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SYRACUSE - It was deja vu for the Wawasee Warriors on Saturday. Just four days after blowing a chance at a win against Fairfield because of a collapse in the late minutes of the game, Wawasee found itself in a similar position against Elkhart Central.
Once again Wawasee came up on the short end of the stick, but the Warriors did a better job in the latter part of the game. Elkhart Central, however, did the best job in coming away with a hard-fought 56-52 victory.
This time, Wawasee played better in the fourth quarter. After forcing just two turnovers in the final eight minutes against Fairfield on Tuesday, the Warriors forced six against the Blue Blazers over the same span on Saturday. Against the Falcons, Wawasee shot just 29 percent in the fourth quarter. Against Elkhart Central, the number jumped to 47 percent. Those two numbers alone helped Wawasee to go from being outscored by 14 points in the final period to outscoring Elkhart Central by five points.
However, it was not quite enough as the Warriors found themselves in a hole early and could never dig out.
Rich Gawthrop was the main reason Wawasee fell behind early. He had 10 points in the first quarter as the Blue Blazers opened up a nine-point first quarter advantage and added five more points in the first four minutes of the second quarter before becoming an ineffective player the rest of the way because of foul trouble.
But the damage had been done as Elkhart Central led 25-19 after Gawthrop's second three-pointer of the contest and the Blue Blazers held on for a 30-23 lead after the first 16 minutes of action.
In the third quarter, Wawasee looked to make a move. Trailing 34-25, the Warriors took a charge from Gawthrop that sent him to the bench with his fourth personal foul just one minute into the second half. That opening spurred the Warriors to a 7-2 run over the next two minutes to slice the lead to four points, 36-32.
However, over the final 4:54 of the third quarter, Wawasee went cold and a jumper by Pat Johnsen of Elkhart Central at the third quarter buzzer gave the Blue Blazers a 41-32 advantage heading into the final stanza.
"We were down four in the third quarter and had three straight possessions where nothing came out of it," Wawasee head coach Jerry Davis said. "We'll work on that this week."
In the fourth quarter, Elkhart Central looked like it would bury Wawasee numerous times, but the Warriors came back with big baskets to counter the Blue Blazers.
Andrew Warner opened the quarter with a jumper to cut the lead to seven. Elkhart Central came back with four straight points for a 45-34 lead with six minutes to play.
Jay Haugh and Brody Stipp helped Wawasee bounce back with back-to-back buckets. Then, trailing 47-40, Wawasee's Haugh nailed his third three-pointer of the game with just 1:23 to play to close the deficit to four points. However, Elkhart Central made its free throws down the stretch and Jared Mahnensmith's two three-pointers in the final 10 seconds of the game could not make a difference for the Warriors.
"We had to go with a different starting lineup tonight," Davis said. "(Jordan) Bender is hurt and (Justin) Shilling needed to start after his game the other night. It gave us an opportunity to see three big people. I thought the main thing was that our kids improved from Fairfield on Tuesday night."
Haugh came off the bench on Saturday after starting in the opener to score 18 points on three three-pointers. Mahnensmith added 12 points and Warner had 12 points and a team-high six rebounds. Gawthrop was the top scorer for Elkhart Central with 17 points.
Wawasee (0-2) will be at DeKalb on Saturday.
