Warriors Too Much For West NobleSYRACUSE – The Wawasee Warriors had been waiting all season for a game like Friday’s.
The Warriors dominated West Noble 65-43 in a Class 3A Sectional 21 semifinal at Wawasee High School.
“(This is) kind of what we had envisioned at the beginning of the year,” said Wawasee coach Jon Everingham. “We had some road bumps along the way, but we’re here now and we have a chance for the championship.”
The Warriors (6-16) led 13-10 after the first quarter and stretched their lead to double-digits by halftime on the strength of nine points each from Austin Miller and Bennett Hoffert.
“Wawasee came out in the first couple minutes and set the tone with their intensity,” said West Noble coach Galen Mast. “Our kids played hard. They didn’t quite match their intensity tonight.”
At halftime, Everingham told his players to ramp up their intensity.
“We wanted pedal to the metal,” he said. “It was full bore, and I told them, ‘We have to take an 11-point lead into a 20-point lead,’ and that’s exactly what we did.”
Hoffert knocked down two third-quarter treys and Ethan Hardy had eight third-quarter points to push Wawasee to a 23-point advantage by the end of the third.
This was in part because of the neutralization of West Noble forward David Flores, who was limited by foul trouble early.
“We had to keep (Flores) off the glass, and Ethan did a great job of that tonight,” Everingham said.
Wawasee maintained a comfortable lead throughout the fourth quarter, and put in its reserves to finish out the game.
Hoffert hit five three-pointers and finished with a team-high 19 points, while Hardy scored 14 points and Miller had 11 points.
Nick Knepper had a team-high 19 points for West Noble (12-12).
Wawasee will host Tippecanoe Valley today at 7 p.m. in the sectional championship.
“The beginning of the game tomorrow is gonna be very, very important to see who can establish their style of play,” Everingham said.
WAWASEE 65,
WEST NOBLE 43
WN 10 11 7 15 – 43
WA 13 19 19 14 – 65
West Noble – Takota Weigold 1-1 0-0 2, Brockton Miller 0-2 0-0 0, Braden Brewster 1-1 0-0 3, Nick Knepper 4-7 10-11 19, Trevor Franklin 1-10 1-2 2, Drew Miller 0-5 0-0 0, Josh Gross 1-4 7-9 9, Joel Mast 1-6 1-2 3, David Flores 2-4 0-0 5, Abdulellah Saleh 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 11-41 19-24 43.
