Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SOUTH WHITLEY - OK, this much was certain when Wawasee's 2-10 basketball team met 2-11 Whitko on Friday: One of them had to win.
The game was as even as their records indicated. They had nine ties, and the biggest lead by either team was six points. Whitko had the lead when it counted - at the end - as the Wildcats won 49-46.
When time ran off the clock, Whitko forward Kevin Miller tossed the basketball toward the rafters. He and his teammates had good reason to celebrate; it was their first home win in seven tries.
Two words -ÊJered Deckena - summed up this game for the Wildcats. Deckena, 6-foot-5 senior forward, started and scored 17 on 6-of-7 shooting from the field to lead Whitko.
The player Whitko coach Fred Fields called the "most coachable kid there is" had scored only 10 in 138 minutes all season before he cut loose on the Warriors.
Fields attributed the outburst to a talk he had with Deckena within the last month. Fields knew Deckena could provide offense; he told him he needed him to.
"At Christmas when we were bringing the young guys up, we issued a challenge to him about as bluntly as it can be issued," Fields said. "He was singled out. Deckena has been our most consistent player defensively. Deckena wasn't scoring, but he was shutting down the big people. What we have now is with Deckena's offense coming around, an opportunity to play him a lot more minutes.
"When I issued that challenge to him several weeks ago, I'm certainly glad he went the route that he did."
Wawasee coach Jerry Davis wondered why Deckena saved his best for his Warriors.
"He was a lot better tonight than we had seen him, and I think this is one of his better games," he said. "He's a tremendous athlete who's become their go-to guy."
While Deckena was a big reason Whitko won, Davis thought an injury to 6-3 Warrior forward Brody Stipp and the delay it caused was the reason his team lost.
With the game tied at 37 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, someone's elbow smashed squarely into Stipp's head above his left eye. He immediately started bleeding but made a trip down the floor before he was taken out.
That timeout to tend to Stipp took longer than usual, because assistant coaches had to wipe up the blood on the court.
When the teams returned to the floor, Whitko went on a 6-0 run to lead 43-37 with 3:26 left.
Stipp returned with a bandage on his forehead with 2:58 left, when Wawasee still trailed by six.
"That was a big momentum change," Davis said. "At the timeout, we're cleaning up the blood. It disrupted our rhythm and the flow of the game at that point. We felt like we were hurting them by going inside.
"At that point, we'd played them evenly. So yeah, I think that has to be a very big momentum swing that changed the complexion of the game."
Davis said afterward Stipp would need stitches.
A Josh Zolman three-pointer pulled Wawasee within 43-40 with 2:34 to go. Neither team scored again until Whitko's Bo Mullins made a brilliant pass inside to Miller, who made a hard cut that left him open. Miller made the layup on the backdoor play, and Whitko led 45-40 with 1:21 left.
Whitko led by three or more the rest of the way.
Josh Gonzalez and Miller scored 10 each for Whitko. Ryan Mahnensmith led Wawasee with 14 points.
Fields was just happy Whitko's hard work paid off at the end, for once.
"We had to have a win ... we had to have a win," Fields said. " I'm glad we had to play it right down to the last minute. You look at Central Noble, Tippy Valley, Manchester and Fort Wayne North. We've lost four or five of these kind of games."
