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First-year Whitko High School boys basketball coach Rob Irwin said the Warsaw Tigers were a better team than his Whitko Wildcats.
According to Irwin, who spent a decade as the head coach at Carroll, that's why the host Tigers beat Whitko 61-56 Friday night in the Tiger Den.
Irwin said his goal was for his team to keep things interesting.
Did they ever.
Despite scoring just four points in the first quarter, and then later trailing by 19 points with 5:51 remaining in the third quarter, the vistiting Wildcats only trailed 59-56 with 22 seconds left in the game.
"The bottom line is, Warsaw is just a better team," said Irwin, whose team fell to 1-7 on the season while the Tigers won their third straight game and improved to 5-4 on the season. "We wanted to keep things interesting. We did that."
The Wildcats' lone win came Dec. 6 against a Central Noble team that is still winless. Whitko entered Friday's contest having lost its last three games by margins of 17, 28 and 33 points, respectively.
The 33-point loss was to Tippecanoe Valley, a team that Warsaw beat by double digits in the season opener.
While Irwin said Warsaw was the more talented team, it was the squad from South Whitley that arguably played with more desire. The Wildcats just came up short because they had to dig themselves out of a huge hole and because Warsaw did just enough down the stretch to walk out of the Tiger Den with a win.
"The kids just hung around," said Irwin, whose sixth-grade son Logan plays basketball at Lincoln Elementary in Warsaw. "The main things is we got better. You never want to lose, but we had some guys do some things we've been trying to get them to do. After taking a few steps back against Tippecanoe Valley, this was a step in the right direction."
The Tigers led 49-38 after three quarters, but Whitko opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run that was capped off by a basket from freshman guard Cory Snep that cut Warsaw's advantage to two, 49-47, with 4:20 left to play.
Warsaw senior Colin Clemens, who wasn't in the starting lineup because of what fourth-year coach Doug Ogle called a "disciplinary action" that resulted from an "incident in practice Thursday," sandwiched a pair of baskets around a three-point play from teammate Steve Lemasters.
The duo's quick seven-point spurt gave the Tigers a 56-47 lead with 2:32 to play.
Snep hit a field goal to cut the deficit to four, 58-54, and a free throw from 6-foot-7 junior Miles Plumlee pushed Warsaw's advantage to five with 30 seconds remaining.
A basket by Patrick Carroll with 22 seconds left made the score 59-56 in Warsaw's favor, and then Clemens hit 2 of 4 free throw attempts down the stretch, allowing the Tigers to escape with the five-point win.
"I was extremely disappointed with the way we played, really throughout the game, even in the first quarter," said Ogle. "We were casual with the basketball and with our possessions. We wasted too many possessions. I was extremely disappointed in the way we played."
In a first quarter in which both teams struggled with turnovers, the Tigers raced out to a 16-4 advantage.
Whitko cut the lead to eight, 16-8, when Carroll converted a pair of free throws early in the second quarter, but the Wildcats trailed by at least 10 points until senior Jeff Coats' basket with 7:02 remaining in the game cut the Warsaw advantage to nine, 49-40.
Coats led Whitko with a game-high 13 points, hitting 5 of 9 field goals and 3 of 3 free throw attempts.
Brad Smith added 12, while Carroll and Snep scored 11 points each.
Shaun Cabrera, Clemens and Lemasters all scored 10 points for Warsaw, while Miles Plumlee scored seven points, Tommy Reinholt scored six points and junior Ben Truman and freshman Mason Plumlee scored five points each.
Whitko finished the game with 19 turnovers, while the Tigers turned the ball over 26 times.
Both teams scored 28 points off turnovers.
Warsaw was just 11 of 24 at the free throw line, while the Wildcats hit 21 of 28 free throws.
The Tigers, who now hold a 14-9 advantage in the overall series against Whitko, are in action Friday at Northern Lakes Conference foe Northridge.
Whitko, which hadn't played Warsaw since 1991, hosts Maconaquah Tuesday.
WARSAW 61, WHITKO 56
Whitko 4 19 15 18 - 56
Warsaw 16 19 14 12 - 61
Whitko FG FT R S Pts.
* Walter 1-4 1-2 0 0 3
* Carroll 3-5 5-6 0 2 11
* Smith 2-5 8-9 4 3 12
* Warner 2-4 2-4 2 2 6
* Coats 5-9 3-3 4 0 13
Swender 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Rowland 0-1 0-2 1 0 0
Snep 4-7 2-2 2 2 11
Wilkinson 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 17-35 21-28 14 9 56
Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.
* Cabrera 4-7 0-3 3 5 10
*Mi. Plumlee 3-6 1-4 3 2 7
* T. Reinholt 2-2 2-2 6 4 6
* Lemasters 4-6 1-3 2 1 10
*M. Reinholt 1-1 0-0 2 0 2
Truman 1-2 3-5 0 0 5
Blanton 1-1 1-1 0 0 3
Fuller 1-1 0-0 0 1 3
Ma. Plumlee 2-2 1-1 4 0 5
Clemens 4-6 2-5 6 0 10
Totals 23-34 11-24 26 13 61
Three-point goals - Whitko 1-8 (Snep 1-3, Walter 0-2, Smith 0-2, Carroll 0-1), Warsaw 4-10 (Cabrera 2-5, Lemasters 1-3, Fuller 1-1, Clemens 0-1). Turnovers - Whitko 19, Warsaw 26. Fouls - Whitko 22, Warsaw 22. Fouled out - M. Reinholt.
JV - Warsaw 48, Whitko 23
