PLYMOUTH - Doug Ogle wasn't happy about his Warsaw boys basketball team losing to Elkhart Memorial last week.
Thursday night, however, the Crimson Chargers helped the Class 4A No. 8 Tigers win the Northern Lakes Conference championship.With a 72-27 win at Plymouth, Warsaw improved its record to 15-2 overall and finished the NLC schedule with a 6-1 record.
The Tigers won the conference title outright when the Crimson Chargers hosted and defeated NorthWood 63-57.
"We would have liked to win all the conference games, but winning the NLC outright in back-to-back seasons is impressive," said Ogle, whose team sports a 19-2 conference mark the past three seasons. "We haven't lost a conference game on the road in three years. To go three years in the NLC without losing a road game, that's hard to do."
Elkhart Memorial will finish second in the conference this season with a 5-2 mark and will tie either NorthWood or Concord.
The Panthers and Mintuemen are both 4-2 in NLC play and will do battle Saturday in Nappanee.
Wawasee, which still has to play Northridge, sports a 3-3 conference mark, followed by Plymouth (2-5), Northridge (1-5) and Goshen (1-6).
The last team to win back-to-back outright NLC titles was Warsaw in 1993-94 and 1994-95.
While Ogle has a point, it is hard to go three years without losing a conference game on the road, Thursday night's game at Plymouth was hardly a struggle.
The teams traded baskets early in the contest, but Warsaw went on to lead 10-5 after the first quarter, 29-12 at halftime and 55-19 at the end of the third quarter.
"I did not expect this," Ogle said of the 45-point margin. "I expected a close, low-scoring game. I'm happy with how we played. I think we turned a corner in terms of our mental make-up."
The Tigers played the first quarter without Mr. Basketball candidate and leading scorer Nic Moore, who sat out the first eight minutes for disciplinary reasons.
Moore, who came into the game averaging 30 points per contest, scored five points against Plymouth, going 1 of 4 from the field and 2 of 2 from the free throw line.
The 5-foot-9 senior, though he didn't score a lot of points, was still impressive as he dished out eight assists in just 13 minutes of action.
"I challenged Lucas Grose and Jordyn Coon to play well," said Ogle. "I thought they were really steady in the first quarter. I like how they played."
Grose scored a game-high 12 points, while Coon added 10 points.
Rhett Kesler and Jay Holladay scored eight points each, while Clay Anderson added six points.
All 13 players on Warsaw's varsity roster scored at least one point in the win.
The Tigers were 26 of 37 (70 percent) from the field overall, 7 of 11 from three-point range, and 13 of 17 at the charity stripe.
Plymouth, on the other hand, struggled mightily.
The Pilgrims, who fell to 5-12 on the season, finished the game 9 of 35 (26 percent) from the field overall, 2 of 20 from the arc, and 7 of 10 at the free throw line.
"That's an extremely good Warsaw team," said Plymouth coach Kevin Stuckmeyer. "We have to take this game and learn from it. Warsaw isn't overly cocky, but they have a swagger. They had the mindset tonight that they were gonna come in here and win. We didn't have that mindset."
Warsaw led 21-12 midway through the second quarter and took complete control of the game with a 20-0 run that bridged the second and third quarters and pushed the advantage to 41-12.
Comparatively speaking, Plymouth scored 27 points in the game, while Warsaw scored 26 points in the third quarter alone.
"This isn't a sectional game, we get to play again," said Stuckmeyer. "But I want them to remember this feeling. It's not fun."
Sean Smith led the Pilgrims with seven points, while Mack Mercer chipped in with five points and Ryan McNeil and John Ruff chipped in with four points each.
Warsaw is in action again Saturday when it hosts Class 3A No. 8 Peru Saturday. The JV game will tip-off at 1 p.m.
Plymouth plays at Culver Academy Tuesday.
WARSAW 72, PLYMOUTH 27
W 10 19 26 17 - 72
P 5 7 7 8 - 27
Warsaw - Brock Anson 0-0 4-4 4, Jared Bloom 2-2 0-1 5, Joey Sparkman 2-3 0-0 5, Brock Davis 0-0 2-2 2, Nic Moore 1-4 2-2 5, Christopher O'Hara 0-1 1-3 1, Jordyn Coon 4-5 1-1 10, Rhett Kesler 3-4 1-2 8, Lucas Grose 6-9 0-0 12, Jay Holladay 3-4 0-0 8, Jalen Roscoe 1-1 0-0 2, Travis Thomas 2-2 0-0 4, Clay Anderson 2-2 2-2 6. Totals 26-37 13-17 72.
Plymouth - Ryan McNeil 2-12 0-0 4, Joe Knapp 0-2 0-0 0, Brock Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Houston Hodges 1-5 0-0 2, Kyser McCrammer 0-0 0-0 0, John Ruff 1-1 2-3 4, Kyle Kaser 1-2 0-0 2, Mitch Holloway 0-0 0-0 0, Sean Smith 2-5 1-2 7, Mack Mercer 1-3 3-4 5, Gabe Vervynckt 0-2 1-1 1. Totals 9-35 7-10 27.
