There was no doubt who would take the last shot for Gary Wallace.

With the scored tied at 74 with five seconds remaining, the Hornets' Herman Ezell took an inbounds pass, dribbled until the free-throw line and nailed a 15-footer as time ran out to give Gary Wallace a 76-74 win Friday at the Tiger Den.

Those two points gave Ezell a total of 42 points, the highest individual point total against Warsaw in a decade.

"He made a heck of a shot to win," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "We wanted to stay in front and try to make him shoot it over the top. It would have been nice to keep it out of his hands, but with five seconds left, we were very concerned with a lob play underneath with the big guy (Lonnie Jones)."

Ezell, a junior, hit on 18 of 25 field goal attempts and 4 of 6 from the line for his 42 points. He scored 12 points in the first, seven in the second, eight in the third and 11 in the fourth.

"We played much more zone defense than man to try to stop their dribble penetration," Rhodes said. "He had a combination of outside shooting and sneaking along the baseline. We were trying to shut off some of their team things, and they had an individual who really shown."

As the Tiger defense dealt with Ezell, the Warsaw offense had Jones to contend with. Jones, a 6-foot-10 senior, blocked 11 shots for the Hornets and forced several other altered shots.

"He (Jones) was a huge factor," Rhodes said. "We rushed some shots. We tried to take it at him and get him into foul trouble, and he blocked some shots. He was a presence. You just aren't used to someone that big. Our guards would make nice moves, but get shots blocked underneath."

For three quarters, Warsaw managed to keep the lead despite Ezell and Jones and held a 59-51 advantage early in the fourth quarter on two free throws from Luke Reed. But the Hornets turned up the heat on the press, forcing some Warsaw turnovers and getting a 9-0 run to take a 60-59 lead.

Warsaw came back to take a 65-60 lead on a Chris Hill layup until the Hornets got five points on one trip down the court. Andre Hendrix hit 1 of 2 free throws after getting fouled by Reed, and then Ezell also got 1 of 2 free throws after Reed was tagged for a technical foul after the play.

Ezell then drove to the basket after the inbounds play and hit a layup and was fouled. Ezell was hurt on the play and Hendrix came off the bench to hit the free throw for Ezell to tie the score at 65.

Warsaw held a a 71-67 margin when Gary Wallace went on a 7-3 run to knot the count at 74.

After entering the final quarter with just nine turnovers in the first three periods, Warsaw kicked it around nine times alone. After getting his free-throw streak snapped at 25 straight in the second quarter, Andy Plank, Warsaw's best free-throw shooter made only 3 of 8 in the game and 1 of 4 in the fourth quarter.

"We certainly made enough good plays to win, but we need to finish plays down the stretch," Rhodes said. "They started trapping more and quicker, and we started playing sideways. We had crucial turnovers mixed in throughout the quarter. We had the lead and had control, and they were able to get back into it."

After Gary Wallace opened up a 14-8 lead midway through the first quarter, the Tigers went on a 13-2 run to take a 21-16 lead, a margin Warsaw would hold until the fourth quarter.

"We did get a lot of points off their press, getting behind them," Rhodes said. "We did some good things, but it just wasn't quite enough. I don't feel we lost the game, but Wallace won it. We had lots of opportunities in the final three minutes. We just didn't finish plays."

The Hornets have now beaten the Tigers two of the last three years in three pretty good ball games that included Kevin Ault's Tiger Den record of 47 points two years ago and last year's 75 free throw attempts by the Tigers.

Reed led the way for the Tigers with 18 points and 12 boards. Jason Alspaugh added 13 points off the bench.

Warsaw (7-3) is at NorthWood Friday. [[In-content Ad]]