So, when Warsaw took a 44-35 lead midway through the fourth quarter, you knew the rally was coming.

Wawasee obliged, cutting the lead to one point and eventually losing a 51-48 heartbreaker when Jared Mahnensmith's three-pointer at the buzzer hit both sides of the rim and fell out.

"It is very exciting," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "It is a good rivalry and the kids get pumped up.

"It is always tough," Rhodes said of playing at Wawasee. "It is a shame to see it come to an end. I feel bad with the influx of class basketball, people say smaller schools can't compete with big schools."

First-year Wawasee coach Jerry Davis has yet to get caught up in the rivalry between the two Kosciusko County schools, but was glad to see his young Warriors compete down to the final shot.

"The rivalry is for the fans," Davis said. "Every game is the same for me. We are just trying to win. We are trying to play the best we can and improve."

Ever since a dismal outing in the jamboree a month ago, the Warriors have begun to show signs of catching onto what Davis has been preaching all along. The Warriors (2-2) will win their share of games this year, but they have already shown they will at least make every game interesting.

"The strides that we have been able to make from one week to the next have been tremendous," Davis said. "We have gained better understanding and appreciation for how we can play."

Warsaw (5-1) hasn't done too badly in the excitement department either, winning its first two games of the season in overtime and having its only loss come by four points.

"Both teams battled hard," Rhodes said. "We made some mistakes, and they made some mistakes. It got ragged there in one stretch where we were going end to end and not getting shots. Both teams showed tremendous desire."

Wawasee made a game of it by picking up the pace with its quickness and a tough fullcourt press. With Warsaw leading 45-39, Wawasee's Jay Haugh stole the ball on three straight possessions and helped trim the lead to 45-42.

It became 47-46 when Wawasee's Brody Stipp hit a layup with just under two minutes remaining in the game.

Warsaw did its best to hand the game to Wawasee, missing three straight front ends of one and one free throw situations, but on two of those situations, the Tigers got the offensive rebound and Wawasee couldn't take advantage of the misses with two big turnovers down the stretch.

Tom Krizmanich hit two free throws with 10 seconds left to go to make it 51-48. Mahnensmith got the ball at the top of the key and dribbled around with the clocking ticking away and then unleashed a trey with Warsaw's P.J. Wiley draped all over him. It looked like it would go in, but after using every bit of the rim, it fell out and the ball was tipped around as time ran out.

"We went into the game with the idea that we wanted to have a chance with three minutes to go," Davis said. "That is what it boiled down to.

"We felt like we could use our quickness in the backcourt," he said. "We felt we had to extend the floor with them. We knew we couldn't play a halfcourt game with them."

Warsaw turned the ball over seven times in the final quarter, most of which came against the Warrior press.

"They could have let up, and they didn't," Rhodes said. "They really came at us hard. We rushed things against their fullcourt pressure. That got them right back in the game.

"They are very quick," he said. "They were mixing straight man-to-man along with some random traps, and we just didn't read it well. It was a lot of hustle by them and poor execution by us. We started playing sideways instead of heading toward our end."

If the game was a track meet, the start was definitely the sprint off the blocks. The Warriors came out on fire and scored on their first seven possessions to take a 15-9 lead midway through the quarter.

But after Warsaw took a timeout trailing 18-11, the Tigers went n a 17-5 spurt into halftime and led 28-23.

"We were ready to play," Davis said. "We were focused, and we knocked the ball down. Al (Rhodes) calls timeout and for some reason our kids come out and make poor mistakes. We lost our concentration at that point. We talked that about halftime, and in the second half we didn't have those lulls."

Rhodes' strategy in the huddle was difficult or inspired.

"In the first quarter, they were ahead, but we had better shots," Rhodes said. "We just missed five or six layups. I felt good at that point."

The Tigers offense just went into high gear, while the Warriors sputtered through the middle two quarters, scoring a combined 15 points in the second and third quarters.

Krizmanich led Warsaw with 17 points, five rebounds, four steals and five blocked shots. Chris Hill again picked up the Tigers off the bench by scoring 11 points and pulling down five rebounds.

For Wawasee, Ryan Mikel led the way with 13 points, 7 of which came in the opening quarter. Haugh added 11 points.

Warsaw (2-0 in the NLC) hosts Fort Wayne North tonight, while Wawasee (0-1 NLC) hosts Tippecanoe Valley Friday. [[In-content Ad]]