SYRACUSE - On the same night USC and Oklahoma competed for a mythical national championship in college football, Wawasee and Fairfield competed for serious backyard bragging rights in boys high school basketball. The schools are less than 15 miles from each other.

The Warriors rode a 26-point fourth quarter to come from behind and run away from Fairfield, 78-62.

Wawasee trailed heading into the final eight minutes, 53-52. Kory Lantz put the Warriors ahead with a jumper to start the quarter and then the wheels came off for the Falcons. Fairfield's Chad Lemler picked up his fourth foul at the 7:15 mark on Austin Gerber, who connected on the back end of his free throw attempts.

Forty seconds later, Jordan Miller was called for a questionable technical foul. Then at the 5:56 mark, Fairfield's bench was whistled for a technical foul for arguing a call.

Ever opportunistic, the Warriors pounced as Fairfield crumbled. Wawasee outscored the Falcons 14-0 in the fourth quarter before Ben Werner finally stopped the bleeding for the Falcons with a layup with 4:02 left in the game.

Werner was a bright spot for Fairfield head coach John Wysong, who formerly coached at Wawasee. Werner led the Falcons in scoring with 22 points on 9 of 16 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds.

He, along with Lemler, scored seven points each in the second quarter to help Fairfield keep pace. Early on, the Falcons were fortunate not to be run out of the gym after committing eight first half turnovers to just one by Wawasee.

While Fairfield struggled to hold onto the ball, they had no such trouble connecting from the field. The Falcons shot a blistering 7 of 9 in the first quarter to make up for seven first quarter turnovers.

Leading the way for Fairfield in the opening period was Jordan Burkholder, who scored 10 of his 18 points in the first eight minutes.

On the other side it was Kory Lantz and Ryan Kauchak providing a potent one-two punch. Lantz, who was held to single digit scoring in Wawasee's previous two games, scored a game-high 22 points while Kauchak had 16.

Austin Kaiser, who put the Warriors on his back against Northridge in the Northern Lakes Conference Tournament championship, struggled from the field against Fairfield. Kaiser hit on just 3 of 12 field goal attempts in the first three quarters. Kaiser did go perfect from the field and the charity stripe in the fourth quarter and finished with 20 points.

Kaiser, Kauchak and Lantz are seniors, and along with fellow upperclassmen Austin Gerber, are the glue that holds Wawasee together. During the decisive fourth quarter that saw eight personal and two technical fouls called, Warrior head coach Phil Mishler knew his kids needed to keep their cool.

But Mishler didn't have to point that out.

After Fairfield was called for its second technical foul in less than a minute and with junior Michael Conrad at the free throw line for the Warriors, Mishler called his players over.

"I called them over at that point and before I could even tell them, the seniors were saying, 'We have to stay under control out there,' We work every day on making sure we are a class act on the floor and we were that tonight," said Mishler.

Wawasee looked to be a class act in trouble in the third quarter. Kauchak kept the Warriors afloat, scoring the team's first six points of the second half. After a circus shot by Kauchak at the 6:11 mark, the Warriors went ice cold from the field as Fairfield ripped off a 7-0 run to take a 45-43 lead. Kauchak left the game at the 2:26 mark of the third quarter after he appeared to turn his ankle after getting tangled up with Werner. Kauchak did return to action in the fourth quarter.

Besides Kauchak, Kaiser and Lantz, Michael Conrad scored in double figures for Wawasee with 12 points.

Wawasee shot 27 of 56 from the field but was outrebounded 31-27. The Warriors didn't committ their first turnover until the 2:20 mark of the second quarter and had just eight in the game.

The Warriors, 8-0 overall, travel to Nappanee Saturday to take on NLC rival NorthWood with a slated tipoff of 7:45 p.m.

WAWASEE 78, FAIRFIELD 62

Fairfield 17 16 20 9 - 62

Wawasee 18 19 15 26 - 78

Fairfield FG FT R S Pts.

*Bernaert 0-0 0-0 2 0 0

*Lemler 4-7 4-5 5 0 13

*Snider 3-6 1-1 3 1 7

*Burkholder 7-13 1-1 5 0 18

*Werner 9-16 4-6 9 2 22

Miller 0-2 0-0 4 0 0

E. Miller 1-3 0-0 3 1 2

Hostetler 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 Hildenbrand 0-1 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 24-50 10-13 31 4 62

Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.

*Lantz 8-17 4-4 3 2 22

*Kaiser 6-15 7-8 4 4 20

*Gerber 0-1 2-4 1 3 2

*Conrad 4-7 3-4 4 1 12

*Kauchak 8-12 0-0 5 0 16

Leach 1-3 0-0 4 1 2

Mock 0-0 2-2 2 0 2

Zimmerman 0-1 2-2 3 1 2

Richardson 0-0 0-0 1 0 2

Totals 27-56 20-24 27 12 78

Three-point goals - Fairfield 4-12 (Burkholder 3-4, Lemler 1-3, E. Miller 0-2, Hostetler 0-1, Snider 0-1, Hildenbrand 0-1), Wawasee 4-10 (Lantz 2-4, Kaiser 1-3, Conrad 1-3). Turnovers - Fairfield 17, Wawasee 6. Fouls - Fairfield 17, Wawasee 14 . Fouled out - None.

JV - Wawasee 44, Fairfield 32 [[In-content Ad]]