NORTH MANCHESTER – Warsaw boys basketball coach Doug Ogle was disappointed Thursday night in the production he got out of his frontcourt players. The Tigers’ dynamic backcourt duo of junior Kyle Mangas and senior Paul Marandet, however, once again gave Ogle reason to smile. Mangas scored a game-high 25 points, and Marandet turned in an impressive all-around performance that included nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals, as the Tigers went on the road to beat the Manchester Squires 46-36. “Those two guys essentially won the game for us tonight,” said Ogle, whose team improved to 5-0 on the season. “Kyle Mangas is hard to corral in transition. I think the combination of those two guys offensively is strong. I'm just glad they're on our team. I thought both of them played really well tonight.” Mangas scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half, including nine points in the third quarter when he outscored Manchester by one point in the eight-minute frame. Mangas went on to make 7 of 8 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter, helping the Tigers improve to 3-0 against the Squires since the series restarted after a near 40-year hiatus. The series was played from 1925 through 1976 and was renewed in 2013 when the Tigers won 42-35 in North Manchester. Warsaw owns a 47-16 advantage in the all-time series. “The guard play out of Mangas and Marandet ... they're just strong and long,” said Manchester coach Eric Thompson, whose team fell to 2-2 this season. “We don't have a guard as strong as either one of them. We have kids that are skilled, but just can't compete with someone like that.” The Tigers led 9-4 after one quarter of play, 19-14 at halftime and 34-22 at the end of third quarter thanks to a 12-2 run. Manchester got no closer than seven points in the fourth quarter. The Tigers finished the game 15 of 33 from the field overall, 1 of 9 from three-point range, and 15 of 19 at the charity stripe. Against an active Warsaw defense, the Squires struggled shooting the ball, making 12 of 38 attempts overall, 5 of 17 from the arc, though they did make 7 of 10 at the free throw line. Warsaw’s gameplan was centered around containing Manchester senior guard Chase Fierstos, who went into Thursday’s game averaging 24 points per contest. Fierstos finished the game 3 of 12 from the field overall, 1 of 6 from the arc, and made two of his three charity tosses en route to nine points. “I thought our defense on Fierstos was pretty good,” said Ogle. “He’s averaging 24 points a game. We set the goal to hold him to 15, and he got nine.” Sophomore Koehl Fluke led the Squires with 13 points, including eight in the third quarter, as Manchester trailed just 22-20 before the Tigers made a run. Junior guard David McAtee scored seven points for Manchester. Outside of Mangas and Marandet, Warsaw got seven points from junior frontliner Braxton Minix, while fellow frontcourt player Jeremy David chipped in with three points. Sophomore guard Ross Johnson rounded out the Tigers’ scoring with two points. A big storyline for the Tigers Thursday was the return of 6-foot-4 senior Riley Rhoades, who suffered a knee injury during the football season. Rhoades, who was projected to start in the post for Warsaw this season, played 13 minutes. He missed the only shot he took, but grabbed two rebounds, dished out two assists and made one steal. The Tigers are in action again tonight at Lake Central, while Manchester travels to Huntington North Saturday.
WARSAW 46, MANCHESTER 36 War 9 10 15 12 – 46 Man 4 10 8 14 – 36 Warsaw – Mangas 8-13 8-9 25, Paul Marandet 2-5 5-5 9, Riley Rhoades 0-1 0-0 0, Jeremy David 1-1 1-2 3, Ross Johnson 1-4 0-2 2, Jaceb Burish 0-3 0-0 0, Evan Schmidt 0-3 0-0 0, Braxton Minix 3-3 1-1 7. Totals 15-33 15-19 46. Manchester – Chase Fierstos 3-13 2-3 9, Braydon Sewell 1-3 1-1 3, Mason Hamby 0-0 2-3 2, David McAtee 3-14 0-1 7, Kamdyn Lester 0-0 0-0 0, Koehl Fluke 4-8 2-2 13, Kane Gable 0-0 0-0 0, Keelan Norwood 1-1 0-0 2, Matthew Pegg 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-38 7-10 36. Three-pointers – Warsaw 1 (Mangas), Manchester 5 (Fluke 3, Fierstos, McAtee); Rebounds – Warsaw 30 (Mangas 8), Manchester 19 (Fluke); Turnovers – Warsaw 10, Manchester 10; Fouls – Warsaw 13, Manchester 14; Fouled out – none; Records: Warsaw 5-0, Manchester 2-2 JV – Manchester 59, Warsaw 51 Warsaw – Asher Blum 24, Zach Riley 13, Jack Rhoades 8, Dane Stookey 4, Landen Ferber 2 Manchester – Jake Schannep 17, Devon Rooney 9, Brayden Casper 8, Heath Diercks 4, Kane Gable 4, Kamdyn Lester 1
