NORTH MANCHESTER – The way Wawasee and Manchester were playing defense, eventually one team was going to catch a little break. Eventually that team was the Squires, who edged the visiting Warriors 44-37 Friday night in high school boys basketball action. Wawasee’s Alex Clark made a lot of tough shots inside the lane, along with a couple of three pointers, to lead the Warriors with 19 points. Manchester senior Chainey Zolman was forced to work from the outside in, dealing with a Warrior defense collapsing on him every time he moved inside the arc, but still managed to tie Clark for game-high honors with 19 points. The Squires led by five points at halftime, but Clark opened the third quarter with a three from the right side, then a driving layup in traffic on the next trip to tie the game for Wawasee. Manchester’s Koehl Fluke answered with a wide-open three from near the Squire bench, then a stick back layup on the next possession to fully restore the lead with about five minutes left in the period. Wawasee would scrape together a couple more baskets off offensive rebounds, while the Squires were held to a single basket, by Keelan Norwood on a tip-in, until Zolman was fouled on a shot made from the right side of the lane with two seconds left in the third quarter. The made free throw expanded the Manchester lead to six going into the fourth. The Squires found themselves in some foul trouble in the final stanza, with Zolman picking up his fourth at the 6:01 mark, and Norwood his fourth at 4:22, leaving Wawasee in the double bonus the rest of the way. Fluke drove for a layup to take the Manchester lead to five with 3:20 left, and Wawasee almost immediately turned the ball over. The home team was content to work the ball around the perimeter, waiting for an opening in the Wawasee defense. Zolman drove the right baseline and was fouled before he could get a shot off with 2:30 remaining, and hit both ends of the one-and-one to take the lead to seven. The best chance the Warriors had to make the game closer came with 1:20 left, as Clark was fouled in two seconds. Clark could only knock down one of the four free throws, though, and from there Manchester built a 10-point cushion at the free throw line. Aaron Voirol made a three at the buzzer for the final seven point margin. For the night, Wawasee hit just 34 percent of its shots (15 of 44) from the field, and a dismal 4 of 11 from the free throw line. The Warriors hit only three shots in 15 attempts from behind the arc. Warrior head coach Steve Wiktorowski said he talked to his team about finding ways to win games when the shots aren’t falling for them. “You still have to find ways to win when (shots don’t fall) because you play at least 23 games, hopefully closer to 30, and there’s going to be some nights when it doesn’t (happen), especially on the road. I told the kids we have to play through that. “I’ll be honest, I thought they were a little tougher than we were. They were on their home floor, with one really good player injured (Chase Fierstos has a leg injury, and didn’t suit up), and they were just a little tougher.” “They were getting the ball into our lane too much, and that’s something we take great pride in, and work on all the time. I thought they hurt us in the lane, hurt us on the baseline, and I thought we let their defense take us out of our offense and that’s one of the reasons we didn’t shoot real well. We’re about a half step off of things, and that’s what we talked about in the locker room. There are going to be nights offensively where you really struggle, and does that mean you don’t win? We’re about finding ways to win, and we didn’t find a way (Friday).” Squire head coach Eric Thompson said he was glad his team emerged from the tough game with a win, and stepped up with Firestos out and Zolman being swarmed. “Both teams were playing really hard-nosed, good defense, and I’m just glad we made more shots than they did. They’re a good ball club and that was a good win for us,” he said. “They did a good job of having two or three people on (Zolman) once he got inside the three-point line. Our other guys did a really good job of filling their roles, stepping up, and hitting buckets to keep (Wawasee) as honest as they could possibly allow themselves to be. They helped Chainey get the 19 points he got to help us get the victory.” Playing the first of four games in an eight day stretch, Wawasee will take a 2-1 record into Saturday’s home game with West Noble, with varsity tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. Manchester will take a 3-0 mark into its trip to Warsaw Thursday night.
MANCHESTER 44, WAWASEE 37 W 9 8 9 11 – 37 M 8 14 10 12 – 44 Wawasee – Aaron Voirol 3-5 1-2 8, Jeffery Moore 0-2 0-0 0, Gage Reinhard 1-9 2-2 4, Jake Hutchinson 0-0 0-0 0, David Rocha 0-2 0-0 2. Jayce Boatwright 0-0 0-0 0, Sam Clark 0-1 0-0 0, Parker Hatfield 0-1 0-0 0, Alex Clark 8-18 1-5 19, Stori Bright 3-6 0-2 6, EJ Solina 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-44 4-11 37. Manchester – Brayden Sewell 2-7 0-0 4, Branden Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Adam Byers 0-0 0-0 6, David McAtee 1-7 0-0 2, Kane Gable 0-0 0-0 0, Koehl Fluke 5-6 2-2 14, Levi Hicks 0-0 0-0 0, Chainey Zolman 6-15 7-9 19, Cameron Brandenburg 0-0 0-0 0, Bailey Ness 0-0 0-0 0, Bailey Norwood 2-2 1-3 5. Totals 16-37 10-14 44. Three-pointers – Wawasee 3 (A. Clark 2, Voirol), Manchester 2 (Fluke 2); Rebounds – Wawasee 25 (Bright 7), Manchester 29 (Zolman 8); Turnovers – Wawasee 16, Manchester 17; Fouls – Wawasee 19, Manchester 16; Fouled out – none; Records – Wawasee 2-1, Manchester 3-0 JV – Manchester 47, Wawasee 38 Wawasee – Stephon Miller 8, Cayden Wegner 8, Cameron Schlabach 3, Aaron Beer 15, Tim Conley 3, Cal Heinisch 1 Manchester – Braxtin Wilson 3, Jake Schannep 6, Adam byers 5, Kane Gable 14, Levi Hicks 1, Brayden Lassiter 11, Bailey Ness 2, Keelan Norwood 5
