The Tiger Den has lost its roar.

Not only did Warsaw drop another close boys basketball game, but the 54-52 loss to Huntington was the Tigers' fourth defeat (out of six) of the season at the supposed friendly confines. This is by a program that entered the season with a 26-game home winning streak. The four defeats have come by a combined seven points.

Entering the fourth quarter, it looked as though it wouldn't be a close home loss, but a big home loss. The Vikings opened up a 45-37 lead starting the fourth and just came off a 3-of-13 shooting performance in the third period.

But the Vikings' delay game backfired, and Warsaw slowly got back into the game. Two free throws by Zach Nelson and a layup by Luke Reed cut the lead to 47-45 midway through the fourth.

Warsaw still trailed 52-49 with a minute left in the game when Chris Wiggins buried a big three-pointer from the corner to tie the score. Huntington ran the clock down and called a timeout with 30 seconds left.

Eventually, the Vikings would get the ball down low to their freshman sensation Sean Kline, who got a layup attempt with five seconds left. The attempt never made it to the basket as Reed swiped it off the backboard, but was called for goaltending. Huntington led 54-52 with five seconds left.

Wiggins got the ball at halfcourt, dribbled to the basket, but missed a running 10-footer as time expired.

"We got into a hurry," Huntington coach Jack Gabor said. "We got caught up in the excitement of winning. We made mistakes down the stretch. All of the sudden, we became our own worst enemy. It wasn't anything they were doing out there. We handled their pressure and were getting shots.

"We had them where we wanted them," he said. "They went into the zone to start the fourth quarter, and we pulled the ball out and made them go man-to-man. Once we did that, we stopped passing the ball."

Warsaw coach Al Rhodes refused to comment after the game.

With the full length of the court to go and only five seconds left, Gabor said he was confident with the defense he had employed against the Tigers.

"We thought the ball was going to Wiggins," he said. "We played off the ball so we could have two guys on the ball. I thought Wiggins traveled with the ball before he even shot. The kids did a good job of making him use up a lot of time once he did get the ball. He really didn't get a shot, he just kind of threw it up there."

Just the fact that Warsaw was in the game in the fourth was amazing. After leading 29-27 at halftime, the Tigers emerged from the locker room and didn't find the rims on the basket so friendly anymore. A 16-2 Viking run turned a 35-29 Warsaw lead into a 45-37 Huntington advantage.

After dominating play in the paint in the first two quarters, Warsaw found the going tougher against Huntington's 2-3 zone in the third quarter. Unable to get its inside game going, the Tigers were forced to go outside. But to no avail. Warsaw ended up hitting only 3 of 13 in the period, including 1 of 5 from beyond the arc.

"We knew they were going to pound it at us," Gabor said. "It forced us to go to the zone. I have respect for Wiggins and (Andy) Plank, and I didn't want them just sitting out there. We took a chance and double-teamed on the inside and front and back.

"We did all the work on the offensive end and just kind of gave it to them (on defense)," he said. "Too many times we let them just dump the ball in. We were giving away a lot of size inside."

The young Vikings held tough down the stretch when all seemed lost, and the Tigers made their final move of the game.

"It is a tough place to play," Gabor said of the Tiger Den. "I told them the No. 1 key would be mental toughness. We had to stay composed. We had to keep the crowd out of our mind, we had to let the officials stay out, and whatever Al is doing up and down the sideline, whatever happens, we wanted to stay focused."

Warsaw did the job on Kline and Matt Manges, who were the Vikings' two leading scorers this season with scoring averages of 12.7 and 11.8 respectively. The duo combined to score only 17 points, nine by Kline and eight from Manges.

The Tigers were unable, however, to control the dribble penetration of Rick Hall, who doubled his season average of 10.7 ppg with 22 against Warsaw. Hall was 7 of 13 from the field and 8 of 8 from the charity stripe.

Reed led Warsaw with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Nelson scored a career-high 13 points. The duo combined to score only 10 points in the second half as the Vikings' defense stiffened.

The Tigers hit 21 of 40 (42 percent) from the field, but without an 8 of 12 performance in the second quarter, the percentage drops to 31 percent (12 of 39). And if you throw out Reed's and Nelson's 14 of 22 performance, the number slips to 6 of 29 (21 percent).

Warsaw (12-6) now faces another home game against North Central (11-6) Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Huntington is now 12-8. [[In-content Ad]]