Tigers Survive TV Scare
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
For those people who reluctantly pulled themselves away from the final night of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" to attend Wednesday's Tippecanoe Valley and Warsaw's boys basketball game, at least they left knowing one thing: The teams gave them their money's worth.
Warsaw won the double-overtime thriller 71-68, giving Warsaw coach Al Rhodes win No. 350 in his 20th season as head coach of the Tigers.
"It's certainly a fitting 350th: double overtime with (Tippecanoe Valley) coach (Bill) Patrick and with a group of seniors who are headed into a great season," Rhodes said.
Warsaw is ranked No. 5 in Hoosier Basketball Magazine's preseason poll that combines all classes and No. 7 in the Associated Press class 4A preseason poll.
Tippecanoe Valley is not ranked and received no votes to be ranked.
The Tigers returned three healthy starters -Ê6-foot-4 senior guard Chris Wiggins, 6'6' senior forward Steve Siebenmorgen and 6'6' senior center Zach Nelson -Êoff last year's 18-4 team.
Valley returned one healthy starter - 6'3' senior forward Brandon Eaton - off last year's 14-7 team.
None of this mattered Wednesday. The heavy underdog nearly pulled off the upset.
"Basketball's a funny game," Rhodes would say after he watched his Tigers survive.
The game came down to Warsaw's rebounding prowess vs. Eaton's shooting touch, and rebounding won out.
Warsaw (1-0) outrebounded Valley (0-1) 33-15, but the more important numbers may have been 15-4, Warsaw's advantage on the offensive glass. The Tigers, who played six players 6'4' or taller while Valley had no one taller than 6'3', cashed in on their second-chance shots.
Eaton tried to make them pay with his performance.
Eaton scored 40 of Valley's 68 on 14-of-20 shooting, including 7 of 9 three-pointers. He fell 10 short of the school record. Ron Dittman scored 50 in a game during the 1974-1975 season.
When the Tigers tried to pull away, Eaton rescued Valley.
Asked if he had scored 40 before at any level, Eaton said, "No."
Eaton was one of only four Valley players to score, while Warsaw had nine players score. Wiggins led the way with 19. Siebenmorgen added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Nelson delivered 12 points and seven rebounds.
"I was quite nervous and I was worried about our team playing these guys," Eaton said. "People had been asking me all week how I thought we'd do. I told them I thought we could play with them if we played really well. They kind of laughed.
"I don't think too many people are laughing now."
Each team was missing key players: Valley was missing 6'5' senior center Craig Kuhn, who had surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, and 6'2' junior Cody New, who violated the school athletic code and is suspended until Jan. 14. Both would have been starters.
Because they were out, Valley's first player off the bench was a freshman, Trey Eaton, Brandon's brother.
Warsaw was without 6'4' junior Ross Kesler, a starter last year who Rhodes often calls his best defender, and 6'2' senior Jason Henthorn, an outside shooting threat.
For the first 30 minutes of the game, the Vikings owned one lead, 11-10 in the first quarter.
They owned their second lead with less than two minutes left.
Brandon Eaton hit back-to-back three-pointers to turn a 54-49 Warsaw lead with 4:34 to go into a 55-54 Valley lead with 1:59 remaining.
For every Brandon Eaton long-distance heave, Warsaw had an answer under the basket.
The Tigers took a 56-55 lead on Nelson's offensive rebound and putback with 1:06 left. Valley turned the ball over, and five seconds later, two Siebenmorgen free throws pushed the lead to 58-55.
For Valley, no matter, as Brandon Eaton drained another three-pointer to tie the game at 58-58 with 45 seconds left. Warsaw ran the clock down but could not score, sending the game into overtime.
On this night, Brandon Eaton had been blessed with the hot hand.
"Every time you touch the ball, you think you can score," Brandon Eaton said. "You believe everything will go in.
"These guys did a great job of setting screens and getting me the ball."
As they did late in the fourth quarter and throughout overtime, the Vikings played catch-up.
A Wiggins three-pointer put Warsaw up 61-58 in the first overtime; Brandon Eaton answered with a three-pointer to tie the game at 61-61. Warsaw 6-5 senior guard Chris Rhodes scored inside, drew a foul and hit the free throw to put the Tigers up with 1:28 left; Noah Silveus, Valley's second-leading scorer with 12, hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 64-64 with 1:14 left.
Again Warsaw ran down the clock in the final minute for the last possession, and again Warsaw did not score, although Viking fans gasped when a screen freed Wiggins, who hit 5 of 10 three-pointers in the game. This one did not fall as the last second ticked off, sending the game into the second overtime.
Two Siebenmorgen free throws and a Wiggins three-pointer propelled the Tigers ahead 69-64 with 1:45 left. A three-point play by Justin Ross and 1 of 2 free throws by Brandon Eaton trimmed the lead to 69-68 with 44 seconds left.
Valley had its chances in the final minute, but the Vikings fumbled them away.
Warsaw sophomore point guard Brad Seiss tripped and traveled with 16 seconds left, giving the Vikings the ball with the game still at 69-68. Five seconds later Silveus returned the favor, as he let Josh Buck poke the ball loose from behind.
Valley fouled Siebenmorgen, who missed the front end of the one-and-one. No matter; Warsaw's best friend, the rebound, bailed the Tigers out. Buck snatched the rebound from Siebenmorgen's missed free throw. The Vikings fouled him, and with the Tigers in the double bonus, he hit both to make it 71-68.
Even Eaton could not make every shot, as he missed a three-pointer with three seconds left then missed another off-balance attempt before time ran out.
"The thing I liked best about the game, Tippecanoe Valley caught us several times, but we didn't fold," Rhodes said.
Warsaw never double-teamed Eaton, but Rhodes rotated players on him.
"Ross Kesler was our defensive stopper a year ago. What we tried to do is take away (Eaton's) drives, which we did. He just had a great outside shooting night. Last year, he hurt us on the drive. This year, he hurt us on the jumpshot. I don't know what it will be next year. It will probably be the younger one who lights us up.
"Finally, in the second overtime, we made it a little tougher on Eaton to get open. I switched Chris Wiggins over to him."
The Tigers never double-teamed Eaton.
"We haven't worked on double-teaming that much except for zone double-teaming," Rhodes explained. "It would have been a good idea; however, we weren't prepared to do that."
Valley played a 2-3 zone throughout the evening, jamming up the middle. Valley's plan was to contain Warsaw's inside game and make the Tigers beat them from the perimeter. Patrick was counting on Warsaw's new point guards, Seiss and junior Trent Martin, showing their inexperience. Rob Kesler, last year's starting point guard, graduated.
"We were gonna gamble," Patrick said. "They're playing without a guard and have kids injured like we do.
"Kesler gave them penetration and was able to kick it out. We wouldn't have been able to do some of the things inside. We were keying on Siebenmorgen and Nelson and hoping to stay close to Wiggins. We did a good job for the most part."
Said Rhodes: "Coach Patrick did a great job with his two-three zone. Our guards did a poor job of getting the ball to solid attack areas. They had us playing out on the perimeter, and that neutralized our inside game."
To Rhodes and Warsaw, a win is a win, whether by 30 or three. You don't complain about them.
"You put it all together, we're happy to win, we feel fortunate," Rhodes said. "This will be a good wake-up call. We'll be a much better team by the time we get to Columbia City."
And while Valley lost, Patrick saw reason to be optimistic about the future.
"I thought this team played as well together as any team I have coached, and that's with Brandon getting 40," he said. "They did everything they could to help him, setting picks, everything. Brandon had the easy part.
"I don't believe in moral victories. I want to win. I don't feel good about losing. We had chances to win. These kids played their hearts out. You look back and wonder, is there something we as coaches could have done that would have given us the win? The kids got us in a position to win."
WARSAW 71
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 68
2 OT
Warsaw (1-0) 21 13 11 13 6 7 - 71
T. Valley (0-1) 13 10 20 15 6 4 - 68
Warsaw FG FT A S R Pts.
Wiggins (G) 6-12 2-2 6 2 0 19
Siebenmorgen (F) 5-9 5-8 2 0 12 15
Nelson (C) 5-8 1-2 1 0 7 12
Rhodes (G) 2-6 1-1 2 1 4 6
B. Seiss (G) 1-2 0-0 3 1 4 2
G. Seiss 3-3 1-3 0 1 2 7
Martin 2-2 0-1 0 1 0 6
Buck 0-1 2-2 1 1 3 2
Finnegan 1-4 0-0 1 0 1 2
Totals 25-47 12-19 16 7 33 71
T. Valley FG FT A S R Pts.
B. Eaton (F) 14-20 5-8 0 6 2 40
Silveus (G) 4-9 2-2 6 1 2 12
Ross (C) 5-7 1-3 0 1 3 11
Snyder (F) 2-6 0-1 3 1 5 5
Domenico (G) 0-2 0-0 6 3 1 0
T. Eaton 0-2 0-0 3 1 1 0
Shafer 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Totals 25-46 8-14 18 13 15 68
Three-point goals -ÊTippecanoe Valley 10-13 (B. Eaton 7-9, Silveus 2-3, Snyder 1-1), Warsaw 9-17 (Wiggins 5-10, Martin 2-2, Rhodes 1-2, Nelson 1-1, B. Seiss 0-1, Finnegan 0-1). Turnovers - Tippecanoe Valley 15, Warsaw 21. Fouled out -ÊDomenico. Total fouls - Tippecanoe Valley 18, Warsaw 16.
JV: WARSAW 60, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 22
Warsaw (1-0) scoring -ÊNick Bolesky 15, Greg Clay 14, Chris Clay 11, Jerad Shaw 7, David Fawley 5, Brian Johnson 4, Jason Foster 2, Geoff Walmer 2.
Tippecanoe Valley (0-1) scoring -ÊBlaine Hartzler 6, Aaron Zolman 6, Shawn Severns 6, Derek Sausaman 2, Chuck Sterk 2. [[In-content Ad]]
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For those people who reluctantly pulled themselves away from the final night of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" to attend Wednesday's Tippecanoe Valley and Warsaw's boys basketball game, at least they left knowing one thing: The teams gave them their money's worth.
Warsaw won the double-overtime thriller 71-68, giving Warsaw coach Al Rhodes win No. 350 in his 20th season as head coach of the Tigers.
"It's certainly a fitting 350th: double overtime with (Tippecanoe Valley) coach (Bill) Patrick and with a group of seniors who are headed into a great season," Rhodes said.
Warsaw is ranked No. 5 in Hoosier Basketball Magazine's preseason poll that combines all classes and No. 7 in the Associated Press class 4A preseason poll.
Tippecanoe Valley is not ranked and received no votes to be ranked.
The Tigers returned three healthy starters -Ê6-foot-4 senior guard Chris Wiggins, 6'6' senior forward Steve Siebenmorgen and 6'6' senior center Zach Nelson -Êoff last year's 18-4 team.
Valley returned one healthy starter - 6'3' senior forward Brandon Eaton - off last year's 14-7 team.
None of this mattered Wednesday. The heavy underdog nearly pulled off the upset.
"Basketball's a funny game," Rhodes would say after he watched his Tigers survive.
The game came down to Warsaw's rebounding prowess vs. Eaton's shooting touch, and rebounding won out.
Warsaw (1-0) outrebounded Valley (0-1) 33-15, but the more important numbers may have been 15-4, Warsaw's advantage on the offensive glass. The Tigers, who played six players 6'4' or taller while Valley had no one taller than 6'3', cashed in on their second-chance shots.
Eaton tried to make them pay with his performance.
Eaton scored 40 of Valley's 68 on 14-of-20 shooting, including 7 of 9 three-pointers. He fell 10 short of the school record. Ron Dittman scored 50 in a game during the 1974-1975 season.
When the Tigers tried to pull away, Eaton rescued Valley.
Asked if he had scored 40 before at any level, Eaton said, "No."
Eaton was one of only four Valley players to score, while Warsaw had nine players score. Wiggins led the way with 19. Siebenmorgen added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Nelson delivered 12 points and seven rebounds.
"I was quite nervous and I was worried about our team playing these guys," Eaton said. "People had been asking me all week how I thought we'd do. I told them I thought we could play with them if we played really well. They kind of laughed.
"I don't think too many people are laughing now."
Each team was missing key players: Valley was missing 6'5' senior center Craig Kuhn, who had surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, and 6'2' junior Cody New, who violated the school athletic code and is suspended until Jan. 14. Both would have been starters.
Because they were out, Valley's first player off the bench was a freshman, Trey Eaton, Brandon's brother.
Warsaw was without 6'4' junior Ross Kesler, a starter last year who Rhodes often calls his best defender, and 6'2' senior Jason Henthorn, an outside shooting threat.
For the first 30 minutes of the game, the Vikings owned one lead, 11-10 in the first quarter.
They owned their second lead with less than two minutes left.
Brandon Eaton hit back-to-back three-pointers to turn a 54-49 Warsaw lead with 4:34 to go into a 55-54 Valley lead with 1:59 remaining.
For every Brandon Eaton long-distance heave, Warsaw had an answer under the basket.
The Tigers took a 56-55 lead on Nelson's offensive rebound and putback with 1:06 left. Valley turned the ball over, and five seconds later, two Siebenmorgen free throws pushed the lead to 58-55.
For Valley, no matter, as Brandon Eaton drained another three-pointer to tie the game at 58-58 with 45 seconds left. Warsaw ran the clock down but could not score, sending the game into overtime.
On this night, Brandon Eaton had been blessed with the hot hand.
"Every time you touch the ball, you think you can score," Brandon Eaton said. "You believe everything will go in.
"These guys did a great job of setting screens and getting me the ball."
As they did late in the fourth quarter and throughout overtime, the Vikings played catch-up.
A Wiggins three-pointer put Warsaw up 61-58 in the first overtime; Brandon Eaton answered with a three-pointer to tie the game at 61-61. Warsaw 6-5 senior guard Chris Rhodes scored inside, drew a foul and hit the free throw to put the Tigers up with 1:28 left; Noah Silveus, Valley's second-leading scorer with 12, hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 64-64 with 1:14 left.
Again Warsaw ran down the clock in the final minute for the last possession, and again Warsaw did not score, although Viking fans gasped when a screen freed Wiggins, who hit 5 of 10 three-pointers in the game. This one did not fall as the last second ticked off, sending the game into the second overtime.
Two Siebenmorgen free throws and a Wiggins three-pointer propelled the Tigers ahead 69-64 with 1:45 left. A three-point play by Justin Ross and 1 of 2 free throws by Brandon Eaton trimmed the lead to 69-68 with 44 seconds left.
Valley had its chances in the final minute, but the Vikings fumbled them away.
Warsaw sophomore point guard Brad Seiss tripped and traveled with 16 seconds left, giving the Vikings the ball with the game still at 69-68. Five seconds later Silveus returned the favor, as he let Josh Buck poke the ball loose from behind.
Valley fouled Siebenmorgen, who missed the front end of the one-and-one. No matter; Warsaw's best friend, the rebound, bailed the Tigers out. Buck snatched the rebound from Siebenmorgen's missed free throw. The Vikings fouled him, and with the Tigers in the double bonus, he hit both to make it 71-68.
Even Eaton could not make every shot, as he missed a three-pointer with three seconds left then missed another off-balance attempt before time ran out.
"The thing I liked best about the game, Tippecanoe Valley caught us several times, but we didn't fold," Rhodes said.
Warsaw never double-teamed Eaton, but Rhodes rotated players on him.
"Ross Kesler was our defensive stopper a year ago. What we tried to do is take away (Eaton's) drives, which we did. He just had a great outside shooting night. Last year, he hurt us on the drive. This year, he hurt us on the jumpshot. I don't know what it will be next year. It will probably be the younger one who lights us up.
"Finally, in the second overtime, we made it a little tougher on Eaton to get open. I switched Chris Wiggins over to him."
The Tigers never double-teamed Eaton.
"We haven't worked on double-teaming that much except for zone double-teaming," Rhodes explained. "It would have been a good idea; however, we weren't prepared to do that."
Valley played a 2-3 zone throughout the evening, jamming up the middle. Valley's plan was to contain Warsaw's inside game and make the Tigers beat them from the perimeter. Patrick was counting on Warsaw's new point guards, Seiss and junior Trent Martin, showing their inexperience. Rob Kesler, last year's starting point guard, graduated.
"We were gonna gamble," Patrick said. "They're playing without a guard and have kids injured like we do.
"Kesler gave them penetration and was able to kick it out. We wouldn't have been able to do some of the things inside. We were keying on Siebenmorgen and Nelson and hoping to stay close to Wiggins. We did a good job for the most part."
Said Rhodes: "Coach Patrick did a great job with his two-three zone. Our guards did a poor job of getting the ball to solid attack areas. They had us playing out on the perimeter, and that neutralized our inside game."
To Rhodes and Warsaw, a win is a win, whether by 30 or three. You don't complain about them.
"You put it all together, we're happy to win, we feel fortunate," Rhodes said. "This will be a good wake-up call. We'll be a much better team by the time we get to Columbia City."
And while Valley lost, Patrick saw reason to be optimistic about the future.
"I thought this team played as well together as any team I have coached, and that's with Brandon getting 40," he said. "They did everything they could to help him, setting picks, everything. Brandon had the easy part.
"I don't believe in moral victories. I want to win. I don't feel good about losing. We had chances to win. These kids played their hearts out. You look back and wonder, is there something we as coaches could have done that would have given us the win? The kids got us in a position to win."
WARSAW 71
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 68
2 OT
Warsaw (1-0) 21 13 11 13 6 7 - 71
T. Valley (0-1) 13 10 20 15 6 4 - 68
Warsaw FG FT A S R Pts.
Wiggins (G) 6-12 2-2 6 2 0 19
Siebenmorgen (F) 5-9 5-8 2 0 12 15
Nelson (C) 5-8 1-2 1 0 7 12
Rhodes (G) 2-6 1-1 2 1 4 6
B. Seiss (G) 1-2 0-0 3 1 4 2
G. Seiss 3-3 1-3 0 1 2 7
Martin 2-2 0-1 0 1 0 6
Buck 0-1 2-2 1 1 3 2
Finnegan 1-4 0-0 1 0 1 2
Totals 25-47 12-19 16 7 33 71
T. Valley FG FT A S R Pts.
B. Eaton (F) 14-20 5-8 0 6 2 40
Silveus (G) 4-9 2-2 6 1 2 12
Ross (C) 5-7 1-3 0 1 3 11
Snyder (F) 2-6 0-1 3 1 5 5
Domenico (G) 0-2 0-0 6 3 1 0
T. Eaton 0-2 0-0 3 1 1 0
Shafer 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Totals 25-46 8-14 18 13 15 68
Three-point goals -ÊTippecanoe Valley 10-13 (B. Eaton 7-9, Silveus 2-3, Snyder 1-1), Warsaw 9-17 (Wiggins 5-10, Martin 2-2, Rhodes 1-2, Nelson 1-1, B. Seiss 0-1, Finnegan 0-1). Turnovers - Tippecanoe Valley 15, Warsaw 21. Fouled out -ÊDomenico. Total fouls - Tippecanoe Valley 18, Warsaw 16.
JV: WARSAW 60, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 22
Warsaw (1-0) scoring -ÊNick Bolesky 15, Greg Clay 14, Chris Clay 11, Jerad Shaw 7, David Fawley 5, Brian Johnson 4, Jason Foster 2, Geoff Walmer 2.
Tippecanoe Valley (0-1) scoring -ÊBlaine Hartzler 6, Aaron Zolman 6, Shawn Severns 6, Derek Sausaman 2, Chuck Sterk 2. [[In-content Ad]]