Second-Quarter Slip-Up Sends Wawasee To 0-16

NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊAfter a close first quarter, the Manchester Squires held the Wawasee Warriors to just three second-quarter points to earn a 57-39 victory. Rex Reimer began the first quarter of the Manchester-Wawasee basketball game with a three-pointer to give the Squires a quick 3-0 lead. Manchester took an early 8-0 lead with 5:40 on the clock, but Wawasee went on a 10-2 run to tie the score at 10.Although Wawasee tied the score, the Squires never relinquished the lead and took a 12-10 lead at the end of the first frame.

Squire Offense Fizzles Out

NORTH MANCHESTER - After Manchester dismantled Churubusco 70-41 Friday night, a reporter asked head coach Gary Goshert the question. "Coach, could you give us your thoughts on playing Wawasee tomorrow night?" You know, Coach, the school you last coached at before you came to Manchester.The school where you owned a 124-88 record as head coach from 1986 through 1996. Goshert, sitting in the Manchester locker room with his tie loosened after the game, chuckled.He knew the question was coming.It wasn't a matter of if.It was a matter of when. "I'll be glad when it's over," Goshert said. Some twenty-four hours later, with 35 seconds to go in the game, his thoughts had changed little.His team trailed 42-28, and the visiting crowd was making some noise."WA-WA-SEE," "WA-WA-SEE," the students chanted.Then they started singing "NA-NA HEY-HEY." Mercifully, the clock finally ran out on the Manchester Squires, who lost 46-30.

Manchester Finds Shooting Touch

NORTH MANCHESTER - In a battle of oft-beaten teams, Manchester shot like a team with more than two wins. The Squires shot 60 percent from the field in a 74-64 win over Three Rivers Conference foe Whitko Thursday night. Manchester (3-13, 2-5 TRC) and Whitko (3-14, 0-7 TRC) have both struggled this season but both looked better than their records. Sophomores Dan Bourne and Aaron Medley dominated the post for Manchester as the duo combined for 44 points on 19-of-24 shooting to go with eight rebounds. The Squires' 74 points are their biggest scoring output of the season as they average just 43.7 points per game. Manchester scored 40 points in the first half against Whitko.In six games this season, the Squires have failed to score 40 points in a game.

Rhodes To Coach McDonald's All-Americans

His career already full of accomplishments and accolades, come March, former Warsaw Community High School varsity boys basketball coach Al Rhodes will get to do something even he has never done. Rhodes, who spent 22 years as Warsaw's head coach, turning it into one of the elite high school boys programs in the state, has been selected to coach the West Team in the 28th annual McDonald's All-American Boys High School Basketball game. "It's a wonderful opportunity," said Rhodes, now in his second season at Logansport High School, during a phone conversation Thursday afternoon."Pretty much for me it's the only thing I haven't done as a high school coach.It's the biggest high school all-star game there is and I'm very excited." The game will be played March 30 at the Joyce Center at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. The fourth annual girls game will start at 5:30 p.m.and will be televised the next day on ESPN2 at 5 p.m.

Tippecanoe Valley Girls Down Wawasee

SYRACUSE - As fifth-year Viking coach Gary Teel described it, Tippecanoe Valley's girls basketball win at Wawasee Tuesday night was a total team effort. And that it was. Behind four quarters of strong defensive play and hot-handed shooting, the Vikings upended the host Warriors 65-49, putting a damper on Wawasee's senior night. Valley fueled its first-quarter drive with numerous steals in the early going, pushing the Vikings out to a 19-8 lead with 2:16 remaining in the first.The game was knotted at 4, but a field goal by Sherise Denny and then back-to-back three-pointers from Denny and Abby Shafer ignited the Viking crowd and caused Warrior coach Kem Zolman to call a full timeout just three minutes into the game.

On The Court Basketball Previews

WARSAW AT MARION Tip-off: 6:30 p.m Friday in Marion Coaches: Moe Smedley (Marion), Al Rhodes (Warsaw) Records: Marion 9-3; Warsaw 12-1 Last game: Marion 61, Laff.Jeff 48; Warsaw 79, South Bend Adams 72 Last year: Marion 51, Warsaw 50 Matchup: Warsaw has never won a game in Marion's Bill Green Arena ...Steve Siebenmorgen leads the Tiger scoring attack, averaging 14.3 points per game and grabbing 5.7 rebounds per game ...Zach Nelson comes in just behind Siebenmorgen with 13.5 points per game while pulling down 5.8 rebounds for Warsaw ...Chris Wiggins adds 12.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals ...The Kesler brothers, Rob and Ross add to the Warsaw team in rebounding, assists, and steals - Ross pulls down 3.1 rebounds and dishes out 3.4 assists while Rob dishes out 3.4 assists and nabs 2.0 steals per game for Warsaw ...The Giants are led by Zach Randolph's 25.1 points and 15.2 points per game.

Plymouth Wins Northern Lakes Conference Title

PLYMOUTH - Friday's boys basketball game between Plymouth and Warsaw hadn't started, but the big-game atmosphere was in place. Plymouth fans dressed in red and Warsaw fans clad in orange packed the stands.Warsaw coach Al Rhodes and Plymouth coach Jack Edison conducted pregame interviews in front of bright television lights. All that was left was to play the game that decided the Northern Lakes Conference champions.Plymouth, ranked No.5 in Class 3A, entered 12-2 overall and 5-1 in the NLC.Warsaw entered 12-5 overall and 4-2 in the NLC. The two 12-win teams battled to the finish, and Plymouth's defense, like it so often does, came up big in the Pilgrims' 48-43 win. "First of all, we have to take our hats off to Plymouth," Rhodes said."What a competitive conference it was.It was almost a four-way tie, but Plymouth was able to distinguish themselves.

Physical Minutemen Outlast Warriors

DUNLAP - Jerry Davis is a quick learner. Two-thirds of the way into his first season Davis understands his new conference pretty well.He knows that you have to play physical in the Northern Lakes Conference. Last night his Wawasee Warriors couldn't withstand the physical pressure of the Concord Minutemen, losing 65-56. "The difference in the ball game was their physicalness under the boards and inside," he said."It made it very difficult for us to post up inside, and once we did, to do anything positive. "They did an excellent job of working the boards and going to the boards hard.We didn't block out the way that I would have liked.As physical as the NLC is, you have to be physical back or you're gonna be in trouble." The Warriors were down by 14 entering the fourth quarter, then finally started to make a run.

Warsaw Boys Win Triple Overtime Game

Though saddled with injuries, Warsaw's varsity boys basketball team was healthy enough to pull out a 77-73 win over visiting Northern Lakes Conference opponent NorthWood Friday in the Tiger Den. Senior starter Andrew Holladay missed the game after suffering a concussion in last week's loss to Concord, while classmate Michael Wienhorst played with a brace on his right knee and junior Shaun Cabrera again played with a sore back. Neither the NorthWood Panthers or the bumps and bruises denied the Tigers, as they improved to 8-5 overall and 2-3 in the NLC.

Tigers Pull Away From Vikes

Winning and losing basketball games has a lot to do with overcoming. Warsaw did it, while Tippecanoe Valley didn't.The Tigers overcame their early-game jitters, but the Vikings could not overcome their shooting woes in Warsaw's 55-26 win Thursday in the first game of the Warsaw Girls' Basketball Sectional. The Vikings hit only 6 of 34 (18 percent) shots from the field, including 0 of 6 in the second quarter when the Tigers were able to put things away. "I thought we had good shots," Valley coach Mike Walters said."We had a couple of girls struggling with their shooting lately, and it showed up big time tonight.We just couldn't get it going." With the Vikings struggling from the floor, Warsaw didn't exactly go out and grab control of the game right away.The Tigers shot only 11 of 32 in the first half, which was mainly attributed to those typical nerves and jitters in the first game of a sectional.

On The Court

On The Court

GARY WIRT AT WARSAW Tipoff: 8 p.m.Friday at the Tiger Den Coaches: Omar Vazquez (Gary Wirt), Al Rhodes (Warsaw) Records: Gary Wirt 5-9, Warsaw 11-5 Last game: Andrean 79, Gary Wirt 68; Warsaw 51, Plymouth 48 Matchup: Warsaw comes off probably its biggest wins of the season against the highly ranked Pilgrims.The Tigers did so by controlling their turnovers and controlling the boards in the second half against the Pilgrims.The Tigers will face a tough and somewhat unusual Gary Wirt team.As most Gary teams like to get up and down the floor, Gary Wirt is a more patient and deliberate team. Vazquez: Coach Vazquez was unavailable for comment.

Squires Finish TRC Schedule With Win

SOUTH WHITLEY - The Manchester Squires boys basketball team scored eight points before the Whitko Wildcats attempted their first shot from the field and held on for a 64-54 win Thursday. While Whitko made a late charge behind the 17 fourth-quarter points of Brad Smith, it was the first two minutes and change that doomed the Wildcats and first-year head coach Larry Lael. "It was the start of the game.You just can't get down like that.We just can't find a way to play for 32 minutes.We've done this time in and time out all year," said Lael. Manchester head coach Gary Goshert is well aware that the quick first quarter start was integral in his team's win.

On The Court...

5 Warrior Wrestlers Head To Semistate

FORT WAYNE -ÊWhen the Wawasee wrestling team sent eight grapplers to the individual regional competition Saturday at Carroll, coach Kevin Taylor hoped that four would advance to the semistate competition. Taylor was pleasantly surprised when five wrestlers advanced to the semistate competition and one will be an alternate at semistate. "I am really pleased with our performance," said Taylor."I thought we could maybe get four to semistate, and we ended up sending five." Chet Wortinger, J.J.Davis, and Kevin Carr each wrestled their way to Regional Championship Titles. Jamie Salazar placed second at the 275-pound class, Josh DeGood placed third at 112 to advance to the semi-state competition.

Early Scoring Outburst Fuels Triton

BOURBON - Sparked by a 22-point first quarter, the Triton girls basketball team defeated the Jimtown Jimmies 56-36. Melissa Nifong started the scoring onslaught for the Trojans as she scored the first six Triton points of the game. Betsy Salyer stepped in for the next six Trojan points as Triton took a 12-5 lead halfway through the first quarter. At the end of the first frame, Triton held a healthy 22-9 lead over Jimtown. The Jimmies came back in the second quarter to outscore Triton 16-10 behind 10 points from Mindy Pontius. "We had a sloppy second quarter, but we got back into the game," said Triton coach Mark Heeter."It was nice to see that we never gave up or let the game get away from us." At the half, Jimtown had cut Triton's lead to seven, 32-25. Defense was a key in the third quarter as both teams combined for just 11 points in eight minutes as Triton outscored Jimtown 6-5 to increase its lead to eight.

Whitko Girls Lose Nail-Biter

OSSIAN - Hoosier Hysteria started Tuesday night when the Whitko Lady Wildcats traveled to the Norwell Sectional and took on Peru. Peru took the lead on a free throw by Stacey Swinford with 43.9 seconds left in the game to defeat the Wildcats 56-55. "We really thought we had a chance to win this sectional if we put together a string of three good games.This is a disappointing way to end the year," Whitko assistant coach Dustin Cuttriss said. Early in the first quarter it appeared as though Whitko would run away with the game.Led by Kylee Brown's three-point shots, the Wildcats jumped out to a 10 point lead at 12-2 with 5:24 left in the quarter. Peru cut the lead to 13-9 on three-point shot by Rachael Smithberger.Whitko called a timeout.Ashley Hoopingarner hit a three and put the Wildcats on top 16-9. Peru then forced turnovers from Whitko and went on a 5-0 run to end the quarter.The run put the Tigers within two at 16-14.

Squires Finish With A Flurry

NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊA strong third quarter by the Triton girls basketball team helped the Trojans catch up to the Manchester Squires Monday night, but their success was short-lived as the Squires pounded out 25 points in the fourth to earn a 69-52 win. Manchester held the Trojans scoreless until the 6:31 mark in the first and built a 15-8 lead by the end of the quarter fuelled by eight points from Megan Eckert and Jessica Hicks. In the second, Manchester continued to attack the net, scoring 22 points, but Triton picked up the pace as well, scoring 22. At the half, Manchester held a 37-28 lead over Triton.More than half of Triton's points came from Betsy Salyer who scored 16 of her 20 total points in the first half.Manchester's scoring was more balanced with nine points from Hicks, and seven points each from Eckert, Carrie White, and Sherri Wagoner.

Warsaw Tennis Team Picks Up Convincing NLC Win

SYRACUSE - After topping county rival Tippecanoe Valley 5-0 Tuesday, Warsaw tennis coach Joe Beeson let it be known his team's focus was on the Northern Lakes Conference portion of the schedule. Thursday afternoon at Wawasee, it showed. The Tigers topped the host Warriors 5-0, improving to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the NLC.The Warriors fall to 2-5 and 0-3. Just as the Tigers have done the majority of the year, they won convincingly. "Our strength is in our depth," Beeson said."The winning percentages are almost the same at every position." Freshman Kristi Haddad picked up Warsaw's first point, beating junior Staci VanLue 6-2, 6-0. Warsaw seniors Kara Kesler and Amber Barrett then picked up an easy win at No.1 doubles, topping junior Margo Searfoss and sophomore Ashley Ganz 6-0, 6-1.At No.2 doubles, the Tiger duo of Angie Suchecki and Tracy Yoder beat Candice Brown and Cara Windle 6-4, 6-1.

Lively Bats Help Liebsch, Tigers To Win

SYRACUSE - Acccording to Warsaw varsity softball coach Craig Helfrich, his ace pitcher, junior Michelle Liebsch, had everthing she needed in her first two starts.The only problem was the offense couldn't back her, and she tallied an 0-2 record. Monday night, at Northern Lakes Conference rival Wawasee, the Tigers had their bats working.And, oh yeah, Liebsch had her stuff, too. In a 2-0 Tiger win, the right-handed junior pitched all seven innings, striking out 10, walking one and giving up one hit "Michelle pitched a good game," said Helfrich."She was 0-2 coming into tonight (Monday) because we haven't scored any runs for her." The Tigers scored the only run they needed in the first inning.Senior left fielder Laura Overton led the game off with a single, and was eventually drove in on a ground out by senior second baseman Melissa Himes.