Hollins Helps North Side Hand Warsaw Loss No. 1
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
The coach spoke in the tone of a motivational speaker, his voice rising and falling as he stressed his points, his voice clipping off key words.
He stopped. Players clapped. He started again and would stop to more applause.
Coach Glenn Heaton and his Fort Wayne North Side basketball team (4-1) celebrated in their locker room after handing Warsaw (5-1) its first loss Saturday, 64-59.
"You well know, how many times does Warsaw lose on its home floor, particularly with the kind of team they have this year?" Heaton said. "They are a great basketball team. For us to come in here and do what we did tonight is a compliment to our guys.
"They don't get beat very often. When they do, you better enjoy it."
Senior forward Vernard Hollins showed why Heaton is touting him as an All-State player by scoring 28. Hollins has not missed a day of school since middle school, and he missed very little this game, hitting 9 of 15 field goals.
Junior forward Steve Siebenmorgen led Warsaw with 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Zach Nelson added 13 points and 13 rebounds.
North Side, whose one loss came to Huntington North the two Saturdays ago, was ranked by one paper as the best team in the Fort Wayne area.
"They are the best team we have played," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said.
The Tigers missed lay-ups, threw the ball out of bounds and failed to get any key defensive stops.
For the first time this season, Warsaw shot less than 50 percent from the field. The Tigers hit 18 of 48 (38 percent).
It was a game the Tigers would sooner, rather than later, forget.
"We did not play well offensively or defensively," Rhodes said. "We have to give credit to Fort Wayne North. In both their half-court zone and man for man defense, they did an excellent job and destroyed our timing on offense.
"The worst part was offensively. Our percent error was way too high. If we needed a basket, we rushed and turned the ball over, or the wrong player would take the shot too quick."
The Tigers have not displayed an outside shooting touch yet, mostly because they have not needed a perimeter game. They were 5-0 by going inside.
The North Side game was the first time this year they could have used their perimeter game. But when they needed it, they couldn't find it.
"We were really afraid of their inside attack all night," Heaton said. "We started in a matchup zone, went to a 2-3 zone, went to man-to-man, and then at the end, went to a box-and-one. The major thing we wanted to do was keep the ball out of the middle.
"Siebenmorgen got 24 and Nelson 13, which isn't exactly holding them, but it was enough to win the ballgame."
Warsaw went the second half without hitting one three-pointer - until Siebenmorgen hit one with about two seconds left. By then it was too little and by far too late.
This was much to Rhodes' chagrin, who insisted in the preseason the Tigers can shoot and will shoot well outside. But even he expressed concern, albeit small, after the sixth game of the season.
"It's something we've said all along, we have to do better on," he said. "Therefore, we will. The problem was, the timing was off, so the pass takes a little longer to get there. We had very little inside-out game. We got it inside, there would be a crowd of people, and we'd never get it back outside."
The two teams ensured the fourth quarter would decide the game. The biggest lead by either team through three quarters was seven. When the third quarter ended, Fort Wayne North Side held a 42-39 lead.
The Tigers tied the game at 42-42, but then North Side ran off seven points, capped by a three-point play by Hollins, to take a 49-42 lead.
The closest the Tigers got the rest of the way was five.
If North Side missed on its end, Warsaw responded by doing the same.
If Warsaw scored two on its end, North Side responded by doing the same, or maybe even scoring three.
For Warsaw, this was a game where scoring runs and defensive stops did not exist.
"There were three or four stretches we needed to stop them and didn't do it," Rhodes said. "Hollins was a huge problem we never completely solved.
"We just didn't play tough enough in our man for man defense. Their guards were able to go where they wanted."
The biggest scoring run by the Tigers was five, when they trimmed a 27-20 North Side lead to 27-25 at halftime.
In the final two minutes, North Side came up with two key offensive rebounds.
The Redskins missed a shot that Quincy Rutledge rebounded and put back in to extend the North Side lead to 58-50.
Holding a 58-52 lead with 1:12 left, Josh Keck pulled down an offensive rebound after Tyrone Little missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw. The Redskins did not score after the miss, but they got what they considered the next-best thing, time off the clock. The game was inside a minute the next time Warsaw had the ball at its end of the floor.
The Redskins fended Warsaw off by making free throws. Three different Redskins -ÊHollins, Rutledge and Corey Smith - went to the free-throw line in the last 38 seconds. They combined to go 6 for 6.
Until Saturday, the Tigers were a 5-0 team that was winning games by an average of 18 points. Still, Rhodes refused to chalk the loss up to a plain old off night.
"(North Side) made us have an off night," he said. "I thought we would do better, but Fort Wayne North's defense was much better than it looked on the nights we scouted them." [[In-content Ad]]
The coach spoke in the tone of a motivational speaker, his voice rising and falling as he stressed his points, his voice clipping off key words.
He stopped. Players clapped. He started again and would stop to more applause.
Coach Glenn Heaton and his Fort Wayne North Side basketball team (4-1) celebrated in their locker room after handing Warsaw (5-1) its first loss Saturday, 64-59.
"You well know, how many times does Warsaw lose on its home floor, particularly with the kind of team they have this year?" Heaton said. "They are a great basketball team. For us to come in here and do what we did tonight is a compliment to our guys.
"They don't get beat very often. When they do, you better enjoy it."
Senior forward Vernard Hollins showed why Heaton is touting him as an All-State player by scoring 28. Hollins has not missed a day of school since middle school, and he missed very little this game, hitting 9 of 15 field goals.
Junior forward Steve Siebenmorgen led Warsaw with 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Zach Nelson added 13 points and 13 rebounds.
North Side, whose one loss came to Huntington North the two Saturdays ago, was ranked by one paper as the best team in the Fort Wayne area.
"They are the best team we have played," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said.
The Tigers missed lay-ups, threw the ball out of bounds and failed to get any key defensive stops.
For the first time this season, Warsaw shot less than 50 percent from the field. The Tigers hit 18 of 48 (38 percent).
It was a game the Tigers would sooner, rather than later, forget.
"We did not play well offensively or defensively," Rhodes said. "We have to give credit to Fort Wayne North. In both their half-court zone and man for man defense, they did an excellent job and destroyed our timing on offense.
"The worst part was offensively. Our percent error was way too high. If we needed a basket, we rushed and turned the ball over, or the wrong player would take the shot too quick."
The Tigers have not displayed an outside shooting touch yet, mostly because they have not needed a perimeter game. They were 5-0 by going inside.
The North Side game was the first time this year they could have used their perimeter game. But when they needed it, they couldn't find it.
"We were really afraid of their inside attack all night," Heaton said. "We started in a matchup zone, went to a 2-3 zone, went to man-to-man, and then at the end, went to a box-and-one. The major thing we wanted to do was keep the ball out of the middle.
"Siebenmorgen got 24 and Nelson 13, which isn't exactly holding them, but it was enough to win the ballgame."
Warsaw went the second half without hitting one three-pointer - until Siebenmorgen hit one with about two seconds left. By then it was too little and by far too late.
This was much to Rhodes' chagrin, who insisted in the preseason the Tigers can shoot and will shoot well outside. But even he expressed concern, albeit small, after the sixth game of the season.
"It's something we've said all along, we have to do better on," he said. "Therefore, we will. The problem was, the timing was off, so the pass takes a little longer to get there. We had very little inside-out game. We got it inside, there would be a crowd of people, and we'd never get it back outside."
The two teams ensured the fourth quarter would decide the game. The biggest lead by either team through three quarters was seven. When the third quarter ended, Fort Wayne North Side held a 42-39 lead.
The Tigers tied the game at 42-42, but then North Side ran off seven points, capped by a three-point play by Hollins, to take a 49-42 lead.
The closest the Tigers got the rest of the way was five.
If North Side missed on its end, Warsaw responded by doing the same.
If Warsaw scored two on its end, North Side responded by doing the same, or maybe even scoring three.
For Warsaw, this was a game where scoring runs and defensive stops did not exist.
"There were three or four stretches we needed to stop them and didn't do it," Rhodes said. "Hollins was a huge problem we never completely solved.
"We just didn't play tough enough in our man for man defense. Their guards were able to go where they wanted."
The biggest scoring run by the Tigers was five, when they trimmed a 27-20 North Side lead to 27-25 at halftime.
In the final two minutes, North Side came up with two key offensive rebounds.
The Redskins missed a shot that Quincy Rutledge rebounded and put back in to extend the North Side lead to 58-50.
Holding a 58-52 lead with 1:12 left, Josh Keck pulled down an offensive rebound after Tyrone Little missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw. The Redskins did not score after the miss, but they got what they considered the next-best thing, time off the clock. The game was inside a minute the next time Warsaw had the ball at its end of the floor.
The Redskins fended Warsaw off by making free throws. Three different Redskins -ÊHollins, Rutledge and Corey Smith - went to the free-throw line in the last 38 seconds. They combined to go 6 for 6.
Until Saturday, the Tigers were a 5-0 team that was winning games by an average of 18 points. Still, Rhodes refused to chalk the loss up to a plain old off night.
"(North Side) made us have an off night," he said. "I thought we would do better, but Fort Wayne North's defense was much better than it looked on the nights we scouted them." [[In-content Ad]]