ELKHART - What had been a dream season for Warsaw's varsity boys basketball team ended in nightmarish fashion Friday night at historic North Side Gym.
A month after beating Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial 66-61 in the regular season, the Class 4A No. 10 Tigers came out flat in the first half of Friday's Sectional 4 semifinal and fell 58-41 to the Crimson Chargers.Warsaw trailed 34-13 at halftime but used a 22-4 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters to cut Memorial's advantage to three with 6:31 remaining in the game.
The Crimson Chargers (12-9) responded with a 20-6 run of their own, however, as they ended Warsaw's season and advanced to tonight's 7:30 p.m. sectional championship game against No. 5 Northridge (21-0).
Northridge advanced by beating Goshen 52-34 in Friday's second semifinal game.
"The last time we played, against South Bend Clay, that was by far the best we've played," said Memorial coach Mark Barnhizer, whose Crimson Chargers beat Clay 81-58 on Feb. 24 behind a school-record 46 points from senior Karvel Anderson. "That game gave us a lot of confidence, and we came out tonight and got off to a great start."
Memorial opened the game with three-pointers from Anderson and freshman Todd Johnson, and the early rout was on.
The Crimson Chargers seemed to feed off that early momentum and took a 21-8 lead into the second quarter, a frame in which Memorial outscored the Tigers 13-5.
Sophomore Nic Moore scored all five of Warsaw's points in the second stanza, converting a pair of free throws early in the quarter and beating the buzzer with a three-pointer.
"We ran into a buzz-saw in the first half," said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, whose team finished its season with a 19-3 record. "And it wasn't just one thing. We weren't patient enough on offense. Defensively, we were porous. Our rebounding was abysmal. We just dug too big of a hole."
As deep as the hole was, the Tigers climbed out of it and certainly made things interesting in the second half.
Warsaw outscored Memorial 14-2 in the third quarter and opened the fourth quarter with an 8-2 spurt, cutting the Crimson Chargers' lead to 38-35 when Ryne Robinson hit a three-pointer with 6:31 remaining.
"We got things going in the second half," said Ogle. "I'm proud of the guys for fighting their way back into the game."
The majority of Warsaw's points in the third quarter came from its ultra-talented 6-foot-4 senior, as Robinson scored 19 of the Tigers' 28 second-half points, including all 14 of his team's points in the final frame.
"Ryne Robinson really got things going in the second half," said Ogle. "We showed up in the second half. You just can't get that far down like we did."
To go with Robinson's game-high 19 points, the Tigers also got 11 points from sophomore Nic Moore, six points from junior Zack Linky, two points each from senior Chase Byerly and Andy Conrad and a free throw from junior Justin Clemens.
The hero of of last year's sectional championship game and this year's contest at Marion, as he hit buzzer-beaters in both contests to give Warsaw wins, Robinson certainly tried to keep his team's state championship dreams alive.
Of the five three-pointers Robinson made Friday night, four were in the roller-coaster fourth quarter.
"He just going and brought his team back," Barnhizer said of Robinson. "We were rotating three and four guys on him. He was shooting way behind the (three-point) line or he'd just shoot over people."
Anderson led Memorial with 15 points, while Johnson and Antonio Sanders scored 12 points each and Michael Kibiloski finished with eight points.
Ogle said a big difference in last night's game and the Feb. 6 contest was Memorial's balance.
"They were more balanced this time," Ogle said of the Crimson Chargers. "They were really balanced tonight. We were trying to hold Karvel under 19 points, and we did that, and both Sanders and Johnson played well for them."
The Crimson Chargers are in search of their first sectional title since 2002.
The Tigers, who won the sectional championship last season without a senior on the roster, had their best season since 2001-2002 when they were 21-3 under Al Rhodes.
"Warsaw has nothing to be ashamed of," said Barnhizer. "I really like Warsaw's team. They're a very good basketball team."
Said Ogle, "I'm really sad for our seniors, who have been tremendous this year. We lost the game, but our seniors are winners. I'm so appreciative of what they've done. This is a season we can all be proud of."
Playing their final game for the Tigers last night was Robinson, Byerly, Taylor Long and Kyle Tucker.
ELKHART MEMORIAL 58, WARSAW 41
EM 21 13 2 22 - 58
W 8 5 14 14 - 41
Memorial - Cooper 2 1-2 5, Fitzsimmons 2 2-2 6, Johnson 4 2-2 12, Macon 0 0-0 0, Anderson 4 4-6 15, Sanders 5 2-2 12, Kibiloski 2 4-5 8. Totals 19 15-19 58.
Warsaw - Conrad 1 0-0 2, Clemens 0 1-2 1, Moore 3 4-4 11, Linky 2 0-0 6, Robinson 7 0-0 19, Long 0 0-0 0, Byerly 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 5-6 41.
Three-point goals - Memorial 5 (Anderson 3, Johnson 2), Warsaw 8 (Robinson 5, Linky 2, Moore). Rebounds - Memorial 22 (Sanders 6), Warsaw 15 (Clemens 5). Turnovers - Memorial 8, Warsaw 10. Fouls - Memorial 10, Warsaw 13. Fouled out - none. Records: Memorial 12-9, Warsaw 19-3.
