Ten minutes after Warsaw's boys basketball team beat Columbia City 55-38 Saturday, Warsaw Athletic Director Dave Fulkerson walked past the Tigers' locker room.

He did not go in, but he stopped to pay a compliment.

"They play the best defense I've seen since I've been here," Fulkerson said. Fulkerson has been Warsaw's athletic director for 16 years. He has seen the Tigers win a state championship and take two other trips to the final four in those 16 years.

"I knew we were going into this situation tonight," Columbia City coach Chris Benedict said. "We had a very good defensive team playing against us, and we're not a very good offensive team right now. We have two players returning from last year, and we have had to plug three others in.

"It will take some time. We played a very good team tonight. They will exploit weaknesses. They did that."

If Warsaw basketball coach Al Rhodes had one concern after Wednesday's 75-57 win over Tippecanoe Valley, it was second-half defense.

The Tigers (2-0) fouled Valley 17 times and sent the Vikings to the free-throw line 20 times in the second half. Rhodes said his players needed to have quicker feet, and while he didn't want to strip away their aggressiveness, he preferred his players not guard their men quite as tight and do a better job of getting in the passing lanes.

Message delivered. Message received.

For three quarters, Warsaw's man-to-man defense smothered Columbia City.

Defense is allowing six points in the second quarter and third quarter - combined. Columbia City (1-1) managed two points in the second quarter and four points in the third quarter.

The Eagles, in their slow-down, ball-control offense, hit 2 of 10 field goals in the two quarters. They had more turnovers, 10, than points in those quarters.

Two days earlier Columbia City 6-foot-4 forward Eric Heuer led Columbia City with 20 points in a 61-47 win over Whitko.

Heuer picked up two fouls two minutes into the game and did not return until the third quarter. He never was a factor, finishing with three points.

Columbia City's top returning scorer from last season, 6-5 senior center Jason Elkins, scored 12 but had only four points through the first three quarters. His other eight points came in the fourth quarter, when the Tigers owned a double-digit lead.

"We look at how the kids responded, learning from their mistakes in the first game," Rhodes said. "Friday and Saturday morning we went back to work on defense. It showed. We played the ball much better. We had good pressure, but we didn't put ourselves into so many foul situations.

"We battled well in the post. We tried to rotate people on Elkins. I thought Greg Seiss and Steve Siebenmorgen had a strong performance on Heuer. Here's a player coming off a 20-point game. We did a good job shutting him down."

After the game, Benedict sat in the bleachers under the basket at the east end of the gym. His chin rested in his hands, and he glumly stared down at the scorebook placed between his feet on the row below him.

How do you explain six points over two quarters?

"Defensively, Warsaw did a nice job of taking us out of what we wanted to do," he said. "I think Warsaw went into the game trying to stop Elkins. They had to contend with Heuer and shut him down.

"Our perimeter players have to play lower and stronger with the ball. Our timing wasn't very good. Our ball-handling wasn't very good those two quarters. We missed free throws. Those are turnovers. You can't do that against a good team.

"Holding Warsaw to 55 points is a pretty good defensive night. But you have to score something. It's difficult to keep asking your defense to dig down and get another stop. We have to relieve some of that pressure by scoring baskets."

Coaches love to preach defense, and all the sappy sayings are about defense, but as Benedict will testify, teams must score to win.

For the Tigers, their key offensive stretch came in the last three minutes of the first half, delivered by one person -Êpoint guard Rob Kesler.

Kesler scored the last eight points by either team in the second quarter. His scoring blitz turned a 19-14 Warsaw lead into a 27-14 halftime lead. Warsaw led by double-digits the rest of the way.

Kesler hit a three-pointer, had a steal near halfcourt for an uncontested layup and drilled another three-pointer. His last three came as time ran off the clock, pouring all momentum into the Tigers' locker room.

"He hit some big shots," Benedict said. "If we score some points, his baskets aren't such a dagger. Those two threes daggered us because of our inability to score."

Kesler led all scorers with 17 points. Siebenmorgen added 14 and center Zach Nelson 13.

If Rhodes had one concern in this game, it came in the last six minutes. Warsaw saw a 45-24 lead with 5:59 left turn into a 51-38 lead with 1:25 left. The Tigers led comfortably, but watching his players salt away a big lead unnerved Rhodes, who let his players know about it.

"You have to credit (Columbia City)," he said. "They were still playing. I thought we felt that the game was over, and mentally, made a lot of mistakes there. I put some substitutes in, and the five-man unit we ended up with on the floor didn't execute very well offensively or defensively." [[In-content Ad]]