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Heading into Saturday's basketball matchup facing a very athletic DeKalb Baron squad, Wawasee coach Phil Mishler knew his team would face heavy pressure from the Baron defense.
Mishler was hoping his players would rise to the occasion against a good opponent. The Warriors played with the Barons for a half before falling 76-54 on Saturday night.
"Right now our guys just don't understand how to handle the pressure,' Mishler said. "We need to be able to stop the other teams perimeter game if we want a chance to win."
The first three minutes started out horribly for the Warriors. DeKalb took a 10-0 lead before the home team knew what hit it. The Barons got scoring from four players in that span.
"Usually we come out with a lot of intensity and wear people down,' Mishler said. "DeKalb just came out ready to play and they put it on us early.'
What looked like to be a blowout early worked in the Warriors favor by halftime. With DeKalb's early success, it played like the game would be an easy win. However, the scrappy Warriors fought back.
"Our kids have played hard all year long. We could have given up when we were down, but we kept battling,' Mishler said.
The Warriors got a big lift off the bench from Travis Klenke. Klenke scored five of his team-high 16 in the first quarter to keep the Warriors close.
After a 14-4 Baron lead, the Warriors then went on a 8-0 run to cut the lead to 14-12 with 35 seconds left in the quarter.
The Warriors looked like a different team in the second quarter, causing 10 Baron turnovers and turning their deficit into a 35-32 halftime lead.
"Our goal was to cause 18 turnovers tonight, and we accomplished that goal,' Mishler said. "We just didn't capitalize on their mistakes."
For the game, it was sloppy ball-handling all the way around. DeKalb finished with 28 turnovers, while the Warriors turned it over 25 times.
"To win games against good teams, you can't turn the ball over that many times,' Mishler said. "We need to understand that the ball is precious every time we have it.'
Klenke again came up big in the second quarter, scoring nine more points. Scott Beasley hit a lay-up and was fouled at the end of the half to give the Warriors a three-point halftime lead.
The Warriors started out the third quarter like the first, on a down note with several turnovers. After holding a slim 37-35 lead with 6:19 in the third, the Barons again turned up their defensive pressure and went on a 12-0 run to push their lead to 47-37 with 2:37 left.
The Warriors were outscored in the quarter 21-6 and faced a 53-41 deficit heading into the last quarter.
"DeKalb was just too quick tonight. They had a lot of easy shots off our defense,' Mishler said.
The fourth quarter was all DeKalb. The Barons again outscored the Warriors big, 23-13, to make this game a rout.
Wawasee cut the Baron lead to 61-50 with 3:30 left on free throws by Andrew Packer, but the Barons iced the game with another big run, this time a 10-0 run that jumped the lead to 71-50 with just under two minutes left.
Wawasee's Justin VanLue added 12 points and Scott Beasley pitched in 8 points. DeKalb got solid play from 6-6 sophomore Adam Liddell and 6-4 sophomore Adam Kock as both finished with 21 points.
Wawasee (1-2) hosts West Noble on Tuesday.
DEKALB 76
WAWASEE 54
DeKalb 16 16 21 23 -Ê76
Wawasee 12 23 6 13 -Ê54
DeKalb FG FT R A S PTS.
Hinman (G) 1-4 2-2 1 0 1 4
Johnson (G) 3-9 2-4 5 7 5 8
Liddell (C) 7-11 7-7 10 0 2 21
Turner (F) 2-5 0-1 5 3 1 5
Kock (F) 10-11 1-2 6 2 0 21
Brinkman 0-0 1-2 0 1 0 1
Bunch 2-6 3-4 0 1 3 7
Roark 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Knapp 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Kleeman 3-4 1-2 1 1 0 7
Cyran 1-2 0-0 1 0 0 2
Totals 29-53 17-24 30 15 12 76
Wawasee FG FT R A S PTS.
Speicher (G) 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0
Beasley (G) 3-13 1-1 2 1 1 8
Packer (C) 1-6 2-2 4 0 1 4
Adkins (F) 2-6 2-2 3 1 2 6
Brumbaugh (F) 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Farrell 1-4 0-0 1 1 0 2
Doty 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0
Klenke 6-10 4-5 1 2 5 16
VanLue 4-12 3-3 2 1 0 12
Abbs 0-0 2-2 1 0 0 2
Popenfoose 2-6 0-1 4 1 0 4
Totals 19-60 14-16 19 8 9 54
Three-point goals - DeKalb 1-12 (Liddell 0-1, Bunch 0-2, Hinman 0-3, Johnson 0-2, Turner 1-4), Wawasee 2-22 (Farrell 0-2, Speicher 0-1, Klenke 0-3, VanLue 1-7, Beasley 1-7, Brumbaugh 0-1, Popenfoose 0-1. Total fouls -ÊDeKalb 19, Wawasee 19. Turnovers - DeKalb 28, Wawasee 25.
JV Score: -ÊWawasee 71, DeKalb 46
