SYRACUSE - It is not quite there for Wawasee, but it is definitely moving in the right direction.

Despite their 2-10 record, the Warriors have shown signs of life the past three games, albeit losing outings. The latest better, but still frustrating outcome for the Warriors was a 41-40 loss to Goshen Friday.

The Redskins (10-2) are in the midst of their best season since 1991-92 when they finished 21-4. Goshen also had an earlier win over Wawasee at the Goshen Holiday Tournament.

"We are playing well, and we have to continue to play well," Wawasee coach Jerry Davis said. "It is a lot better than the way we were playing before. We have to continue to improve, and if we do, we can get over the hump."

And against a talented Redskins' squad, the Warriors had their chances to win. In a low-scoring affair, Wawasee trailed Goshen 39-33 with 2:30 left in the fourth. Wawasee cut the margin to 39-35 and then Goshen's Scott Defrees and Jon Swartz took turns missing front ends of one-and-one situations. Narron Graves then got a layup and then 1 of 2 from the charity stripe to trim the margin to 39-38 with 19 seconds left.

Swartz connected on two free throws to make it 41-38 with. Wawasee's Jared Mahnensmith missed a three-pointer with under five seconds left, and Brody Stipp grabbed the rebound. In an instinctive move, Stipp went back up for the layup and trimmed the lead to 41-40. Goshen just left the final four seconds tick off the clock without even inbounding the ball.

"This is the first time this year that we have been in that position where we were that close and worried about having to throw it back out," Davis said. "You get players in the habit of going right back up with it. That is a hustle play. There were other opportunities in the game before that.

"We had a lot of opportunities," he said. "It wasn't just the last couple of possessions of the game. We had them earlier in the fourth quarter, and we didn't capitalize on them."

Graves got some big baskets for the Warriors, leading the way with 11 points off the bench.

"Graves has come back and is trying to find his role with this team, and then his role has changed daily because of the things we ask him to do," Davis said. "He is a talented player. He has only been playing basketball for three years. We look for him to improve and give us more offensive punch at guard."

Wawasee and Goshen were neck and neck for the majority of this contest despite the Redskins picking on the Warriors zone and getting chances off the offensive rebounds. Once Wawasee switched to man-to-man, the Redskins had difficulty scoring.

But so did the Warriors.

Both teams combined for only 33 points in the second half with Goshen getting 17 and Wawasee 16.

"I thought the zone was doing the job," Davis said. "They weren't hitting their shots, but we were giving up offensive rebounds. We were giving up too many second-chance points. I thought we had to get out of it."

The main thorn in Wawasee's side was Swartz, who ended up with 20 points.

Wawasee falls to 0-4 in the NLC, while Goshen improves to 2-1 in the conference.

"(Mike) Sorrell has done a great job with this team," Davis said. "They don't have a lot of superstars, but they play very well together. They don't hurt themselves."

Wawasee is at Whitko Friday. [[In-content Ad]]