NAPPANEE -The saying is, defense wins championships.
For Wawasee Friday night, defense got the Warriors to the championship.
Despite a poor shooting night all around, Wawasee held Angola to just 22 points over the final 26 minutes in a 50-36 win in the NorthWood Sectional semifinals.In the first game of the evening, NorthWood ended Northridge's season by a count of 62-56.
Wawasee shot just 11 of 31 from the field for the game but went 25 of 28 from the foul line and kept the Hornets from going on the offensive.
"Defense and rebounding won this game for us tonight," said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler.
The Warriors got down early and trailed Angola 12-3 before Mishler took a timeout at the 5:29 mark of the first quarter.
Brandon Geiger hit two free throws for Wawasee, then Andrew Mock hit two more. Chas Amadeo came off the bench to hit a three-pointer to cut the Hornets' advantage to two at 12-10.
After Angola's Jed Huscher hit two free throws, Geiger hit another pair from the charity stripe that was followd up by a jumper by Joe Leach to tie the contest up at 14-14 at the end of the quarter.
The Warriors then grinded out a four-point lead at halftime, 20-16, before finally showing what kind of team they're capable of being.
Wawasee began to find holes in Angola's 2-3 zone and began to slowly stretch its lead.
While the Warriors only led by as much as 10 points for most of the game, with Angola's inability to connect on shots or get offensive rebounds, Wawasee's lead might as well have been 20.
Area Player of the Year Leach scored seven of his team-high 16 points in the second half as he moved without the ball, got in the middle of Angola's zone and created easy shot attempts.
"We knew we had to start getting the ball inside against they're zone," said Mishler. "In the first half we were able to get in there we just couldn't hit shots."
Even though Wawasee never really shot the ball too well from the field, the Warriors were able to keep Angola from scoring and held a 26-16 edge on the boards.
Geiger and Lance Zimmerman each finished with a game-high seven rebounds.
Besides Leach, Tylor Trobaugh scored 11 points for the Warriors despite just 2-of-9 shooting from the field.
Mock finished with 10 points and was the only other Warrior to finish in double figures.
Wawasee was unusually chilly from three-point land. The Warriors were just 3 of 12 from the arc. Wawasee had 12 turnovers while forcing the Hornets into 14.
Angola's lone senior, Andy Ameling, led all scorers with 17 points while sophomore Chris Kent had 10. Huscher was the only other Hornet to score with nine points.
With the win, Wawasee (16-5) advances to the NorthWood Sectional championship to take on the host Panthers.
The two teams squared off earlier in the year, with the Panthers escaping with a 72-63 win Jan. 5. Wawasee was without the services of Trobaugh that night. With the Warriors' girls team advancing to the 3A state finals, the game has been pushed back to Monday.
With that extra time Mishler and his team will practice today and prepare for a NorthWood squad that looked dangerous against Northridge in Friday night's first game.
"If NorthWood plays like that, they can win a state championship," said Mishler of the Panthers' Friday-night performance. Our guys know that all five of their guys can score and that we can't make mistakes."
