Dean Foster was there, sitting up in the stands, scrawling notes. His Elkhart Central team plays Warsaw to open the season, so he was scouting the Tigers while he had the chance.

Al Rhodes had the tie on, the one with basketballs on it, the one worn every game.

And the last quarter, the one between Tippecanoe Valley and Warsaw, seemed more like a regular season game than eight minutes of a jamboree. That quarter by far caused the loudest crowd reactions of the evening, just because, well, it was Valley and Warsaw.

Basketball is back.

Warsaw hosted its jamboree Saturday evening. Tippecanoe Valley went 2-0, Warsaw 1-1, Whitko 1-1 and Wawasee 0-2.

Warsaw 25, Whitko 13

Six-foot-four forward Tom Krizmanich scored 11 points and grabbed four rebounds to lead Warsaw past Whitko. The Tigers cruised from start to finish, jumping ahead 14-2.

Warsaw shot well, hitting 11 of 16 shots. The Tiger defense forced eight Whitko turnovers. Warsaw outrebounded Whitko 11-6.

"Two guys (Luke Reed and Krizmanich) keyed our rebounding," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "I thought Tyler Charlton was especially important to us defensively. He did an excellent job making Henson earn any points he got."

Whitko coach Dave Henson agreed.

"Warsaw played good, aggressive, physical defense," Henson said. "We don't get to see that in practice or on the majority of our schedule."

Zach Henson had eight of Whitko's 13 points. The brightest spot for the Wildcats was their ability to get to the free throw line - they made it to the line nine times and hit seven.

At the same time, free throw shooting was Warsaw's Achille's heel. The Tigers made only 3 of 8 free throws.

Charlton, Andy Plank and Jason Alspaugh scored four points each for Warsaw.

And yes, the Tiger offense still looked potent without Mr. Basketball, Kevin Ault.

"Missing Kevin and the seniors was something we noticed the first day of practice," Rhodes said. "As far as the games, we're so working on this year's team that I can't say we noticed it that much.

"I thought we ran the floor well. Our transition offense was very good. We're not trying to replace Kevin Ault with one person who averages 30 points. We're trying to spread it around and attack in more ways."

Whitko 18, Wawasee 6

After losing to Warsaw by 12, the Wildcats bounced back to beat Wawasee by 12.

"Well, that's Wawasee and Warsaw," Dave Henson said. "In the first quarter, Warsaw did a very good job of attacking the boards. We did not do a very good job on transition defense. Warsaw had a lot of penetration and dish-off, that kind of stuff."

Henson again led Whitko, this time with 11 points and six rebounds. The Wildcats had an easier time against Wawasee's zone defense, turning the ball over only two times.

A Ryan Mikel three put Wawasee up 6-5 with 5:51 left. Whitko outscored the Warriors 13-0 the rest of the way.

Wawasee struggled with shooting (2 of 12) and turnovers (six).

"I was impressed with our ability to go after the shot in the post area," Dave Henson said.

Whitko made 8 of 16 shots, although Henson made 5 of 6. The rest of the Wildcats were 3 of 10.

"I was looking at our intensity level," Dave Henson said. "That's why it was good to play Warsaw in the first quarter. It was a good wakeup call."

Tippecanoe Valley 22, Wawasee 9

Tippecanoe Valley jumped ahead 8-0 with the help of two three-pointers by shooting guard Eric Love.

Defensively, the Viking fullcourt press bothered Wawasee, who at times had trouble getting the ball past halfcourt. Wawasee turned the ball over nine times in the quarter.

"It (the press) paid some dividends," Valley coach Gregg Sciarra said. "It got our intensity level up. We have a lot of kids, personality-wise, who aren't real intense people. They need to be intense on the court.

"For us to be successful, we'll have to do a lot of pressing."

Valley had balanced scoring, as six players scored between two and six points in the quarter.

"When Eric Love hits a three-pointer right away, and JayDee Parker comes in and does a nice job, and Andy Young hits a three-pointer ... those are kids with no varsity experience," Sciarra said. "That was nice to see."

Love led Valley with six points, and forward Jeff Brown added five. Parker had four, and Young had three.

Brown got all five of his at once on a five-point play with nine seconds left. He hit a three, and after he had shot the ball, Mikel plowed into him. Brown stepped to the free throw line, where he hit both ends of the one-and-one.

Chad Fisher came off the bench to score all nine Wawasee points.

Tippecanoe Valley 14, Warsaw 12

This was the only quarter that saw two teams stay close from start to finish.

Warsaw's Jason Alspaugh hit a baseline jumper with 19 seconds left to give Warsaw the 12-11 lead. Valley point guard Darren Parker put Valley back in front 13-12 with a layup with nine seconds left.

The Tigers threw the ball away downcourt and then fouled Parker with just over two seconds left. Parker hit the front end of the one and one to make it 14-12. He missed the second, but JayDee Parker pulled down the offensive rebound to seal Valley's win.

Warsaw started Tyler Charlton, Tom Krizmanich, Luke Reed, Jason Alspaugh and Andy Plank in the first quarter. The Tigers started five reserves in this quarter. Krizmanich and Charlton did not play at all against Valley.

"Tonight it's tough because we had some injuries," Rhodes said. "P.J. Wiley could not play at all. He has some problems with his neck, and we hope he'll be back next week. Tyler Charlton has a leg injury that has nagged him throughout football and now. Tom Krizmanich, we've had some concerns about his back.

"We made up our minds that they would play one quarter. Because we had the split (first and fourth quarters), we did not want those injuries to tighten up. Given that, we decided we wanted to give a good number of minutes to all 11 players. Now we have some video tape we can watch and make decisions on playing time."

Parker led Valley with seven points, and Scott Cooksey added six. Kevin Masur led Warsaw with five points. [[In-content Ad]]