The Warsaw Tigers lost five starters from last year's basketball team that went to state, but this year's group did something even they did not do.

They went undefeated at home. Thirteen and zero.

"I didn't know we would have as many players stepping forward as we have and our team unity would be as good as it is," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said.

"Our five seniors have done a tremendous job. Undefeated at home as a senior class. That's something we always reach for."

The Tigers played their last regular-season home game Friday and trounced Gary Wirt 58-34.

Warsaw improved to 16-3. Wirt fell to 4-12.

Plain and simple, this Gary Wirt team could not shoot. The numbers back it up. The Troopers attempted 52 shots from the floor and hit but 14, 27 percent. Those weren't perimeter shots, either. They attempted only three three-pointers. The shots they missed were near the basket.

"This Wirt team has struggled and is just not a real good basketball team," Rhodes said. "They had very little outside shooting."

And?

"It was a matter of time, really, until we broke the game open."

Four minutes and forty-five seconds, to be exact.

Kevin Masur, a senior shuffled into the starting lineup on Senior Night, jump started the Tigers. He scored five of Warsaw's first seven points and helped the Tigers take an 11-0 lead with 3:15 left in the first quarter.

Rhodes started seniors Masur, Tom Krizmanich, P.J. Wiley, Tyler Charlton and Nate O'Connell.

"I thought we had an excellent start to the game with our five seniors," Rhodes said. "Kevin Masur hit a three to get us going."

But the Tigers scored only five the rest of the half and led 16-10 at halftime. Wirt's trouble was 5-of-29 shooting (17 percent) from the floor.

Warsaw's troubles were turnovers and rebounds.

They had eight turnovers at halftime, and most of them were unforced. Things like players unable to catch passes. Wirt outrebounded Warsaw 19-11, including 10-1 on the offensive glass.

"We turned the ball over too much the first half and did a very poor job on the offensive board," Rhodes said. "We had 10 percent rebounds at halftime. You can't win that way."

The Tigers, who stuck with perimeter shots the first half, got the ball inside the second half. Six straight points by 6-foot-6 junior center Luke Reed put the Tigers up 27-13 with two minutes left in the third quarter.

Wirt hit 1 of 7 shots in the third quarter. After three quarters, the Troopers were 6 of 36 (17 percent) from the floor.

The Tigers settled on a 30-14 lead entering the fourth, and then their offense sprang to life. They hit 6 of 7 field goals and 13 of 15 free throws and scored 28 points in the fourth quarter.

"The second half, we cut the turnovers down," Rhodes said. " When we got the ball, we at least got one shot. That's when we opened the game up.

"They were playing a lot of zone in the third quarter. We wanted to not settle for the outside shot. We wanted to get the ball inside. Our team did a good job of that."

Krizmanich led Warsaw with 17 points, and Andy Plank added 12.

Warsaw is at North Central on Thursday. [[In-content Ad]]