9 seconds left in the period.

The contest was tied at 9-all at the end of the first quarter.

In the junior varsity game, Wawasee beat Manchester 68-48. Carson Smith (14 points), Weston Hoffert (11), Jay Finlinson (10), Robbie Finlinson (10), Darius Lewis (10) and Weston DeLong (6) paced a balanced JV Warriors attack. Leading the JV Squires was Wyatt Prater (15), Kaleb Kline (11), Tallon Tory (7), Liam York (7) and Tyler Mclain (6).

Wawasee visits West Noble Saturday, Dec. 4 and Manchester goes Huntington North Saturday, Dec. 11.