Warsaw Boys Win Sectional Title
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
KENDALLVILLE - Rather than a student in the school's cheering section, maybe the players on Warsaw's boys basketball team should have worn hard hats Saturday evening.
After all, it was the Tigers who went to work and turned in the blue-collar performance, knocking off rival Columbia City 40-32 in the championship game of the Class 4A East Noble Sectional.
Using a 2-3 zone defense that took 6-foot-9 senior Zach Coverstone out of the flow of the game for Columbia City, the Tigers avenged a 50-44 loss they suffered to the Eagles in the second game of the regular season.
Entering Saturday's sectional championship game, Columbia City had won five of the previous six games against Warsaw and eliminated the Tigers from the state tournament in 2003 and 2004, albeit by a combined five points.
Saturday evening, however, belonged to the Tigers, and for the second consecutive year Columbia City fell in the sectional championship game to a team that entered the game with a losing record. DeKalb beat Columbia City 36-34 last year to improve to 10-12.
"Coach Ogle called it the hack-a-Zach defense, kind of like the hack-a-Shaq defense in the pros," said Warsaw senior guard John-Wesley Maierle. "We played good team basketball. We had a good game plan, and this team never quit."
Coverstone finished the game with seven points, hitting 2 of 3 shots from the field and 3 of 5 free throws. He pulled down four of Columbia City's 10 total rebounds.
"I thought we did a good job defending Zach Coverstone," said fourth-year Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, whose team has won three straight games and four of its last five to improve to 11-11. "Mitch Reinholt and Miles and Mason Plumlee made up our three-headed monster. We had 12 fouls to use, and those guys did a great job on him. The Plumlees and Mitch Reinholt on Coverstone were great."
Against much-shorter defenders throughout the season, Coverstone has been able to use his size to his advantage. Against the rotating defense of the 6-4 Reinholt and the 6-7 Plumlee brothers, Miles a junior and Mason a freshman, Coverstone was virtually ineffective.
With Coverstone defended by Reinholt, Columbia City fed the ball inside. Reinholt, with teammates who would slide over and help defend, denied Coverstone a look at the basket with physical play.
With the long-armed Plumlees guarding Coverstone, Columbia City wasn't as successful getting the ball inside, and the Eagles were forced into a perimeter game.
That didn't work either, as the Eagles finished the game 4 of 15 from three-point range.
The eight-point win gave the Tigers their 35th sectional championship in the program's history and advanced them to Saturday's Marion Regional at Bill Green Athletic Arena, where they will play Muncie Central at 10 a.m.
Muncie Central (17-5) advanced by beating No. 3 Anderson 70-52. Fort Wayne Snider (16-7) and McCutcheon (17-6) will play in Saturday's second regional semifinal at approximately noon.
The winners will play in the regional championship game at 8 p.m.
"This means a lot," senior Shaun Cabrera said of winning the sectional, the program's first since 2000. "This means so much to the team. We've dreamed of winning the sectional, and this was a dream come true. The team believed in each other and we came out and got the victory."
Believing in each other after taking some lumps in a 9-11 regular season helped.
Having Cabrera didn't hurt either.
After averaging eight points per game during the regular season, Warsaw's starting point guard scored a game-high 19 Friday against East Noble and a game-high 17 Saturday against Columbia City.
Cabrera was 5 of 7 from the field Saturday and 6 of 6 from the free throw line. He also pulled down six rebounds.
"When we're playing our game, we're a really good team," said senior Colin Clemens, whose father Gordie Clemens averaged 17 points as a senior while helping lead the Tigers to the semistate 30 years ago. "Give Shaun credit, he's our leader. He played great this weekend."
Clemens finished the game with seven points, while junior Steve Lemasters scored five, Mason Plumlee scored four, Mitch Reinholt scored four, Maierle scored two and junior Tommy Reinholt hit a free throw.
Warsaw finished the game 13 of 27 from the field, 11 of 12 from the free throw line and outrebounded the Eagles 21-10.
Columbia City, which finished the season with a 19-4 record, was 9 of 24 from the field and 10 of 13 from the charity stripe.
Senior Kyle Rucks led the Eagles with 14 points, while junior Tyler Shively added 11 points and Coverstone seven.
Travis Preston, who led Columbia City with 15 points Friday, got off just one shot Saturday and was held scoreless.
Other than the 0-0 score at the beginning of the game, the game was never tied and Warsaw never trailed.
The Tigers led 11-3 after the first quarter and 22-13 at halftime.
The Eagles trailed 27-24 after three quarters, but a reverse layup by Mason Plumlee pushed Warsaw's lead back to five with 5:32 remaining in the game.
Columbia City cut the lead to three again, 35-32, with three free throws from Shively with 1:24 left. Shively missed a three-pointer that would have tied it with 44 seconds to play.
The Tigers closed the game by hitting five of six free throws in the final 41 seconds.
Despite winning just two of its final eight regular season games, including a three-game stretch where the Tigers lost games by 15, 19 and 17 points, Ogle said he never stopped believing his team could win the sectional championship.
"I told the kids after the NorthWood game (a 61-46 loss Jan. 27) that we were going to win the sectional, and I think they thought I was crazy," said Ogle. "I told them that NorthWood's football team was 3-6 in the regular season but went on to win the state championship. I told them that DeKalb was 8-12 last year but won the sectional. We wanted to get some more wins, but we knew that none of the teams in our sectional were as good as Huntington North, Marion, Elkhart Memorial and some of the teams we were playing."
Five teams - Tippecanoe Valley, Wawasee, Rochester, Penn and Plymouth - on Warsaw's schedule won sectional championships Saturday. Two others lost in the sectional championship game because they played one of those five teams.
WARSAW 40, COLUMBIA CITY 32
Warsaw 11 11 5 13 - 40
Col. City 3 10 11 8 - 32
Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.
* Cabrera 5-7 6-6 6 1 17
* T. Reinholt 0-1 1-2 2 0 1
* Maierle 0-2 2-2 1 1 2
* M. Reinholt 2-2 0-0 0 0 4
* Clemens 3-8 0-0 4 2 7
Mi. Plumlee 0-2 0-0 0 0 0
Lemasters 1-3 2-2 2 0 5
Fuller 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ma. Plumlee 2-2 0-0 2 1 4
Team 0-0 0-0 4 0 0
Totals 13-27 11-12 21 5 40
Col. City FG FT R S Pts.
* Shively 2-9 5-5 2 0 11
* Sittler 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
* Rucks 5-9 2-3 0 1 14
* Coverstone 2-3 3-5 4 0 7
* Preston 0-1 0-0 4 0 0
Moss 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Curry 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 9-24 10-13 10 1 32
Three-point goals - Warsaw 3-8 (Clemens 1-3, Cabrera 1-2, Lemasters 1-2, Maierle 0-1), Col. City 4-15 (Shively 2-8, Rucks 2-4, Sittler 0-1, Moss 0-1, Preston 0-1). Turnovers - Warsaw 9, Col. City 10. Fouls - Warsaw 17, Col. City 15. Fouled out - none. [[In-content Ad]]
KENDALLVILLE - Rather than a student in the school's cheering section, maybe the players on Warsaw's boys basketball team should have worn hard hats Saturday evening.
After all, it was the Tigers who went to work and turned in the blue-collar performance, knocking off rival Columbia City 40-32 in the championship game of the Class 4A East Noble Sectional.
Using a 2-3 zone defense that took 6-foot-9 senior Zach Coverstone out of the flow of the game for Columbia City, the Tigers avenged a 50-44 loss they suffered to the Eagles in the second game of the regular season.
Entering Saturday's sectional championship game, Columbia City had won five of the previous six games against Warsaw and eliminated the Tigers from the state tournament in 2003 and 2004, albeit by a combined five points.
Saturday evening, however, belonged to the Tigers, and for the second consecutive year Columbia City fell in the sectional championship game to a team that entered the game with a losing record. DeKalb beat Columbia City 36-34 last year to improve to 10-12.
"Coach Ogle called it the hack-a-Zach defense, kind of like the hack-a-Shaq defense in the pros," said Warsaw senior guard John-Wesley Maierle. "We played good team basketball. We had a good game plan, and this team never quit."
Coverstone finished the game with seven points, hitting 2 of 3 shots from the field and 3 of 5 free throws. He pulled down four of Columbia City's 10 total rebounds.
"I thought we did a good job defending Zach Coverstone," said fourth-year Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, whose team has won three straight games and four of its last five to improve to 11-11. "Mitch Reinholt and Miles and Mason Plumlee made up our three-headed monster. We had 12 fouls to use, and those guys did a great job on him. The Plumlees and Mitch Reinholt on Coverstone were great."
Against much-shorter defenders throughout the season, Coverstone has been able to use his size to his advantage. Against the rotating defense of the 6-4 Reinholt and the 6-7 Plumlee brothers, Miles a junior and Mason a freshman, Coverstone was virtually ineffective.
With Coverstone defended by Reinholt, Columbia City fed the ball inside. Reinholt, with teammates who would slide over and help defend, denied Coverstone a look at the basket with physical play.
With the long-armed Plumlees guarding Coverstone, Columbia City wasn't as successful getting the ball inside, and the Eagles were forced into a perimeter game.
That didn't work either, as the Eagles finished the game 4 of 15 from three-point range.
The eight-point win gave the Tigers their 35th sectional championship in the program's history and advanced them to Saturday's Marion Regional at Bill Green Athletic Arena, where they will play Muncie Central at 10 a.m.
Muncie Central (17-5) advanced by beating No. 3 Anderson 70-52. Fort Wayne Snider (16-7) and McCutcheon (17-6) will play in Saturday's second regional semifinal at approximately noon.
The winners will play in the regional championship game at 8 p.m.
"This means a lot," senior Shaun Cabrera said of winning the sectional, the program's first since 2000. "This means so much to the team. We've dreamed of winning the sectional, and this was a dream come true. The team believed in each other and we came out and got the victory."
Believing in each other after taking some lumps in a 9-11 regular season helped.
Having Cabrera didn't hurt either.
After averaging eight points per game during the regular season, Warsaw's starting point guard scored a game-high 19 Friday against East Noble and a game-high 17 Saturday against Columbia City.
Cabrera was 5 of 7 from the field Saturday and 6 of 6 from the free throw line. He also pulled down six rebounds.
"When we're playing our game, we're a really good team," said senior Colin Clemens, whose father Gordie Clemens averaged 17 points as a senior while helping lead the Tigers to the semistate 30 years ago. "Give Shaun credit, he's our leader. He played great this weekend."
Clemens finished the game with seven points, while junior Steve Lemasters scored five, Mason Plumlee scored four, Mitch Reinholt scored four, Maierle scored two and junior Tommy Reinholt hit a free throw.
Warsaw finished the game 13 of 27 from the field, 11 of 12 from the free throw line and outrebounded the Eagles 21-10.
Columbia City, which finished the season with a 19-4 record, was 9 of 24 from the field and 10 of 13 from the charity stripe.
Senior Kyle Rucks led the Eagles with 14 points, while junior Tyler Shively added 11 points and Coverstone seven.
Travis Preston, who led Columbia City with 15 points Friday, got off just one shot Saturday and was held scoreless.
Other than the 0-0 score at the beginning of the game, the game was never tied and Warsaw never trailed.
The Tigers led 11-3 after the first quarter and 22-13 at halftime.
The Eagles trailed 27-24 after three quarters, but a reverse layup by Mason Plumlee pushed Warsaw's lead back to five with 5:32 remaining in the game.
Columbia City cut the lead to three again, 35-32, with three free throws from Shively with 1:24 left. Shively missed a three-pointer that would have tied it with 44 seconds to play.
The Tigers closed the game by hitting five of six free throws in the final 41 seconds.
Despite winning just two of its final eight regular season games, including a three-game stretch where the Tigers lost games by 15, 19 and 17 points, Ogle said he never stopped believing his team could win the sectional championship.
"I told the kids after the NorthWood game (a 61-46 loss Jan. 27) that we were going to win the sectional, and I think they thought I was crazy," said Ogle. "I told them that NorthWood's football team was 3-6 in the regular season but went on to win the state championship. I told them that DeKalb was 8-12 last year but won the sectional. We wanted to get some more wins, but we knew that none of the teams in our sectional were as good as Huntington North, Marion, Elkhart Memorial and some of the teams we were playing."
Five teams - Tippecanoe Valley, Wawasee, Rochester, Penn and Plymouth - on Warsaw's schedule won sectional championships Saturday. Two others lost in the sectional championship game because they played one of those five teams.
WARSAW 40, COLUMBIA CITY 32
Warsaw 11 11 5 13 - 40
Col. City 3 10 11 8 - 32
Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.
* Cabrera 5-7 6-6 6 1 17
* T. Reinholt 0-1 1-2 2 0 1
* Maierle 0-2 2-2 1 1 2
* M. Reinholt 2-2 0-0 0 0 4
* Clemens 3-8 0-0 4 2 7
Mi. Plumlee 0-2 0-0 0 0 0
Lemasters 1-3 2-2 2 0 5
Fuller 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ma. Plumlee 2-2 0-0 2 1 4
Team 0-0 0-0 4 0 0
Totals 13-27 11-12 21 5 40
Col. City FG FT R S Pts.
* Shively 2-9 5-5 2 0 11
* Sittler 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
* Rucks 5-9 2-3 0 1 14
* Coverstone 2-3 3-5 4 0 7
* Preston 0-1 0-0 4 0 0
Moss 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Curry 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 9-24 10-13 10 1 32
Three-point goals - Warsaw 3-8 (Clemens 1-3, Cabrera 1-2, Lemasters 1-2, Maierle 0-1), Col. City 4-15 (Shively 2-8, Rucks 2-4, Sittler 0-1, Moss 0-1, Preston 0-1). Turnovers - Warsaw 9, Col. City 10. Fouls - Warsaw 17, Col. City 15. Fouled out - none. [[In-content Ad]]