Tigers Drop Sectional Opener To Penn
March 2, 2022 at 4:24 a.m.
Tigers Drop Sectional Opener To Penn
By Anthony Anderson-
With a caveat.
“Our freshman team was 21 and 0, our JV team was 14 and 6, and we have some good (varsity) guys coming back, but you know what, Penn has (almost) everybody back,” Moore pointed out after the Tigers’ 67-56 loss to the Kingsmen in Tuesday’s Class 4A Elkhart Sectional opener at North Side Gym.
“So the conversation for us tonight was, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’” Moore said. “They’re not going anywhere, so what are we gonna do about it? I’m excited for the offseason, excited to get back to work and see where we can go, but we saw that we’ve got work to do.”
Led by junior sensation Markus Burton, No. 9-ranked Penn improved to 21-2 and earned a spot opposite Northridge (13-10) in Friday’s first semifinal. That’ll be followed by Concord (12-10) against Goshen (13-9).
Warsaw saw its season-best five-game winning streak snapped to close at 16-8.
The Tigers, after trailing by a high of 35-20 in the third quarter and 53-40 with just five minutes to go in the fourth, stormed to as close as 61-56 at 1:09 remaining.
The Kingsmen, though, shot 6-of-6 at the line over the final 50 seconds on the way to their 10th straight win.
Burton — who was seen after the game meeting with Kansas State coach Bruce Weber — paced all scorers with 26 points to go with team highs of six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
“He got 26 points on 26 shots, and that’s actually a great ratio on him,” Moore said of the quick, shifty guard closing 12-of-26 from the field with one 3-pointer and 1-of-1 at the line. “So we did a good job, but with that being said, he has length and size around him and he’s such a willing passer. That makes him hard to guard, and that’s where I think he’s special.”
For Warsaw, junior Jaxson Gould scored 18 of his team-high 21 points in the second half to go with a team-high three steals. Gould hit just 6-of-19 from the field, but that included 3-of-10 from distance and accompanied 6-of-7 at the line.
“Jaxson’s good at picking his spots,” Moore said, alluding to Gould’s three-point first half, “and it takes a lot of energy to have to guard the other team’s best player and then turn around and be expected to carry a load offensively, too. I don’t think there are a lot of players capable of that. Markus didn’t guard him the whole night, but he guarded Markus the whole night, and I think that says a lot about who Jaxson is.”
Senior Judah Simfukwe scored 13 points and fought with his 6-foot-1 body to a game-high 10 rebounds for the Tigers.
Junior Theo Katris added eight points and six boards, while senior Tyler Kuhn picked up six and four off the bench.
“Theo played at a great level and Tyler Kuhn did a great job,” Moore said. “Those are two guys who don’t always get a lot of shine, but they gave us a chance to compete tonight. I’m really proud of them.”
The Tigers trailed just 18-16 after one quarter, but Penn won the second period 12-2 for a 30-18 halftime lead.
The Kingsmen then maintained double-digit spreads until a Gould 3-pointer pulled Warsaw to within 57-50 at 1:56 to go in the game. It was also Gould that closed the Tigers to within 61-56 at 1:09 showing on a feed from Drew Heckaman.
“I thought Warsaw played a tremendous game,” Kingsmen coach Al Rhodes said. “They had a good game plan and Matt’s an excellent coach. We were ready for it, I think, for the most part. I was really pleased with our defense in the second quarter, and even in the fourth, we weren’t bad (despite being outscored 25-22). They hit a bunch of shots in a row, but they earned them right over the top of us.”
Rhodes, who spent the first 22 years of his 41-year Hall of Fame career heading the Tigers, defeated Warsaw for the first time in three postseason tries and moved to 3-3 against his former school overall.
Junior guard Joe Smith scored 11 points for Penn. Senior Blake Barker added nine points and two blocked shots, and junior Josh Gatete eight points and six rebounds.
“It’s gotta be four quarters against them,” Moore said of the Kingsmen, “and for the most part, we got two and a half. We guarded them fairly well in pockets, but some of our turnovers led to run-outs, and their offensive rebounding hurt us. Our shot selection in the first quarter didn’t transition to the second quarter. It was a two-point game after the first quarter for a reason. We got in the basket area, and in the second quarter, we started taking jump shots.”
Warsaw closed 19-of-53 from the field with five 3-pointers to the Kingsmen’s 25-of-47 with three. The winners also had a 12-9 edge in second-chance points and committed eight turnovers to the Tigers’ 11. Warsaw’s 13-of-14 at the line nearly matched Penn’s 14-of-15.
Moore called his senior class “high-character guys that moved this program forward and helped grow our younger guys with the examples they set.”
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With a caveat.
“Our freshman team was 21 and 0, our JV team was 14 and 6, and we have some good (varsity) guys coming back, but you know what, Penn has (almost) everybody back,” Moore pointed out after the Tigers’ 67-56 loss to the Kingsmen in Tuesday’s Class 4A Elkhart Sectional opener at North Side Gym.
“So the conversation for us tonight was, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’” Moore said. “They’re not going anywhere, so what are we gonna do about it? I’m excited for the offseason, excited to get back to work and see where we can go, but we saw that we’ve got work to do.”
Led by junior sensation Markus Burton, No. 9-ranked Penn improved to 21-2 and earned a spot opposite Northridge (13-10) in Friday’s first semifinal. That’ll be followed by Concord (12-10) against Goshen (13-9).
Warsaw saw its season-best five-game winning streak snapped to close at 16-8.
The Tigers, after trailing by a high of 35-20 in the third quarter and 53-40 with just five minutes to go in the fourth, stormed to as close as 61-56 at 1:09 remaining.
The Kingsmen, though, shot 6-of-6 at the line over the final 50 seconds on the way to their 10th straight win.
Burton — who was seen after the game meeting with Kansas State coach Bruce Weber — paced all scorers with 26 points to go with team highs of six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
“He got 26 points on 26 shots, and that’s actually a great ratio on him,” Moore said of the quick, shifty guard closing 12-of-26 from the field with one 3-pointer and 1-of-1 at the line. “So we did a good job, but with that being said, he has length and size around him and he’s such a willing passer. That makes him hard to guard, and that’s where I think he’s special.”
For Warsaw, junior Jaxson Gould scored 18 of his team-high 21 points in the second half to go with a team-high three steals. Gould hit just 6-of-19 from the field, but that included 3-of-10 from distance and accompanied 6-of-7 at the line.
“Jaxson’s good at picking his spots,” Moore said, alluding to Gould’s three-point first half, “and it takes a lot of energy to have to guard the other team’s best player and then turn around and be expected to carry a load offensively, too. I don’t think there are a lot of players capable of that. Markus didn’t guard him the whole night, but he guarded Markus the whole night, and I think that says a lot about who Jaxson is.”
Senior Judah Simfukwe scored 13 points and fought with his 6-foot-1 body to a game-high 10 rebounds for the Tigers.
Junior Theo Katris added eight points and six boards, while senior Tyler Kuhn picked up six and four off the bench.
“Theo played at a great level and Tyler Kuhn did a great job,” Moore said. “Those are two guys who don’t always get a lot of shine, but they gave us a chance to compete tonight. I’m really proud of them.”
The Tigers trailed just 18-16 after one quarter, but Penn won the second period 12-2 for a 30-18 halftime lead.
The Kingsmen then maintained double-digit spreads until a Gould 3-pointer pulled Warsaw to within 57-50 at 1:56 to go in the game. It was also Gould that closed the Tigers to within 61-56 at 1:09 showing on a feed from Drew Heckaman.
“I thought Warsaw played a tremendous game,” Kingsmen coach Al Rhodes said. “They had a good game plan and Matt’s an excellent coach. We were ready for it, I think, for the most part. I was really pleased with our defense in the second quarter, and even in the fourth, we weren’t bad (despite being outscored 25-22). They hit a bunch of shots in a row, but they earned them right over the top of us.”
Rhodes, who spent the first 22 years of his 41-year Hall of Fame career heading the Tigers, defeated Warsaw for the first time in three postseason tries and moved to 3-3 against his former school overall.
Junior guard Joe Smith scored 11 points for Penn. Senior Blake Barker added nine points and two blocked shots, and junior Josh Gatete eight points and six rebounds.
“It’s gotta be four quarters against them,” Moore said of the Kingsmen, “and for the most part, we got two and a half. We guarded them fairly well in pockets, but some of our turnovers led to run-outs, and their offensive rebounding hurt us. Our shot selection in the first quarter didn’t transition to the second quarter. It was a two-point game after the first quarter for a reason. We got in the basket area, and in the second quarter, we started taking jump shots.”
Warsaw closed 19-of-53 from the field with five 3-pointers to the Kingsmen’s 25-of-47 with three. The winners also had a 12-9 edge in second-chance points and committed eight turnovers to the Tigers’ 11. Warsaw’s 13-of-14 at the line nearly matched Penn’s 14-of-15.
Moore called his senior class “high-character guys that moved this program forward and helped grow our younger guys with the examples they set.”
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