Warriors Fall In Regional Final
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
HARTFORD CITY - Jay County 2, Kosciusko County 0.
After defeating Tippecanoe Valley in the morning session of the Blackford Regional, Jay County earned its first-ever regional title with a 69-61 win over Wawasee in the championship Saturday night at Blackford High school.
The Warriors held a six-point lead at 51-45 earlier in the fourth quarter before they simply ran out of gas.
Wawasee was pushed to overtime against a big and physical Fort Wayne Concordia squad early in the day before winning 62-55.
The Warriors, on less than six hours of rest, looked solid for the first 24 minutes but couldn't maintain.
After going 8 of 14 from beyond the three-point arc in the first three quarters, Wawasee shot just 1 of 10 from three in the fourth quarter.
"We just ran out of gas," said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler. "There's all sorts of things that go into that but four teams played in the same situation so you can't make excuses."
Excuses or not, Wawasee looked gassed while the nearby Jay County squad looked fresh.
The Patriots were also aided by depth that the Warriors lacked.
Jay County used eight players who all played similar minutes while Wawasee played four of its five starters most, if not all, of the game.
Wawasee was led by senior Michael Conrad in his final high school game. Conrad scored 21 points to lead the way in scoring for the Warriors. The only other Wawasee senior, reserve John Adams went 0 if 1 from the field and pulled down a rebound.
"I feel bad for our seniors," said Mishler. "Mike (Conrad) is an outstanding kid and John is the same way and just a hard worker."
Junior Andrew Mock showed size doesn't matter as the 5-foot-8 guard drove through a swarm of taller players in both of Wawasee's games and scored 17 points in the championship game.
Mock went scoreless in the fourth quarter as he showed signs of fatigue. The usually accurate Mock was wide a couple of times on three-pointers and looked to be a step slower than usual.
Sophomore starter Brandon Geiger played one of his best games of the season despite battling foul trouble as he ended the night with 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting.
Junior Joe Leach scored 11 points for the Warriors while Barry Singrey came off the bench to score the only two bench points for Wawasee.
Jay County was led by Scott Bruggeman's 18 points. Randy Evans came off the bench and followed up a quiet morning session with 15 points.
Corey Comer scored 11 and John Retter finished with 10 for the Patriots. All eight players who got on the floor for Jay County scored.
"They're a true team," said Jay County coach Craig Teagle. "They play well together both offensively and defensively. In all the year's I've coached I could say I've only had one or two true teams and this is one of them."
Teagle points to a desperation three-pointer at the end of the half as the momentum shift for his team.
Trailing 33-27 as the clock wore down on the first half, Comer heaved a 30-footer at the buzzer to cut Wawasee's lead to one possession at 33-30.
"That's a huge momentum thing," said Teagle, who previously coached at Knox and Caston. "Chins are up instead of down."
Jay County (19-6) advances to the Lafayette Jefferson Semistate against Plymouth (21-4) Saturday. The game is scheduled to start at approximately 3 p.m.
In Wawasee's first game, the Warriors overcame a huge size disadvantage to outlast Fort Wayne Concordia 62-55 in overtime.
Andrew Mock showed how much moxie he had as he drove into the heart of the Concordia interior that boasted the likes of 6-9 Kyle Pressley and 6-7 Marshall Heingartner.
Mock finished with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
Wawasee trailed by six points with just 50 seconds left in regulation. Mock then hit a deep three-pointer to cut the lead to three. After Concordia went 2 of 4 from the charity stripe, Leach hit a three-pointer of his own from the top of the key. With five seconds left and after a timeout, Leach threw up an errant runner with Wawasee down two at 55-53.
Junior Lance Zimmerman then collected the miss and tossed in the layup as time expired.
Concordia then held the ball in overtime for the first 1:20 despite four Wawasee players having three or more personal fouls.
Neither team hit a field goal and Concordia went scoreless as Wawasee hit 6 of 7 from the free-throw line.
Concordia was led in defeat by the 21 points of Justin Goeglin.
Wawasee ends the season with a record of 20-5 and return four starters to next year's team.
WAWASEE 62, FWC 55 (OT)
Wawasee 10 15 13 17 7 - 62
Concorda 11 18 9 17 0 - 55
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
*Mock 8-12 5-6 1 0 24
*Conrad 4-7 5-5 4 1 16
*Leach 3-12 4-4 4 1 12
*Geiger 1-4 0-0 6 0 2
*Z'erman 3-5 2-2 3 2 8
Adams 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 18-41 16-17 18 4 62
Concordia FG FT R S Pts.
*Thoms 2-8 0-0 0 1 4
*Goeglin 6-12 5-9 4 1 21
*Doerffler 0-2 3-4 5 1 3
*Pressley 6-13 5-10 6 1 17
*Knox 4-4 2-2 5 1 10
H'gartner 0-1 0-2 0 0 0
Totals 18-40 15-27 20 6 55
Three-point goals - Wawasee 8-20 (Mock 3-6, Conrad 3-6, Leach 2-5), Concordia 4-18 (Goeglin 4-9). Turnovers - Wawasee 10, Concordia 12. Fouls - Wawasee 22, Concordia 21. Fouled out - Geiger, Thoms.
JAY COUNTY 69, WAWASEE 61
J. County 11 19 12 27 - 69
Wawasee 16 17 15 13 - 61
Jay County FG FT R S Pts.
*Rigby 1-3 1-2 1 1 4
*Retter 4-7 1-1 2 0 10
*Green 1-3 2-2 0 0 4
*Bruggeman 4-7 10-112 0 18
*Comer 3-6 4-6 5 1 11
Evans 5-7 2-3 0 0 15
Goetz 2-2 0-0 0 1 5
Muhlekamp 0-1 2-2 3 2 2
Totals 20-36 22-27 13 5 69
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
*Mock 6-14 2-3 3 2 17
*Conrad 5-12 6-6 3 0 21
*Leach 3-5 4-5 5 1 11
*Geiger 3-3 4-4 3 0 10
*Z'erman 0-1 0-0 2 0 0
Adams 0-1 0-1 1 0 0
Singrey 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Stichter 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 18-38 16-19 18 3 61
Three-point goals - Jay County 7-12 (Evans 3-4, Goetz 1-1, Comer 1-1, Retter 1-1, Rigby 1-3), Wawasee 9-24 (Conrad 5-12, Mock 3-8, Leach 1-2). Turnovers - Jay County 11, Wawasee 14 . Fouls - Jay County 18, Wawasee 18. Fouled out - None. [[In-content Ad]]
HARTFORD CITY - Jay County 2, Kosciusko County 0.
After defeating Tippecanoe Valley in the morning session of the Blackford Regional, Jay County earned its first-ever regional title with a 69-61 win over Wawasee in the championship Saturday night at Blackford High school.
The Warriors held a six-point lead at 51-45 earlier in the fourth quarter before they simply ran out of gas.
Wawasee was pushed to overtime against a big and physical Fort Wayne Concordia squad early in the day before winning 62-55.
The Warriors, on less than six hours of rest, looked solid for the first 24 minutes but couldn't maintain.
After going 8 of 14 from beyond the three-point arc in the first three quarters, Wawasee shot just 1 of 10 from three in the fourth quarter.
"We just ran out of gas," said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler. "There's all sorts of things that go into that but four teams played in the same situation so you can't make excuses."
Excuses or not, Wawasee looked gassed while the nearby Jay County squad looked fresh.
The Patriots were also aided by depth that the Warriors lacked.
Jay County used eight players who all played similar minutes while Wawasee played four of its five starters most, if not all, of the game.
Wawasee was led by senior Michael Conrad in his final high school game. Conrad scored 21 points to lead the way in scoring for the Warriors. The only other Wawasee senior, reserve John Adams went 0 if 1 from the field and pulled down a rebound.
"I feel bad for our seniors," said Mishler. "Mike (Conrad) is an outstanding kid and John is the same way and just a hard worker."
Junior Andrew Mock showed size doesn't matter as the 5-foot-8 guard drove through a swarm of taller players in both of Wawasee's games and scored 17 points in the championship game.
Mock went scoreless in the fourth quarter as he showed signs of fatigue. The usually accurate Mock was wide a couple of times on three-pointers and looked to be a step slower than usual.
Sophomore starter Brandon Geiger played one of his best games of the season despite battling foul trouble as he ended the night with 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting.
Junior Joe Leach scored 11 points for the Warriors while Barry Singrey came off the bench to score the only two bench points for Wawasee.
Jay County was led by Scott Bruggeman's 18 points. Randy Evans came off the bench and followed up a quiet morning session with 15 points.
Corey Comer scored 11 and John Retter finished with 10 for the Patriots. All eight players who got on the floor for Jay County scored.
"They're a true team," said Jay County coach Craig Teagle. "They play well together both offensively and defensively. In all the year's I've coached I could say I've only had one or two true teams and this is one of them."
Teagle points to a desperation three-pointer at the end of the half as the momentum shift for his team.
Trailing 33-27 as the clock wore down on the first half, Comer heaved a 30-footer at the buzzer to cut Wawasee's lead to one possession at 33-30.
"That's a huge momentum thing," said Teagle, who previously coached at Knox and Caston. "Chins are up instead of down."
Jay County (19-6) advances to the Lafayette Jefferson Semistate against Plymouth (21-4) Saturday. The game is scheduled to start at approximately 3 p.m.
In Wawasee's first game, the Warriors overcame a huge size disadvantage to outlast Fort Wayne Concordia 62-55 in overtime.
Andrew Mock showed how much moxie he had as he drove into the heart of the Concordia interior that boasted the likes of 6-9 Kyle Pressley and 6-7 Marshall Heingartner.
Mock finished with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
Wawasee trailed by six points with just 50 seconds left in regulation. Mock then hit a deep three-pointer to cut the lead to three. After Concordia went 2 of 4 from the charity stripe, Leach hit a three-pointer of his own from the top of the key. With five seconds left and after a timeout, Leach threw up an errant runner with Wawasee down two at 55-53.
Junior Lance Zimmerman then collected the miss and tossed in the layup as time expired.
Concordia then held the ball in overtime for the first 1:20 despite four Wawasee players having three or more personal fouls.
Neither team hit a field goal and Concordia went scoreless as Wawasee hit 6 of 7 from the free-throw line.
Concordia was led in defeat by the 21 points of Justin Goeglin.
Wawasee ends the season with a record of 20-5 and return four starters to next year's team.
WAWASEE 62, FWC 55 (OT)
Wawasee 10 15 13 17 7 - 62
Concorda 11 18 9 17 0 - 55
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
*Mock 8-12 5-6 1 0 24
*Conrad 4-7 5-5 4 1 16
*Leach 3-12 4-4 4 1 12
*Geiger 1-4 0-0 6 0 2
*Z'erman 3-5 2-2 3 2 8
Adams 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 18-41 16-17 18 4 62
Concordia FG FT R S Pts.
*Thoms 2-8 0-0 0 1 4
*Goeglin 6-12 5-9 4 1 21
*Doerffler 0-2 3-4 5 1 3
*Pressley 6-13 5-10 6 1 17
*Knox 4-4 2-2 5 1 10
H'gartner 0-1 0-2 0 0 0
Totals 18-40 15-27 20 6 55
Three-point goals - Wawasee 8-20 (Mock 3-6, Conrad 3-6, Leach 2-5), Concordia 4-18 (Goeglin 4-9). Turnovers - Wawasee 10, Concordia 12. Fouls - Wawasee 22, Concordia 21. Fouled out - Geiger, Thoms.
JAY COUNTY 69, WAWASEE 61
J. County 11 19 12 27 - 69
Wawasee 16 17 15 13 - 61
Jay County FG FT R S Pts.
*Rigby 1-3 1-2 1 1 4
*Retter 4-7 1-1 2 0 10
*Green 1-3 2-2 0 0 4
*Bruggeman 4-7 10-112 0 18
*Comer 3-6 4-6 5 1 11
Evans 5-7 2-3 0 0 15
Goetz 2-2 0-0 0 1 5
Muhlekamp 0-1 2-2 3 2 2
Totals 20-36 22-27 13 5 69
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
*Mock 6-14 2-3 3 2 17
*Conrad 5-12 6-6 3 0 21
*Leach 3-5 4-5 5 1 11
*Geiger 3-3 4-4 3 0 10
*Z'erman 0-1 0-0 2 0 0
Adams 0-1 0-1 1 0 0
Singrey 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Stichter 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 18-38 16-19 18 3 61
Three-point goals - Jay County 7-12 (Evans 3-4, Goetz 1-1, Comer 1-1, Retter 1-1, Rigby 1-3), Wawasee 9-24 (Conrad 5-12, Mock 3-8, Leach 1-2). Turnovers - Jay County 11, Wawasee 14 . Fouls - Jay County 18, Wawasee 18. Fouled out - None. [[In-content Ad]]