Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
South Bend Adams basketball coach Pat King is familiar with this area. He has previously coached at North Miami, and he served as an assistant under Dick Hunsaker at Manchester College.
The way Warsaw (12-1) won Saturday's game 79-72 over Adams (8-5) - in the fourth quarter, by shooting 17 of 19 free throws to outscore Adams 25-17 - did not surprise him.
He has seen Warsaw win that way before.
"It was a very typical Warsaw home game," King said. "They get ahead, shoot a lot of free throws in the fourth quarter, and don't let you catch up."
One Warsaw player Adams could not catch up to all evening was 6-foot-6 junior center Zach Nelson. On a night where Adams started a senior frontcourt of 6-7 Bob Dysert, 6-7 Dan Sizemore and 6-3 Craig Williams, Nelson scored a career high 28 and grabbed 13 rebounds.
"Zach had come in after taking his SAT's today," Rhodes said. "I hope they went like his game. Most impressive was that he did it against a 6-7 center (Dysert)."
Three other Tigers scored in double figures, while a fourth just missed out. Chris Wiggins, who scored three in the first half, finished with 16. Ross Kesler added 14, Rob Kesler 11 and Steve Siebenmorgen nine.
Adams led Warsaw 19-16 after one quarter, 38-35 at halftime and 55-54 after three quarters.
But Rhodes was optimistic. Here's why: Adams wasn't missing shots, and Adams wasn't turning the ball over.
Through three quarters, Adams made 24 of 38 field goals (63 percent) and committed only eight turnovers.
And Warsaw was down by one.
"I thought we played well against a good team," Rhodes said. "It was a matter of them missing outside shots, which they eventually did."
After scorching the nets through three quarters, Adams cooled off, hitting 5 of 17 (29 percent) from the field in the fourth.
Close games like this typically have one or two plays that switch momentum, and for Warsaw, they came early in the fourth quarter.
With 7:05 left, Ross Kesler hit a layup, drew a foul and made a free throw. His three-point play put Warsaw up 59-55, the Tigers' biggest lead since 6-2 in the first quarter.
Warsaw kept the lead the rest of the way.
Williams followed Kessler's play with a three-pointer to trim the lead to 59-58, but Warsaw answered again.
Nelson, who tallied 13 points in the last quarter, scored inside, drew a foul and hit a free throw to push the lead to 62-58. After that, the Tigers did what King predicted: They got Adams into foul trouble and turned the game into a free-throw shooting contest. They sealed the win by hitting 11 of 13 free throws in the last 4:30.
Warsaw hit 27 of 33 free throws (82 percent) in the game, while Adams made 7 of 15 (47 percent).
Free throws were one of two keys for Warsaw. Another was a halftime adjustment. Adams point guard Antwain Banks tormented Warsaw in the first half with his dribble penetration to the basket, where he would either score inside or kick the ball out.
"We made a switch at halftime that I would like to give coach Tracy Furnivall credit for," Rhodes said. "We put Ross on (Banks). We wanted to make him more of an offensive player rather than a passer.
"That move was big in the game."
Indeed, the Tigers cut down on his dribble penetration, thus limiting Adams' options on offense.
Sizemore hit 9 of 9 field goals to lead Adams with 20 points. Banks added 15 and Rod Emmons 14.
To King, who won and who lost boiled down to two words: free throws. It wasn't that Warsaw hit 17 of 19 in the fourth, because he expected that.
He felt his team shouldn't have put Warsaw in a position to go to the line.
Adams went 2 of 8 from the line in the first three quarters.
"If we would have hit ours, we wouldn't have been in a situation where we had to play cat and mouse," he said. "That's Warsaw's game."
