SYRACUSE -ÊWawasee's boys basketball team changed its gameplan, but the Warriors still couldn't change the results.

After hosting and losing to Warsaw 89-58 on Friday, Wawasee hosted and lost to Warsaw 52-44 in Wednesday's first round of the Northern Lakes Conference Tournament. Warsaw improves to 4-3, while Wawasee falls to 3-4.

Switching from man-to-man defense in the first meeting to a 2-3 zone last night helped Wawasee stay with Warsaw. Half-court zone defenses are the current defense of choice against Warsaw, as Tippecanoe Valley, Valparaiso and Elkhart Central all used it to beat the Tigers.

"The Wawasee coaching staff did a great job of adjusting," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "Their most obvious change was from man-to-man to their 2-3 zone with guard pressure, which they copied from Elkhart Central. We just executed better than we did against Elkhart Central.

"Tonight's game doesn't surprise me. Wawasee had a new gameplan, and I knew their kids would want to play better."

Said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler: "We were 3-3 using hard-nose, man-to-man defense. Against Warsaw, we wanted to keep backdoors from happening and take away their lobs. We knew we could do that if we dropped back (into a 2-3 zone) and protected the paint."

But eight points or 31 points, Warsaw still won. Junior Greg Clay hit 6 of 8 field goals and 8 of 12 free throws to lead the Tigers with 21 points. Josh Buck added 11 on 5-of-16 shooting.

Brian Adkins led Wawasee with 10 points, and Travis Klenke added nine.

While the lay-up clinic Warsaw put on last week against Wawasee's nonexistent transition defense did not take place this time, Warsaw outscored Wawasee 43-26 after the first quarter. Wawasee led 18-9 after the opening quarter, but behind nine points from Clay, Warsaw responded with a 16-4 advantage in the second quarter to take a 25-22 halftime lead.

"In the first quarter, we missed a lot of easy shots," Rhodes said. "We weren't worried, because eventually you figure those will start falling. As a coach, you ask yourself, 'Is the defense dominating you, or are your shots just not falling?' Our shots just weren't falling.

"Greg did a nice job for us and kept us in it."

Wawasee committed eight turnovers and hit just 2 of 10 shots from the field in its four-point second quarter. The referees whistled three offensive charging calls on Wawasee players in the first 3-1/2 minutes of the quarter.

Warsaw led the entire second half, although its lead never hit double digits. Each time the Warriors tried to close in on the lead, missed free throws stopped them. Wawasee closed the gap to 40-38 with 7:00 left in the fourth quarter then had a chance to tie, but Wawasee's Andrew Popenfoose missed the front end of his one-and-one free throw.

Popenfoose wasn't alone in missing free throws, as Wawasee finished the second half 8 of 16 from the free throw line. Curtis Farrell was 3 for 4, Popenfoose 3 for 5, Beau Brumbaugh 1 for 2, Travis Speicher 1 for 2 and Andrew Packer 0 for 3.

"We didn't want the game to get out of hand at the start," Mishler said. "We did not want to run full-court. Athletically, we knew we couldn't do that against Warsaw. We wanted to do three things: contain the basketball, protect the paint and block out.

"Our other focus was transition defense. As soon as a shot went up, we wanted to get one or two back and jam their rebounder."

Warsaw now hosts No. 8 (3A) NorthWood (4-1), which won at Goshen 62-60, in Friday's second round of the NLC Tournament. Wawasee hosts Goshen (3-4). Both games start at 6 p.m.

The Warsaw/NorthWood winner faces the winner between No. 3 (3A) Plymouth (5-0) and Northridge (4-3), Friday's 8 p.m. game at Warsaw, in the championship. The championship game will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, but the site has yet to be determined.

Wawasee's game with Goshen will be its last game in the tourney as no consolation round will be played.

WARSAW 52, WAWASEE 44

Warsaw (4-3) 9 16 15 12 - 52

Wawasee (3-4) 18 4 12 10 - 44

Warsaw FG FT A S R Pts.

G. Clay (F) 6-8 8-12 0 0 3 21

Buck (C) 5-16 1-2 2 4 8 11

C. Clay (G) 3-6 0-0 1 0 7 6

Johnson (F) 2-6 1-2 0 2 4 5

Seiss (G) 2-4 0-0 5 3 3 4

Martin 1-4 0-0 0 0 2 3

Shaw 1-4 0-0 1 1 4 2

DeGeeter 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Foster 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 20-48 10-16 10 10 31 52

Wawasee FG FT A S R Pts.

Adkins (F) 4-6 0-0 1 0 3 10

Packer (C) 3-7 1-4 1 1 7 7

Farrell (G) 1-5 4-6 2 2 4 6

Beasley (G) 2-6 0-0 2 2 0 5

Brumbaugh (F) 0-1 1-2 1 0 0 1

Klenke 4-5 0-0 0 1 2 9

Speicher 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 1

Popenfoose 1-3 3-5 1 1 5 5

Doty 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

VanLue 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 15-33 10-19 9 7 22 44

Three-point goals -ÊWawasee 4-9 (Adkins 2-3, Beasley 1-4, Klenke 1-1, Farrell 0-1), Warsaw 2-9 (Martin 1-3, G. Clay 1-2, Buck 0-2, Johnson 0-1, Shaw 0-1). Turnovers -ÊWarsaw 12, Wawasee 16. Total fouls -ÊWarsaw 17, Wawasee 20. Fouled out -ÊNone. [[In-content Ad]]