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Warsaw turned the matchup into a mismatch.
In the first big matchup in the Northern Lakes Conference this year, Warsaw played probably its best game of the season rolling past Northridge, 65-51, to improve to 10-0 lifetime against the Raiders Friday.
"It was one of our better efforts of the year," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "Defensively, we worked very hard."
If there was anytime the Raiders thought they might have the Tigers' number it was this year with the return of the core of last year's school-record 21-4 team.
Backed by a boisterous crowd, Northridge certainly had the talent to beat Warsaw. The execution just wasn't there for the Raiders.
"Give Warsaw credit, their kids wanted it a little more," Northridge coach Steve Austin said. "I think we got intimidated by them. We just did not play very well. We were very sluggish out there. We have a lot of growing up to do. Warsaw showed us we have a lot of little things to work on."
The Tigers made their shots (26 of 43, 60 percent) and outrebounded the Raiders, 25-19. Northridge struggled against Warsaw's trapping defense, shooting just 18 of 51 (35 percent) from the field.
"We were confused out there," Austin said. "We knew what they were going to do. Nothing surprised us, we worked on it all week. It looks like we never worked on it."
The Warsaw defense worked hard on containing Northridge's big two of 6-foot-7 Ryan Thomas and 6-4 Todd Janes. Although the duo combined for 29 points, they weren't really a factor because of foul trouble.
"That was a big factor," Austin said. "We depend on those guys (Janes and Thomas). We didn't do a good job. The other kids have to step up. Until we do, we are not going to be a good ball team.
"They exploited us," he said. "Our big people are not that quick, and we didn't cover down the way we should."
"We worked very hard to guard Thomas," Rhodes said. "Foul trouble to him was certainly a factor in the game. They are so good that we wanted them (Janes and Thomas) to earn their points."
Even though Warsaw did not return a single starter from last year's Final Four team, this year's addition is keeping up with the Tiger tradition of playing well around the holiday season with their best two games of the season back-to-back.
"The last two games have been much better," Rhodes said. "The improvement is good, but we have a long way to go offensively."
With the win, the Tigers also made a statement in the NLC by improving to 3-0 in the conference and dropping Northridge to 0-1.
"The conference is certainly not over yet," Rhodes said. "Going into the year, I thought Northridge, Concord and Plymouth as the favorites because of the starters coming back. Anything can happen the rest of the way."
Warsaw opened things up in the second quarter by hitting 6 of 7 from the field and outscored Northridge 16-7 in that frame to break a 15-15 first-quarter tie.
Tiger junior Andy Plank scored 11 of his 17 points in the quarter on 4-of-5 shooting.
"His (Plank) outside shooting has continued to improve as he becomes accustomed to the varsity level," Rhodes said.
The shooting wasn't there in the third quarter (4 of 13) and Northridge came back to close the margin to 39-34. But led by Tom Krizmanich (nine points), the Tigers pulled away in the fourth and roared to double digit lead.
Krizmanich capped things off with a steal and two-handed thunder dunk to help put the game out of reach.
Krizmanich added 17 points, and Chris Hill came off the bench to get 16 points.
"Chris Hill added a lot of scoring punch off the bench," Rhodes said. "He has played well all year. He has been doing an excellent job of coming in."
Warsaw (7-1) is at Valparaiso tonight. The game will start at 6:30 p.m. Warsaw time.
