Warsaw senior scores 25 points in 43-41 win over Northridge
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Anthony Gadson-agadson@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw senior guard Jared Bloom had himself quite the night Friday at the Tiger Den. In a Northern Lakes Conference clash with the Northridge Raiders, Bloom scored Warsaw’s first nine points en route to a game-high 25. He finished by scoring the game-winner with 3.7 seconds remaining as the Tigers pulled out a 43-41 win. “You have to be impressed with the way Jared played in this game and the variety of ways he scored,” Warsaw coach Doug Ogle said. “He’s legitimate. I’m happy for him to have a game like that and hitting a game-winning shot is a pretty special thing to happen to a high school player.” Leading 38-27 two minutes into the fourth quarter, it didn’t appear Warsaw (6-4, 2-0 NLC) would need a game-winning shot, but a 10-0 run by the Raiders (3-7, 0-2 NLC) changed that. “We picked up our pressure a little bit to get them sped up, which was something new for the game,” Northridge coach Ronnie Thomas said about his team’s 10-0 spurt between the 5:32 and 3:40 marks in the fourth. “It worked, but most importantly, the guys started to knock down shots.” While Northridge was hitting shots, Ogle saw his guys turn the ball over four times during that stretch. “We just couldn’t handle their traps or we’d get a charge or we would throw a bad pass,” he said. “I thought we had gotten to a point where we wouldn’t play that way, offensively, which was unorganized and rushing, but we did it and we did it for a long stretch.” Northridge’s run made a game of it, and when junior Sam Ahonen hit a layup with 20 seconds remaining, the score was tied at 41-41. Instead of taking a timeout, Ogle allowed his team to just run its offense, which was Bloom dribbling around, before nailing a jumper from just inside the three-point arc. “Jared Bloom’s a very good player, and when a guy’s in a groove like that, shots like that go in for you,” Thomas said. “He made that shot because of the way he’d played all night.” Bloom finished the game hitting 12 of 21 shots, scoring with the jumper as well as off the drive. “Not too often tonight did he have a wide open shot,” Thomas said. “The shots he took were contested shots. Joey (Ganyard) played his butt off trying to guard him. Bloom’s just a very good player. He elevates very well and it’s very hard to contest it.” Northridge did have a chance with 3.7 seconds remaining. After getting the inbounds pass, junior Nate Ritchie quickly dribbled the ball upcourt and shot a runner just beyond midcourt. The shot banked off the front of the rim and Warsaw won for the fifth time in six games. Ritchie finished the game with a team-high 20 points, scoring 10 of them in the fourth quarter when he made 4 of 5 field goals. Outside of the fourth, the 6-foot-7 Ritchie struggled, making just 4 of 16 for 10 points. “When Nate’s hitting shots, things are going well,” Thomas said. “It’s nice to have him when he’s doing that. When Nate’s not hitting shots, like he was early in the game, we need to get other guys involved. We didn’t do a very good job of that early on.” Happy with the win, including his team’s 31-12 advantage on the boards, Ogle wasn’t as pleased with his team’s 21 turnovers. “We haven’t had 21 turnovers all year,” he said. Another first for Warsaw, which extends far beyond this season, was it’s three free throw attempts in the game, all of which came in the final 1:01 of the game. “I’m pretty sure, since I’ve been at Warsaw, and this is my 27th year – 11th as head coach, we’ve never had a game where we’ve only shot three free throws,” he said. Warsaw’s second-leading scorer was junior Jordan Stookey, who had six points, while senior Taylor Cone posted a game-high eight rebounds. Getting right back on the court tonight at Fort Wayne Snider, the Tigers will most likely need more balance. “They’re going to be much different than Northridge,” Ogle said about the Fort Wayne Snider Panthers, who fell to 4-3 following their second-straight loss to Class 4A No. 10 Fort Wayne Northrop Friday night. “They’re going to play a 1-2-2 zone. It’s going to be a lot different. We’ll have to really play better offensively.”
