How fitting that Doug Ogle's pregame speech Friday night talked about the game being 32 minutes long.
His Warsaw Community High School varsity boys basketball team overcame a sluggish start and played more-inspired basketball down the stretch to score a 61-52 win over visiting Northern Lakes Conference foe Goshen."I felt blessed to be up three at halftime," said Ogle, whose team was just 9 of 25 from the field in the first half but led 24-21 at intermission. "We didn't rebound or shoot well in the first half. I'm disappointed big time in our offensive rebounding in the first half. It's OK to miss shots. We got good shots, we just missed them. But we've got to get guys going for offensive rebounds."
The Tigers rebounded from their sluggish start and used an 11-2 run to push their advantage to 35-25 when Nic Moore converted a pair of free throws with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter.
Moore was one of the Tigers that struggled to find his shooting touch in the first quarter, hitting just 1 of 8 shots in the opening eight minutes of action.
He missed just two shots in the final 24 minutes of action and scored a game-high 26 points, a career high for the talented 5-foot7 freshman.
After scoring just two points in the first quarter, Moore tallied 11 in the second, seven in the third and six in the fourth.
Junior Chase Byerly added 11 points and eight rebounds for Warsaw, while sophomore Andy Conrad came off the bench to score 11 points and grab five boards.
After clinging to a three-point lead at halftime, the Tigers led 40-30 at the end of three quarters and didn't let the Redskins get closer than five points in the fourth quarter.
"Our guys are unusually poised for the classes they're in," Ogle said of his team, which starts a freshman, sophomore, three juniors and doesn't have a senior on the roster. "I thought Nic provided some much needed scoring tonight, and thanks to Chase Byerly and Andy Conrad for some big play. This is by far Chase Byerly's best game of the year, and Andy Conrad came off the bench and gave us a lift."
Junior Ryne Robinson scored eight points for Warsaw, while sophomore Justin Clemens added three points and junior Taylor Long scored two points at the free throw line.
The nine-point win improved the Tigers to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in conference play, while Goshen fell to 8-3 and 1-2.
"I was nervous about this game because I have so much respect for Goshen as a team and Coach (Brian) Bechtel for what he's done," said Ogle. "We didn't have a great week of practice. We couldn't practice Tuesday and Wednesday we were flat. Thursday was better, but I was nervous about this game. Goshen doesn't give up, they play very hard."
The Tigers didn't give up either, and as a result are in first place in the Northern Lakes Conference.
Plymouth, the only other undefeated team in conference play at 2-0, was scheduled to host Concord Friday night but the game was postponed because of recent flooding.
Goshen, which held a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, got 18 points and six rebounds from Marshall Crawford and 11 points and five rebounds from Cam Snyder.
"Crawford played well for them and kept them in the game in the first half," said Ogle. "We needed to do a better job guarding him."
Crawford scored eight of his team-high total in the second quarter.
Nathan Stegelmann, who battled through foul trouble, scored eight points for the Redskins, while Ryan Bartley scored seven and Josh Randall added five points.
The Tigers are in action again tonight at South Bend Clay.
Warsaw won't play another home game until they host state-ranked Marion on Feb. 2.
"We're gonna go up to Clay, and it's a similar situation with Fort Wayne South last week," said Ogle. "Clay didn't play tonight. They're 9-3 and they have a lot of weapons."
