Warsaw's varsity boys basketball team got off to a good start Wednesday night, and it spelled the end for the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings.
Behind a 14-point performance in the first quarter by Mr. Basketball candidate Nic Moore, the Class 4A No. 3 Tigers led 24-9 after eight minutes of play and went on to beat Valley 69-57 in the season opener for both teams."The first quarter wasn't bad," said Ogle, whose team led by as many as 20 points in the 12-point win. "From the second quarter on, I was disappointed in how we played. I thought Valley did a nice job fighting back. They never gave up. Credit Valley, they played some young kids and they competed well."
The Vikings had two freshmen and a sophomore in the starting lineup against a Warsaw squad that returned three starters from last year's state runner-up team. After trailing by 15 at the end of the first quarter, Valley cut the deficit to seven in the second stanza, but the Tigers' early offensive spurt was too much to overcome.
"I thought we played fairly well," said Valley coach Bill Patrick. "I thought we played pretty hard. We're a young team. We're not gonna play a team better than Warsaw the rest of the year, and we didn't give up. We got behind, but we kept playing hard. We're 0-1, but that was encouraging to see the kids keep playing hard."
Moore led the Tigers a game-high 31 points, 21 of which came in the first half.
The Illinois State-bound guard entered the contest 12 points shy of tying former North Carolina State and New York Knicks player Whitey Bell for third place on Warsaw's all-time scoring list.
Moore moved ahead of Bell on the list with a pair of free throws with 1:26 remaining in the first quarter.
Moore, who has scored 1,350 points in his varsity career, trails only 1996 Mr. Basketball Kevin Ault (2,028) and 1985 Mr. Basketball Jeff Grose (1,749) on Warsaw's all-time scoring list.
"Nic scored a lot of points, but he can play a lot better," said Ogle. "I know that sounds weird to say about a kid who just scored 31 points, but Nic is a lot better than he showed tonight."
Moore finished the game 11 of 21 from the field, including a 1-of-6 effort from three-point range, and was 8 of 12 at the charity stripe.
Junior Lucas Grose added 14 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while junior Jordyn Coon chipped in with 10 points.
"Lucas Grose was pretty tough inside," said Patrick. "He's so strong. Obviously Nic Moore is good, he scored 21 points in the first half. We don't have anybody as good as those two."
Sophomore Nick Kindig paced Valley with 18 points, while junior Bret Cooper and freshmen Tanner Shepherd scored 16 points each.
Freshman Tanner Andrews led the Vikings in rebounding with nine, while Shepherd added six boards and Cooper chipped in with five.
"We had three kids score in double figures, that's a positive," said Patrick. "It was the first game, we made some mistakes, but I didn't see any of the kids quit after we got down."
Warsaw hosts Columbia City Saturday, while Valley hosts Argos Tuesday.
Warsaw - Brock Anson 1-1 0-0 2, Joey Sparkman 0-0 1-2 1, Nic Moore 11-21 8-12 31, Jordyn Coon 4-7 2-4 10, Rhett Kesler 1-2 2-4 4, Lucas Grose 6-11 2-5 14, Jay Holladay 1-3 0-0 3, Jalen Roscoe 1-3 0-0 2, Travis Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Clay Anderson 1-1 0-2 2.
Three-point goals - Valley 6 (Cooper 3, Kindig 3), Warsaw 2 (Moore, Holladay). Rebounds - Valley 29 (Andrews 9), Warsaw 37 (Grose 15). Turnovers - Valley 15, Warsaw 10. Fouls - Valley 23, Warsaw 18. Fouled out - Andrews. Records: Warsaw 1-0, Valley 0-1
JV - Warsaw 55, Valley 13
Warsaw - Jared Bloom 16, Taylor Cone 10, Jordan Wray 9, Drew Schramm 5, John Swanson 4, Cameron Barrett 4, Kevin West 4, Tim Ahlersmeyer 2, Jason Ferguson 1
