Wearing Homestead’s blue and yellow uniform, Caleb Swanigan looked like Indiana Pacers All-Star center Roy Hibbert Friday night. He played the part too. In a high school basketball game at Warsaw, the highly-touted 6-foot-8, 275-pound sophomore scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds before fouling out, as the Spartans held on to beat the Tigers 49-48. Swanigan, who is listed on ESPN’s recruiting website as having already received scholarship offers from Georgetown, Illinois, Michigan State and Tennessee, made his first four shots and scored 11 points in the first quarter. Warsaw kept the game close and had a chance to win at the end, but didn’t have an answer for Swanigan or 6-8 junior Dana Batt. Nor could the Tigers overcome their own shooting woes. “Swanigan has a chance to be an NBA player,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, whose team fell to 1-2 on the season. “We wanted to have a wall around him and dissuade and discourage them from thowing it inside. That just wasn’t good enough.” Swanigan, who had 18 points and 18 rebounds against Warsaw last year, and Batt combined to score Homestead’s first 23 points. The Spartans, who only trailed once in the game at 2-0, led 13-7 after one quarter of play, 25-19 at halftime and 32-30 at the end of the third quarter. “It’s not a secret that our bread and butter is to get the ball inside to our bigs,” said Homestead coach Chris Johnson, who compared Swanigan to current NBA player and former Marion High School standout Zach Randolph. “Everybody knows what type of player he is and how good he makes everyone. We need him on the floor.” Sophomore Tahj Curry scored nine points for Homestead, while senior Ryan Cotter and Batt scored eight points each. Batt also grabbed six rebounds in the win. The duo of Swanigan and Batt combined to score 32 points and grab 17 rebounds. The Tigers, who don’t have a player on the roster taller than 6-3, just didn’t have an answer for Homestead’s height advantage or length. “The combination of those two guys, for an undersized team like us, was hard to deal with,” said Ogle. “Had we shot better, (it might have been different). I don’t think we took bad shots, we just didn’t make them.” Warsaw finished the game 19 of 44 (43 percent) from the field overall, 7 of 25 from the arc, and 3 of 6 at the charity stripe. With the game on the line, and Swanigan on the bench with five fouls, the Tigers missed their last three free throw attempts. With his team trailing 49-45, Warsaw junior Rashaan Jackson hit an NBA-range three-pointer with nine seconds remaining. The Spartans had a chance to extend the lead with three seconds left, but sophomore Ben Skowronek missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Warsaw grabbed the rebound. The Tigers got a shot off before the buzzer, but it was off the mark. Warsaw’s fans felt there was foul on the final play, though one wasn’t called, and they let the officiating crew that included Big Ten officials Steve Skiles and Tim Fogarty know with a chorus of boos. “We got out of here with a win,” said Johnson, whose team has won its last two games since dropping the season opener to Huntington North. “There’s not one bad thing you can say about Warsaw. They love their sports and support their teams. This is a great place to play.” Jackson, who scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, led Warsaw with 19 points and five rebounds, while junior Jake Mangas was 4 of 4 from the field for eight points and senior Jordan Stookey added seven points. Juniors Cameron Hoskins and Tim Swanson scored six points each, with both making two three-pointers. The Tigers went into Friday’s game shooting 39 percent from the arc. They were made just 25 percent of their long-range attempts in the one-point loss, including a 1-of-12 effort from Stookey and fellow senior Nate Pearl. “We got a lot of the shots we wanted, we just didn’t make them said Ogle, whose team has lost its last three meetings with Homestead. “Pearl went 0 of 6, and he’s a really good shooter. Stookey was 1 of 6, and he can shoot. Combined, they were 1 of 12. Between the two of them, maybe there were two bad shots.” The Tigers are back in action again tonight when they host the Huntington North Vikings, who have won their first three games over Homestead, Mississinewa and Southwood by an average of 23 points.
HOMESTEAD 49, WARSAW 48 H 13 12 7 17 – 49 W 7 12 11 18 – 48 Homestead – Lucas Tapp 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Cotter 3-7 0-0 8, Ben Skowronek 0-1 0-1 0, Tahj Curry 4-7 0-0 9, Teddy Ray 0-5 0-0 0, Luke Cooper 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Swanigan 9-16 6-9 24, Dana Batt 3-6 2-2 8. Totals 19-42 8-12 49. Warsaw – Paul Marandet 1-1 0-0 2, Darren Walcott 0-0 0-0 0, Peyton Long 0-2 0-0 0, Cameron Hoskins 2-4 0-0 6, Nate Pearl 0-6 0-0 0, Tim Swanson 2-5 0-0 6, Jake Mangas 4-4 0-3 8, Moses Marandet 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Stookey 2-10 2-2 7, Rashaan Jackson 8-12 1-1 19. Totals 19-44 3-6 48. Three-pointers – Homestead 3 (Cotter 2, Curry), Warsaw 7 (Hoskins 2, Swanson 2, Jackson 2, Stookey); Rebounds – Homestead 33 (Swanigan 11), Warsaw 20 (Jackson 5); Turnovers – Homestead 14, Warsaw 7; Fouls – Homestead 15, Warsaw 13; Fouled out – Swanigan. Records: Homestead 2-1, Warsaw 1-2 JV – Warsaw 43, Homestead 20 Warsaw – Kyle Mangas 12, Ben Linky 6, Evan Schmidt 6, Tyler Packard 6, Luke Wilson 5, Xavier Lynch 4, Lucas Cone 2, Jeremy David 2
