Fans of Warsaw boys basketball have been waiting quite some time to see their team win a sectional basketball game, with the team’s last postseason victory coming in 2020. Using a fast start and never looking back, this year’s Tigers put that wait to bed in the semifinal game of IHSAA 4A Sectional 4 at North Side Gym on Friday night, defeating Concord 48-35 to advance to Saturday night’s championship game.
“I thought our guys understood and executed the plan. You can have the plan, but sometimes you get hit in the mouth and have to change it,” Warsaw head coach Matt Moore said after the game. “We did a really nice job of getting the shots that we wanted and they went in. We took away their rhythm and were playing with the lead the whole time.”
The Tigers wasted no time showing everyone in attendance that they were well rested coming into this one, taking control of the game early with makes on each of their first five possessions. Concord was able to sink a three on its first trip down the floor, but was only able to add one more bucket in the opening quarter, a period that belonged to Warsaw for all eight minutes.
Offensively, it seemed as if every player in the lineup had the hot hand and the team knew this. The ball movement was sublime, with every player on the team seeming to touch the ball on each possession. Luke Yeager got things started with a few buckets early. He’d also make his presence felt on the defensive end as well, sending away a pair of Concord layups with emphatic blocks. Luke Bricker took over from there, hitting a few shots of his own to keep the good times rolling. After eight minutes though, the team’s leading scorer would be Drew Sullivan, who hit a pair of three pointers, the second of which with only one shoe, to score six in the opening quarter.

    Tiger senior Luke Yeager goes up strong for a layup as a pair of Minutemen players defend. Photo by Stephanie Wilmore

After dominating the opening eight minutes, Warsaw’s lead sat at 13 points. The Minutemen would not bow out quietly, putting together a few key defensive stops to halt the Tiger momentum in its tracks. Concord would use their defensive prowess to finally get it going offensively, leading to a run that saw the Minutemen cut the deficit down to just six points.
It took the Tigers three minutes to finally get onto the scoreboard in the second, but once they did, they began rolling once more. Bricker sank a pair of threes to put him in double figures for the contest, the first player to reach that mark. Brandt Martin parted a pair of defenders like the Red Sea on a nice spin move inside. Lastly, after dishing out a handful of assists to this point, Carson Gould took his first shot of the game in the waning seconds of the half, a turnaround from the elbow, to put Warsaw’s lead back up to eleven going into the second half.
“We took good shots all night and that was a big focus for us all week long,” Moore said. “We wanted to play our game our way and our kids stuck to that all night long.”
The Tigers were able to prevent Concord from cutting into their lead once more with some crucial buckets to begin the third quarter, including the first points of the night for Robbie Finlinson. Warsaw would run into some trouble in the foul department however, picking up five team fouls in the first two and a half minutes of the quarter, including a third for Yeager. With plenty of opportunities at the charity stripe, the Minutemen were able to get back to within eight with five minutes to play in the third.
Like in the second quarter, the prospect of Concord creeping closer seemed to light a fire under the Tigers, who were back up by double figures moments later on a three from Finlinson. But that would be the last Warsaw bucket for a few minutes, leaving the door open once again. The Minutemen would take advantage, getting to within six. The pressure of Concord had increased dramatically, and defenders were no trapping ball handlers the second they took possession.
As he had all night to this point, Bricker would come up big in the closing moments of the third, silencing the Concord supporters with some big buckets at crucial times. After three quarters of play, the Tigers were holding on to an eight-point advantage.
The first two possessions of the final quarter were big ones for the Tigers. The first trip on the offensive end lasted over a minute as the team moved the ball around the perimeter before finally finding a cutting Finlinson for an easy two. After getting a stop on their next trip on defense, Bricker would pull up to hit his third three of the game, a shot that put Warsaw back up 13 with six minutes to play.
The Minutemen would not get their first bucket of the fourth to go until nearly two minutes later. The defense of Warsaw had been putting in work all night long, and this was no different. Concord players could barely move an inch without finding a Tiger defender in the vicinity, let alone find enough space to put up an uncontested shot. With four minutes to go, Warsaw was now up eleven.
“We only gave up 23 points outside of the free throw line. 23 points in a 32 minute game. That’s pretty good team defense right there,” Moore said. “Every time they snuck up on us we had an answer for them.”
On the first possession following a timeout, Mydin Burgher extended it even further, blowing by defenders and sinking a layup with some contact for an and-one. Running out of time to make up the deficit, Concord’s offensive possessions essentially became a three-point shooting contest, with the Minutemen trying to get it all back with one shot. Time continued to tick away and the Warsaw lead was becoming more and more comfortable by the second.
The Tigers seemed to know this as well, and began taking their time on each trip on the offensive end. Soon less than a minute remained in the game and the Tigers were still up big. The Minutemen kept pressing until the final whistle, but it would not matter. Warsaw was continuing to find ways to break it and run down the clock, which they did until the final buzzer sounded, indicating a Warsaw winner.
Bricker led the Tigers with 20 points and seven rebounds, both game highs. Finlinson added seven points and five boards while Sullivan scored six. Martin scored five and Yeager rounded out the top five with four.
Warsaw will take on Penn in the sectional championship game Friday night at North Side Gym.
“We’re trending in the right direction. To win the championship you have to get to the championship,” Moore said. “We’re ready to put it all on the line tomorrow night. We’re ready to finish the job.”