MIDDLEBURY — Just moments after enduring a bit of a scare, Carson Gould had Warsaw floating on air.
The junior guard found a seam while navigating from the weak side, rebounded teammate Luke Bricker’s missed shot from the left baseline and put in a reverse layup just before the final horn sounded to lift the Tigers to a chilling 54-53 boys high school basketball win over Northridge on Friday night at the Middlebury Madhouse.
“Never; it’s my first one,” Gould said with a grin when asked how many game-winning shots he’s ever made.
Warsaw (7-2, 1-1) thrusted itself back into the thick of the Northern Lakes Conference basketball race and snapped an eight-game winning streak by the Class 4A No. 11-ranked Raiders (10-2, 1-1).
“They’re a great team,” Gould said, “but we battled all the way through. It’s a great environment here, probably as good as we’ll play in all year, but we just stayed together and got a good team win.”
That Gould was on the floor for the end of it was a relief for him.
He came out at 3:01 remaining when his right knee abruptly locked, but returned just 24 seconds later.
“I’m all right,” Gould said. “Kind of scared me more than anything. Didn’t really hurt that bad, but it scared me.”
“Our toughest guy got the rebound,” Warsaw coach Matt Moore replied when it was pointed out to him that his smallest guy, at 6-foot even, got the decisive rebound.
Gould’s game-winner was the sixth lead change of a back-and-forth fourth quarter and the 10th of the game to go with six ties.
“That was a heavyweight fight right there,” Moore said. “They’ve got everybody back next year, we’ve got everybody back (except senior post Luke Yeager), so this should be a good two-year run for Northridge and Warsaw.”
Bricker and Robbie Finlonson scored 13 points apiece to lead the Tigers, with Finlonson netting all of his during a prolific second period that saw him go 5-of-5 from the field with three triples.
Gould added seven points, six assists and five boards for the winners; Brandt Martin eight points; Drew Sullivan six points, seven rebounds and two steals; and Yeager six points and six rebounds.
The Raiders were paced by junior point guard Kam Radeker with 14 points and six assists. Brady Scholl added 11 points, all in the first half, and five rebounds; Mason Bales 11 points; and Hayden Johnson nine points off the bench on a trio of 3-pointers. Each of those players is a junior except Scholl, a sophomore.
In a game that wound up nearly even in several categories, Warsaw, befitting the finish, asserted itself on the glass, coming up with a 28-17 rebounding edge overall and an 11-5 advantage in second-chance points.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job (rebounding) this year,” Moore said, “and I thought we did a good job tonight getting into some primary rebounding positions there.”
The Tigers made 22-of-44 shots from the field, including 5-of-14 outside the arc, and 5-of-6 at the line, while Northridge closed at 22-of-43, 4-of-11 and 5-of-7.
The Raiders’ excelled in ball security, committing just three turnovers over the final three quarters and seven for the night, while Warsaw gave it up 11 times.
The Tigers, up 32-29 at halftime, extended their lead to highs of 43-33 and 45-35 late in the third quarter, but Northridge charged back.
A 13-3 spree lifted the hosts to a 48-47 lead with 6:30 left, putting them up for the first time since the opening minute of the second quarter.
“Our ability to string stops together,” Moore said of what keyed the stretch drive for his side. “There were about three occasions we were down two and they had the ball, could’ve pushed (the margin) to four or five, and we came up with stops. We have a lot of belief in our ability to defend. We have good size, we’re athletic, we can switch things.”
Yeager tied the game at 51-51 for the Tigers with 2:36 left before Mydin Burgher put the visitors up 52-51 by hitting 1-of-2 free throws at 0:40 to go.
Radeker tallied for the Raiders at 18 seconds showing, before Gould delivered the game-winner.
“I’m not sure,” Gould said of what he remembered about the final play. “My teammate got a good shot, I went up and got a rebound and tried to put it back in. When I got the rebound, all I saw was the rim, and I didn’t really think, just put it back up.”
Warsaw returns to the road Tuesday to face Penn (7-1 before Valparaiso Saturday). It will be the Tigers’ first game at the Penn Palace since the court was named in the offseason for Al Rhodes, who crafted the majority of his Hall of Fame coaching career at Warsaw before retiring as Kingsmen coach after last season.
Northridge won Friday’s junior varsity matchup 44-38.
Sophomores Luke Mann and Parker Janes paced the JV Raiders (5-4) with 12 and eight points, respectively. Leading the Tigers (5-3) were Tristan Wilson (12 points), Grady Nelson (nine) and Elijah Wright (eight).