Tigers Pull Away From Valley In OpenerThough it was their season opener, the Warsaw Tigers looked like they were in mid-season form Wednesday night.
In a non-conference high school boys basketball game against county rival Tippecanoe Valley, the Tigers made 10 of 22 three-pointers, shot nearly 49 percent from the field overall, had 16 assists on 26 made baskets, and saw four players score in double figures.
It all added up to a 67-39 win for the hosts, who returned four starters and five of their top six players from last season’s squad that won a fourth-straight Northern Lakes Conference championship.
“I thought we moved the ball well tonight ... a lot of good passing,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, who moved within two victories of 250 in his varsity career.
“We had a lot of unselfish play ... really good start offensively.”
Junior Brian Elliott made five three-pointers en route to a game-high 17 points, while classmate Wyatt Amiss came off the bench to make four treys and score 15 points.
Senior Nolan Groninger scored 11 points in the win, and added four rebounds, three assists and three steals to his stat line.
Six-foot-8 senior Tyler Metzinger, who Ogle praised in the offseason for his work since the team’s sectional-opening loss to Goshen, was 5 of 6 from the field en route to 10 points. He also tallied three assists and three blocked shots.
Junior Blake Marsh and sophomore Luke Adamiec scored four points each, and junior Connor Lennox and freshman Jackson Dawson rounded out the team’s scoring with three points each.
“Our guys were ready to play,” said Ogle. “We didn’t have a scrimmage, so not having a scrimmage we were probably a little more anxious to play somebody else than a school that had a scrimmage.
“(Senior Trevor) Rumple had surgery today on his foot, so he’s going to be out 3 to 6 weeks, but with our nine guys we have a good group.”
Warsaw opened the game with a 12-2 run and then led 15-10 after one quarter of play, 35-21 at halftime and 58-27 at the end of the third quarter.
The difference in the game was a 12-minute stretch in the middle of the contest.
The Tigers closed the first half on a 13-3 run, and then outscored the Vikings 23-6 in the third quarter.
That stretch allowed Warsaw to turn a 22-18 advantage into the largest lead of the game at 58-27.
“That was a horrible stretch,” Valley coach Chad Patrick said of Warsaw’s big run in the middle of the game.
“We started off the game doing what we wanted. We played good defense, we were moving the ball, we got some great shots. We missed a couple wide-open shots, but they were inside-out threes. We talked about not taking the first open shot, but taking great shots this year ... not just good ones. I thought we did that. We were in the game, and then they made a run and we went back to a lot of old habits.
“We thought we had to score right away to make it back up. That just killed us, and it kind of snowballed. I saw a lot of good things tonight, but I also saw a lot of things that we’ll be able to watch on tape. The frustrating part is, in practice they’ve done this so well for two and a half weeks, but in the scrimmage we had a stretch like that, and tonight we had a stretch like that.”
Warsaw was 26 of 53 from the field overall, 10 of 22 from the arc, and 5 of 11 at the free throw line.
Valley made 13 of 36 shots overall, 5 of 15 three-point attempts, and 8 of 13 charity tosses.
The Tigers turned the ball over eight times, compared to Valley’s 15 turnovers.
Junior Tanner Trippiedi led the Vikings with 15 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter.
Senior Parkur Dalrymple scored 10 points in the loss, while classmate Cameron Parker added seven points.
Warsaw jumped out to a 25-0 lead in the JV?game and won 49-28.
Jackson Dawson led the Tigers with 14 points, while Alex Craft and Braden Shepherd scored 10 points each for Valley’s JV team.
Warsaw is in action again Saturday when it hosts Columbia City.
