MARION - Even without its Mr. Basketball candidate, the Class 4A No. 10 Warsaw boys basketball team held a 10-point lead at Marion with three minutes left.
The Tigers, however, certainly missed senior Nic Moore down the stretch Wednesday, losing 60-59 to the Giants in overtime at Bill Green Arena."We had too many times when we should have passed the ball up the floor, but we didn't," Warsaw coach Doug Ogle said. "Too many ball handling mistakes. From the time we got the 10-point lead, we did nothing right in regulation."
Holding a 46-41 lead with a minute-and-a-half left in the regulation, Warsaw's next three possessions ended in a five-second call on an entry pass, a 10-second violation and a travel on a rebound.
Despite all the miscues, the Tigers (17-4) still held a 51-48 lead over the Giants (8-11) following two made free throws by junior Jordyn Coon with 22 seconds remaining.
Marion junior Jalen McCallum knotted things at 51-51 with 10 seconds left after hitting his third three-pointer of the quarter, and Marion's fifth in seven tries in the fourth quarter.
"We lost them a few times, and our guys, for some reason, helped them on dribble-penetration when they shouldn't have been leaving shooters," Ogle said.
Marion finished the game making 11 of 22 three-pointers, going 7 of 11 from beyond the three-point arc in the second half and overtime period.
"We set up our three-point shot by dribble-drive," Marion coach Todd Grace said. "That's something we didn't do in the first quarter. We passed the ball around the perimeter, shooting contested threes, which is not our game."
Marion's most lethal sharpshooters were two reserves, as senior Ronnie Drake finished with a game-high 18 points, hitting 5 of 6 three-pointers, and McCallum, who went 4 of 5 from three-point land, netting 12 points.
"Jalen hadn't seen a lot of minutes the last three games, but just stepped up huge and hit some huge threes for us late in the game," Grace said.
In the overtime period, Drake gave Marion its first lead of the game at 54-53 following a three-pointer with 2:42 remaining, but Warsaw responded with two made free throws by junior Jay Holladay.
The sequence epitomized the game, as it seemed to be Marion's three-point shooting against Warsaw's free-throw shooting.
On the night, Warsaw went 21 of 27 from the charity stripe, while Marion shot just seven, making four.
One of Marion's rare trips to the free-throw line came with 1:11 remaining, and saw sophomore Hunter Rose make both, giving his team a slim 58-57 lead, which Warsaw junior Lucas Grose quickly erased with bucket of his own.
Trailing 59-58, Marion sophomore Randon Jackson committed a turnover on an ill-advised behind-the-back pass in the lane, but Warsaw failed to make the Giants pay, missing two free throws on the other end.
Still trailing by one, Marion's freshman point guard Alec Turner drove down the baseline, and gave Jackson a shot at redemption by giving him a pass for the game-winning layup, which he made with two seconds left.
"Alec Turner just does a great job of dribbling on the baseline, beating his guy off the dribble," Grace said.
Warsaw didn't even get a chance to inbound the ball, and could only watch as Marion celebrated a win that should have been the Tigers'.
"We've had some games when we've had to fight back," Grace said. "We were 24 down against Anderson and fought back to win. To be down double-digits in the fourth quarter against such a fundamentally-sound team as Warsaw, is really a tribute to our kids."
With Moore out of the lineup for a second-straight game with a second-degree MCL sprain, Coon led the Tigers with 17 points to go with seven rebounds, while Grose had a 15-point, eight-rebound game.
Despite solid numbers from numerous players, including nine points from Holladay and six each out of senior Jalen Roscoe and sophomore Jared Bloom, the Tigers also committed 24 turnovers.
With Moore in the lineup, the Tigers average just 11 turnovers per game.
"If you have 24 turnovers, you're not going to win very many games," Ogle said.
Marion also ended the game with 24 turnovers, but it was the Giants' ability to force late-game turnovers from the Tigers that proved to be the difference.
"What a great lesson for those kids," Grace said about Warsaw. "Once it comes to tournament time and someone has the ball in their hands, and Nic is out there with them, someone else is going to be able to step up and make a play."
It's a lesson Ogle hopes his team takes to heart.
"We're going to learn from this," he said. "We can still win the sectional, and that's what we're planning on doing."
Prior to the sectional, Warsaw will first host Carroll Friday for senior night, and Moore isn't ruled out for that game.
"We'll see how Nic feels Friday," Ogle said. "It's not for sure that he's not going to play, but we'd like to be able to come back and play well to get our confidence back up."
