Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
DUNLAP - Fourth-year Warsaw boys basktball coach Doug Ogle probably couldn't have said it any better.
"We made a lot of big plays, just not quite enough."
That was what Ogle had to say Friday night at McCuen Gym after his Warsaw team fell 61-57 in double overtime to Northern Lakes Conference rival Concord.
Yes, the Tigers made their share of big plays - both on offense and defense - but in the end Concord junior Dairese Gary made the biggest plays of the game.
After the teams played to a 46-all score in regulation and a 48-all deadlock after the first four-minute overtime, the Iowa-bound recruit scored seven of Concord's 13 points in the second overtime, as the Mintuemen beat the Tigers for the third straight year.
"I'm disappointed with the loss, but I'm not disappointed with our effort," said Ogle, whose Tigers fell to 7-6 on the season overall and 2-2 in the NLC standings. Concord improved to 8-5 and 2-2.
Gary's effort in the second overtime more than made up for, at least on the scoreboard, an otherwise poor shooting performace for the Big Ten recruit.
And had Ogle been told Gary, who came into the game among the top 10 scorers in the state at 24 points per contest, would finish the game 7 of 26 from the field, Ogle would've probably liked his chances.
That's exactly what Gary did Friday night, but while the Tigers were able to keep Gary in check during the first four quarters of the game, they couldn't when the game was on the line.
With Warsaw leading 55-52 with 1:00 to play in the second overtime, Gary hit a nothing-but-net three-pointer to tie the game.
On the play, he was also fouled by Warsaw senior John-Wesley Maierle, who took a seat on the bench with five fouls.
Gary hit the free throw to give the Minutemen their first lead since a 45-44 advantage with 1:04 remaining in regulation.
That lead as well was the result of a three-point play by Gary.
With 10 seconds to play in the second overtime, Tiger junior Steve Lemasters cut the lead to two, 59-57, and then junior Kyle Moore, who played at Warsaw before he and his brother Michael transferred to Concord last year, scored the game's final basket with one second remaining to account for the four-point margin.
"Concord did a good job hanging in there," said Ogle. "They just made more plays than we did."
Though he struggled from the field, a shooting performance that included a 2-of-9 effort from three-point range, Gary led Concord with 23 points.
He was 7 of 11 at the free throw stripe.
As a team, Concord converted 20 of 34 free throw attempts, while Warsaw was just 7 of 10 at the charity stripe.
"I don't know what else we could have done, other than what we did," said Ogle, obviously disappointed that his team was whistled for 26 fouls and that Shaun Cabrera and Maierle, the two players that handle the ball the most for Warsaw, fouled out.
Concord was whistled for 17 fouls.
To go with the 23 points Gary scored, Concord also got 20 points from Conner Burt, who hit five three-pointers in the game.
Monty Marion and Andrew Eakle scored seven points each for Concord.
The Tigers, who led 11-9 after the first quarter and 24-19 at halftime, got 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists from senior Colin Clemens.
"Colin kept us in the game throughout," said Ogle. "We didn't even know if he was going to play. He hurt his groin in practice Wednesday. He and Mitch Reinholt played pretty well."
Clemens finished the game 11 of 18 from the field, while Reinholt was 5 of 6 from the field. He scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds.
Tommy Reinholt and Maierle scored seven points each, while Cabrera scored four and Miles Plumlee and Lemasters scored two points each.
Had Warsaw hung on to the lead and won, it would have been Ogle's 50th career win with the Tigers. Midway through his fourth year with the varsity program, Ogle owns a 49-29 record.
The Tigers now enter a tough stretch of games with the likes of NorthWood, Elkhart Memorial, Plymouth, Marion and Huntington North.
Entering the weekend, the final seven opponents on Warsaw's schedule had a combined record of 61-19. Nine of those losses belonged to Carroll and Fort Wayne Canterbury.
CONCORD 61, WARSAW 57 (2OT)
Warsaw 11 13 13 9 2 9 - 57
Concord 9 10 16 11 2 13 - 61
Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.
* Cabrera 1-4 2-2 1 2 4
* T. Reinholt 2-5 3-4 5 2 7
* Maierle 3-6 0-0 1 3 7
* M. Reinholt 5-6 1-1 5 0 11
* Clemens 11-18 1-3 10 0 24
Truman 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Mi. Plumlee 1-2 0-0 2 1 2
Lemasters 1-1 0-0 3 0 2
Ma. Plumlee 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Team 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Totals 24-43 7-10 30 9 57
Concord FG FT R S Pts.
* Burt 6-9 3-4 2 1 20
* Eakle 1-1 5-9 5 1 7
* Moore 1-6 0-0 5 3 2
* Gary 7-26 7-11 6 2 23
* Marion 2-4 3-6 3 3 7
Selner 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Yoder 0-0 2-4 3 0 2
Team 0-0 0-0 4 0 0
Totals 17-46 20-34 28 10 61
Three-point goals - Warsaw 2-5 (Maierle 1-2, Clemens 1-2, Cabrera 0-1), Concord 7-18 (Burt 5-8, Gary 2-9, Moore 0-1). Turnovers - Warsaw 15, Concord 12. Fouls - Warsaw 26, Concord 17. Fouled out - Cabrera, Maierle.
JV - Concord 43, Warsaw 40
Warsaw scoring - Poe 12, Waikel 10, Higgins 9, West 5, Conrad 2, Harman 2
