Panthers Fall In Title Tilt
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
GOSHEN - For NorthWood and Wawasee, Tuesday night was one to forget. Although the teams lost in different ways in the Goshen Holiday Tournament, both teams would just like to put Tuesday behind them.
The consolation game of the tournament pitted Wawasee against Northridge. The Warriors hung close for the first two quarters, but eventually, superior ability by the Raiders came through to the tune of a 49-31 victory.
NorthWood, on the other hand, met Goshen in the championship game. The Redskins showed just how tough they are on their home floor by sending the Panthers to their second defeat of the season 36-35, on a jumper with just three seconds left that found the bottom of the net. The 71 points by the two teams was the second-lowest total in a championship game in the 37-year history of the tournament.
In the championship game, Goshen scrapped and clawed its way from a three-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter to come away with its fourth tournament championship in five years.
Trailing 28-25 with eight minutes left in the game, Goshen's Phil Mikel made a free throw and Thomas Kline followed that with a lay-in to tie the game with 6:20 to play.
However, Bobby Brown answered with four consecutive points, the only points over the next 3 1/2 minutes to put NorthWood ahead 32-28 with 2:42 remaining.
With 1:37 to play, Jon Swartz nailed a three-pointer to make the score 33-32 in favor of the Panthers and then he came back with a pair of free throws as Goshen went ahead by one. With 35 seconds to play, though, Brown put NorthWood back on top with a lay-up and then got a steal with just 16 seconds left. However, he missed the front end of the one-and-one after being fouled and that set up Kline's driving 12-foot jumper in the lane with three seconds to play.
"Goshen played hard just like we expected them to," NorthWood head coach Dan Gunn said. "When NorthWood and Goshen play, expect the unexpected. That's been the way it's gone. You can play the what-if game for 32 minutes and come up with a lot of them."
Brown was the only player in double figures in scoring for the Panthers with 17 points. He also added seven rebounds on the night. Kline had 13 points for the Redskins and Swartz added 10 more.
"All the effort was there, but it was just a horrendous night from the free throw line," Gunn said. "That one thing alone would have cinched a victory for us."
NorthWood made just 12 of 23 free throws on the night and shot only 42 percent from the field.
Wawasee looked as if it would get blown out early, falling behind 10-2. Northridge got five points from both Kevin Weirich and Jayme Fazi early on.
But the Warriors fought back to close to within 14-11 at the end of the first period as seldom-used Chris Lambert came off the bench to score four points in the comeback.
In the second quarter, a Jared Mahnensmith three-pointer gave Wawasee a 16-14 lead with 6:53 to play in the half, but things went downhill from there.
Northridge closed out the half with another 10-2 run for a 24-18 lead at the midway point.
The third quarter was all Northridge as the Raiders outscored Wawasee 16-5 in the period to extend the lead to 40-23. From that point, Northridge put it in cruise control and won easily.
"We missed 11 of 17 shots in the paint," Wawasee head coach Jerry Davis said. "You've got to hit 60 percent of those. We've got to get out some football dummies and work our big people over in practice to simulate more what they're going to see in games."
This was the worst of a bad stretch offensively for Wawasee. In the last three games, the Warriors are scoring just 36.3 points per game. Justin Bender led Wawasee with just six points. Brody Stipp grabbed seven rebounds for the Warriors, who shot 29 percent from the floor and made only 7 of 14 free throws. Wawasee also had 19 turnovers, eight more than Northridge.
"We've got to score more than 31 points," Davis said. "We had a stretch in the second quarter when we had four straight stops, but we didn't answer one time. We've got to figure out how to get better and score more."
Wawasee (1-7) will host Plymouth on Jan. 9 at 6:15 p.m. NorthWood (5-2) will host Northridge on that same date in a rematch of Monday night's game at 6:15 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]
GOSHEN - For NorthWood and Wawasee, Tuesday night was one to forget. Although the teams lost in different ways in the Goshen Holiday Tournament, both teams would just like to put Tuesday behind them.
The consolation game of the tournament pitted Wawasee against Northridge. The Warriors hung close for the first two quarters, but eventually, superior ability by the Raiders came through to the tune of a 49-31 victory.
NorthWood, on the other hand, met Goshen in the championship game. The Redskins showed just how tough they are on their home floor by sending the Panthers to their second defeat of the season 36-35, on a jumper with just three seconds left that found the bottom of the net. The 71 points by the two teams was the second-lowest total in a championship game in the 37-year history of the tournament.
In the championship game, Goshen scrapped and clawed its way from a three-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter to come away with its fourth tournament championship in five years.
Trailing 28-25 with eight minutes left in the game, Goshen's Phil Mikel made a free throw and Thomas Kline followed that with a lay-in to tie the game with 6:20 to play.
However, Bobby Brown answered with four consecutive points, the only points over the next 3 1/2 minutes to put NorthWood ahead 32-28 with 2:42 remaining.
With 1:37 to play, Jon Swartz nailed a three-pointer to make the score 33-32 in favor of the Panthers and then he came back with a pair of free throws as Goshen went ahead by one. With 35 seconds to play, though, Brown put NorthWood back on top with a lay-up and then got a steal with just 16 seconds left. However, he missed the front end of the one-and-one after being fouled and that set up Kline's driving 12-foot jumper in the lane with three seconds to play.
"Goshen played hard just like we expected them to," NorthWood head coach Dan Gunn said. "When NorthWood and Goshen play, expect the unexpected. That's been the way it's gone. You can play the what-if game for 32 minutes and come up with a lot of them."
Brown was the only player in double figures in scoring for the Panthers with 17 points. He also added seven rebounds on the night. Kline had 13 points for the Redskins and Swartz added 10 more.
"All the effort was there, but it was just a horrendous night from the free throw line," Gunn said. "That one thing alone would have cinched a victory for us."
NorthWood made just 12 of 23 free throws on the night and shot only 42 percent from the field.
Wawasee looked as if it would get blown out early, falling behind 10-2. Northridge got five points from both Kevin Weirich and Jayme Fazi early on.
But the Warriors fought back to close to within 14-11 at the end of the first period as seldom-used Chris Lambert came off the bench to score four points in the comeback.
In the second quarter, a Jared Mahnensmith three-pointer gave Wawasee a 16-14 lead with 6:53 to play in the half, but things went downhill from there.
Northridge closed out the half with another 10-2 run for a 24-18 lead at the midway point.
The third quarter was all Northridge as the Raiders outscored Wawasee 16-5 in the period to extend the lead to 40-23. From that point, Northridge put it in cruise control and won easily.
"We missed 11 of 17 shots in the paint," Wawasee head coach Jerry Davis said. "You've got to hit 60 percent of those. We've got to get out some football dummies and work our big people over in practice to simulate more what they're going to see in games."
This was the worst of a bad stretch offensively for Wawasee. In the last three games, the Warriors are scoring just 36.3 points per game. Justin Bender led Wawasee with just six points. Brody Stipp grabbed seven rebounds for the Warriors, who shot 29 percent from the floor and made only 7 of 14 free throws. Wawasee also had 19 turnovers, eight more than Northridge.
"We've got to score more than 31 points," Davis said. "We had a stretch in the second quarter when we had four straight stops, but we didn't answer one time. We've got to figure out how to get better and score more."
Wawasee (1-7) will host Plymouth on Jan. 9 at 6:15 p.m. NorthWood (5-2) will host Northridge on that same date in a rematch of Monday night's game at 6:15 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]