After three straight games on the road, the Warsaw boys basketball team returned to the Tiger Den Friday night for a nonconference game against Lafayette Harrison. The Tigers led for almost the entirety of the game, continuing to limit runs by the Raiders en route to winning their 20th game of the season 66-54.
“Twenty wins is a big deal, especially when you look at our schedule at the beginning of the year,” Warsaw head coach Matt Moore said. “Having to play a ton of games without Carson and Luke has made it even more difficult but these guys continue to fight.”
The Tigers enjoyed a fast start in this one, scoring the first seven points of the night in the first three minutes to open up a solid lead early. Sam Lara had the hot hand early on, scoring four quick points with some aggressive drives to the lane. The Raiders had an answer in them early on, scoring five quick points of their own to make it a four-point game at 9-5 midway through the first.
Warsaw was able to extend its lead once more on a three from Mydin Burgher as well as a second pair of free throws by Brandt Martin, which allowed the home side to double up the visitors at 14-7. They didn’t stop there, as a layup minutes later by freshman Drew Jones extended the lead to double figures at 19-9.
As they had been doing all season long, the Tigers were using a suffocating defense to generate some easy opportunities at the offensive end. More times than not, a Harrison turnover would directly lead to Warsaw points at the other end. No stranger to quick starts, Martin led all scorers with seven points as his team lead 21-11 after eight minutes.
He’d add to that total with another bucket in the opening moments of the second. Outside of that and a tough layup for Burgher, the Tiger offense was unable to produce anything in the first four minutes of the quarter, which allowed the Raiders to get back within seven. In the midst of a long drought, Warsaw caught a big break when Robbie Finlinson was fouled shooting a triple. He sink two of three at the charity stripe to end a stretch of three minutes without a point.
Harrison was able to create plenty of opportunities on the offensive end with its work on the glass, but the Tiger defense continued to thwart the visitors no matter how many chances they had. Five straight points by Martin put him in double digits and also extended the Warsaw lead to 14, its largest so far.
That’s exactly where things sat when the halftime buzzer sounded. After a lackluster first four minutes of the second quarter, the Tigers exploded in the latter four. Martin lec the charge with 16 points as Warsaw led 34-20 at the break.

    Warsaw senior Brandt Martin goes to the basket during Friday night's home game against Harrison...Nieter

The Raiders enjoyed a fast start to the third quarter that saw the visitors get back within single digits at nine. After being held scoreless in the first half, Parker Justice poured in the first four points of the period for the Tigers, allowing them to stay ahead at a comfortable margin.
Still, Harrison persisted, continuing to string together stops on one end while converting on the offensive side to keep chipping away at the lead. Eventually, a big three for the visitors with three and a half minutes left resulted in a Warsaw timeout with the home lead down to six.
Justice continued his big quarter with five more points for the Tigers, but each time the senior added a bucket, the visitors would go down to the other end and match him. With a minute to go in the third, it was a seven-point game with the home side on top. In the final seconds of the quarter, Jones added a corner three to get the lead back up to double digits at 49-39. Justice had 12 points in the quarter to keep the team afloat.
“There’s not a lot of tape on Parker so some teams will assume he’s just another guy in the rotation,” Moore said. “But the kid can shoot and these teams figure that out really quickly when they give him space.”
The two sides traded three pointers in the opening minute of the final period as the Tiger lead remained at 10. The Raiders added a second make from deep with six minutes left in the game to get the deficit back down to seven. The next Warsaw possession was a long one, as the home side swung the ball around the perimeter, drew a pair of reach in fouls and took over a minute and a half off the clock before a layup for Finlinson capped it off.
With three minutes to play in the game, the Tigers still led by nine. Another big three by Justice, which he followed up with a block on the other end, gave his team a ton of breathing room with time winding down. However, the Raiders continued to battle, sticking around with another big three to keep it a nine-point game with a little over two minutes to go.
After being held scoreless in the second half to this point, Martin picked up a huge bucket on an outlet pass from Finlinson to make it an eleven-point game. In the final minutes, the Tigers were able to do just enough on defense and held on to their lead to finish off the victory.
Martin led the team with 18 points. Justice poured in 17, all in the second half. Finlinson added 12, while Jones had seven.
Warsaw (20-4) is at home Saturday against Hammond Morton.