INDIANAPOLIS - The Achilles' heel of this year's Warsaw boys' basketball team has included two areas - playing on the road and turnovers.

Both of those areas seem to be involved when the Tigers lose, and both played a big part Thursday.

Warsaw committed 27 turnovers in dropping a 72-59 decision to No. 9 North Central to end the regular season. The Tigers (16-4) finished 3-4 on the road this regular season after going 13-0 in the friendly confines of the Tiger Den.

The Tigers led 17-15 after the first quarter, but hit a dry spell in the second quarter. Warsaw opened up the second with three quick turnovers and found itself down 21-17 with just over five minutes left in the stanza. Tom Krizmanich's layup with 5:30 left would break an almost five-minute scoring drought for Warsaw and bring the Tigers to within 21-19. It would, however, be the only field goal the Tigers would hit in the second as they trailed 30-20 at halftime.

The quickness and athletic ability of the Panthers forced Warsaw into nine turnovers in the quarter. Warsaw would never recover.

"We played in the first half about 10 or 11 minutes where we outplayed them," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "Then it dropped off hard in the last four minutes of the half. Our turnovers went straight to points for them. That opened it up and put us in a hole at halftime."

It would really only get worse in the third period. Point guard P.J. Wiley, the Tigers' chief ballhandler, picked up his fourth foul less than a minute into the quarter, and the Panthers' defenders looked to almost drool at the possibility of attacking the Warsaw bench personnel.

Warsaw coughed the ball up seven more times in the quarter and was in a 44-31 hole heading into the fourth quarter. North Central hit 14 of 18 free throws in the final quarter to never allow Warsaw even a chance to come back.

"Their guards are all good shooters," Rhodes said. "You can't take the ball away from them, and if you foul them, they make their free throws."

Those guards - Huggy Dye, Jason Gardner, and Marcus May - harassed the Tigers all game long. Of Warsaw's 29 turnovers, 17 of those came directly on steals by North Central.

"I thought we were a little quicker than they were, and we wanted to take things away from them and use what we had to our advantage," North Central coach Doug Mitchell said. "That is what turned the game around and took some wind out of their sails. After a two-hour bus ride for them and in the middle of the second quarter, we pressed them and took the ball away from them a few times."

The Tiger offense, which had been operating on a high level over the past few games, came to a crashing half against the talented Panthers, shooting only 19 of 43 in addition to the turnovers.

"There defense forced us out, and we could not execute," Rhodes said. "They took us out of synch. All of our players have to concentrate on their decision making. They sped us up, and that cost us the game. The next time that happens, our season is over."

Krizmanich did his best to keep the Tigers in the game scoring 29 points and grabbing nine rebounds. But after scoring 12 points in the first quarter, Krizmanich accounted for only seven points in the critical second and third periods.

"We denied him and didn't help off him and said that you let him have the ball you are coming out of the game," Mitchell said. "The guys got a little more serious about it. He is very deceiving and tough to stop."

Dye led the Panthers (18-3) with 18 points, while May added 17. Josh Murray did the work on the boards for North Central, grabbing 12 rebounds.

"We were in a bind on the boards without Chris Hill," Rhodes said. "He has a bad back, and we decided to save him for the sectional."

Warsaw opens up sectional play Feb. 26 at the Tiger Den against Argos. [[In-content Ad]]