FORT WAYNE - Dean Smith's teams at North Carolina were known for their ability to stick to the gameplan no matter the situation. The Tar Heels would simply wait for their more talented and athletic opponents to make one fatal mistake and then, when they saw the opening, they would attack.

The Warsaw Tigers took the same approach against Fort Wayne North on Saturday. Despite trailing for the majority of the game, the Tigers hung around and when the Redskins began to get just a bit frustrated, Warsaw jumped on the chance and rode to a 68-66 victory.

It's hard to place a finger on the key to the win. Perhaps it was Chris Wiggins' three-point shooting. His three-pointer at the end of the first quarter tied the score and then he knocked down another to open the second quarter to give Warsaw the lead. As the Tigers trailed 29-23 late in the first half, Wiggins nailed back-to-back three-pointers to pull Warsaw back into a tie.

Or maybe it was the rebounding. Warsaw outrebounded North 35-18. Luke Reed led the Tigers with 12 rebounds and Andy Plank pulled down nine more.

Or it could have been Warsaw's ability to get the Redskins into foul trouble. Vernard Hollins scored 25 points, but he was in foul trouble for most of the game and fouled out late. Another starter for North, Damon Porter, picked up four fouls in the third quarter alone. Two of the Redskins other three starters also ended the game with four fouls. They could never get into the offensive flow because they were playing musical chairs all evening, trying to put players on the floor that could stay out of foul trouble.

Despite the troubles that North Side had, Warsaw still trailed 49-47 with six minutes to play in the game, largely because of 22 turnovers.

However, that's when the Tigers found the opening. They jumped on the Redskins for a 14-2 run over the next 3 1/2 minutes to take a 61-51 lead. Plank had eight points in the run, with a three-pointer and a three-point play to close out the spurt. Chris Hill added four of his team high 16 second-half points as the Tigers took control.

From that point it never got much closer, but Quincy Rutledge canned two three-pointers in the final 10 seconds of the game for North Side to to close the score to its final two point difference.

"Probably the biggest key was a determined effort in terms of the rebounding aspect," Warsaw head coach Al Rhodes said. "I was very concerned with whether we could stay with them on the boards."

Wiggins and Hill each scored 19 points to lead Warsaw. Plank added 17 more and three assists to go along with his nine rebounds. After Hollins' 25 points for North Side, Rutledge scored 17, while Tyone Little had six points and dished out eight assists.

"We've been playing 10 players and our team depth has been a strength for us," Rhodes said. "We rotate our four post men, and they're hard to handle when they are physical. We had excellent team play and balanced scoring."

In the first quarter, Warsaw jumped out to a 7-2 lead on a pair of layups from Plank, but North Side came back and took a 15-12 lead before Wiggins hit his first three-pointer of the game with two seconds to play.

The game was still tied at 23-23 with 4:37 to play in the half when the Redskins went on a 6-0 run. However, Wiggins answered that run with consecutive three-pointers and North Side went into the half leading just 31-30.

North Side came out of the locker room in the second half and scored six straight points to take a 37-30 advantage with the help of numerous turnovers by the Tigers. It took Warsaw more than 2 1/2 minutes to get off its first shot of the quarter.

But the Tigers chipped away at the lead and got to within two points at the end of the period at 46-44.

"I think we grew up a little bit over the course of the game," Rhodes said. "Our turnovers have been a problem for us, and we had about three segments in the game where we were tentative against their excellent individual pressure on the ball."

Warsaw (5-1, 2-0) will be at Northridge on Friday at 6:15 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]