Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The door left open, Warsaw's varsity boys basketball team knocked, just never came through.
Trailing Northern Lakes Conference opponent Northridge by 13 midway through the third quarter Friday, the Tigers made a valiant comeback, but eventually lost 66-62 in double overtime.
While Warsaw's comeback effort, led by junior Dan Gensinger, was impressive, the Tigers did squander away a chance at winning the game in regulation.
After running two minutes off the clock, working for the winning basket, the Tigers turned the ball over with 30 seconds left in regulation.
Northridge as well failed to convert, and the contest went to overtime knotted at 46.
After each team scored four points in the first overtime, 6-foot-8 junior Eric Eaton put Northridge on his back and took over the game.
Eaton scored the Raiders' first 10 points of the second overtime, lifting Northridge to a 60-52 advantage with 58 seconds left in the four-minute period.
Tiger senior frontliner Ryan DeGeeter hit a three-pointer and then later an old fashioned three-point play, cutting Northridge's lead to 62-58, but the Raiders iced the game with free throws.
Northridge converted 10 of 15 free throws in the second overtime, 14 of 19 for the game, downing the Tigers for just the third time in school history.
Of Northridge's 20 points in the two overtime sessions, 14 came via Eaton, who finished with a game-high 30.
"I'm proud of the way we came back," first-year Warsaw coach Doug Ogle said. "Gensinger got hot, that was realy big. We really got a lot of offensive rebounds at that point in the game. I think in that stretch we looked more like a basketball team than we have all year. That was the most together we've been all year."
After junior Ryan Schultz hit a trey at the third-quarter buzzer and classmate Adam Griggs converted a three-point play, Warsaw trailed just 39-35.
Down 46-42, the Tigers tied the game when Gensinger hit his third trey and then made good on a free throw attempt 24 seconds later.
A trey by Gensinger to start the overtime session gave Warsaw a 49-46 lead, but four straight points by Eaton put things back in Northridge's favor.
The game went to the second overtime when Tiger junior Todd Braddock converted 1 of 2 free throws with 1:09 left.
The loss dropped Warsaw to 5-5 overall and 0-2 in the NLC, while Northridge improved to 5-4 and 1-1. The loss was also a first at home to the Raiders, who trail Warsaw 15-3 in the overall series.
After trailing just 9-6 after one quarter of play, a poor shooting effort left Warsaw with a 23-14 deficit at halftime. At the end of two quarters, the Tigers were just 5 of 19 from the floor. Northridge, on the other hand, was 10 of 17 from the field in the first half.
"For some reason we were flat emotionally in the first half," Ogle said. "We didn't have a good week of practice. Griggs and DeGeeter didn't practice Monday, and we weren't able to practice Tuesday. It rolled into the kind of week we weren't looking for. Still, that doesn't excuse our lack of competitive spirit."
For the game, Warsaw was 19 of 51 from the field, 6 of 20 from the arc. The Raiders were 23 of 38 from the field, 6 of 11 from the three-point line.
"Fate has not smiled on this team, but we have a lot of season left," Ogle said. "I was encouraged by the way we played the last 12 minutes of the game. We're not quite good enough to win the close games, but I think if we handle this right, the coaches and players, we can use this lesson to propel us at the end of the year."
DeGeeter led Warsaw in the scoring column with 17 points, while Gensinger added 16, Braddock 11 and Griggs 10.
To go with Eaton's 30, Northridge got 12 from Matt Crawford and 10 from Lance Weirich.
Warsaw is in action again Friday at NLC foe Goshen.
NORTHRIDGE 66
WARSAW 62 (2OT)
Northridge 9 14 16 7 4 16 - 66
Warsaw 6 8 18 14 4 12 - 62
Northridge FG FT R S Pts.
* Weirich 4-7 0-0 9 2 10
* N. Crawford 1-1 0-0 1 2 3
* M. Crawford 3-6 5-7 2 1 12
* Thomas 1-5 0-1 2 1 2
* Eaton 11-16 8-10 10 1 30
Bontrager 2-2 1-1 0 0 7
Kropf 1-1 0-0 0 1 2
Totals 23-38 14-19 24 8 66
Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.
* Schultz 2-8 0-0 3 0 5
* Gensinger 6-8 1-2 4 2 16
* Griggs 3-10 4-6 4 1 10
* Braddock 3-11 5-6 3 1 11
* Fussle 0-1 3-4 2 0 3
DeGeeter 5-11 5-7 11 1 17
Burnley 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Wienhorst 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Miller 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Allison 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 19-51 18-25 28 5 62
Three-point goals - Northridge 6-11 (Weirich 2-4, Bontrager 2-2, M. Crawford 1-2, N. Crawford 1-1, Thomas 0-1, Eaton 0-1), Warsaw 6-20 (Gensinger 3-5, DeGeeter 2-5, Schultz 1-6, Griggs 0-1, Braddock 0-1, Burnley 0-1, Wienhorst 0-1). Fouls - Northridge 19, Warsaw 16. Fouled out - DeGeeter.
JV - Northridge 28, Warsaw 25
