Tigers use big second quarter to beat Wawasee 63-42
Posted
Mark Howe-mhowe@timesuniononline.com
SYRACUSE – Wawasee got off to a hot start in the first six minutes against Warsaw Friday night. The visiting Tigers, however, turned up the defensive pressure, sending the Warriors into a shooting drought from which they did not recover in a 63-45 loss in the Northern Lakes Conference opener for both teams. After hitting five field goals in the first quarter, Wawasee hit only three shots over the next 23 minutes of playing time. “Our full court pressure hurt them,” Warsaw head coach Doug Ogle said. “After spotting them a 6-0 lead, we played pretty well. The press really had them stymied, and we were just making shots. “Offensively we were scoring points in transition off of steals, and (Tim) Swanson continues to shoot the ball really well. He’s our leading scorer coming off the bench, and I challenged him at the beginning of the season to be our Manu Ginobili, and he’s accepted that and done a really good job. “I thought Paul Marandet played really well in the first half, and Kyle Mangas as well. We’re a balanced team, and in that first half we got it going.” For the most part, Wawasee head coach Steve Wiktorowski agreed with Ogle. “I thought the story of the game was the second quarter.” he said. “We came out ready, and got the shots we wanted, and were down three. Swanson came in and hit a couple of threes, and they picked up the pressure with their press, and we struggled with that. We had a few turnovers, and they took us out of our rhythm, we had been scoring better in the first quarter, and they took us out of our offense in the half court. “We had some defensive breakdowns that are pretty unusual for us. We gave up some easy baskets off of those breakdowns, and we struggled until the last part of the fourth quarter with our shooting. That tends to be contagious; we missed free throws, we missed some easy ones inside, and I thought we never really recovered that focus and rhythm we had in the first quarter. “Give Warsaw a lot of credit for that, they did a nice job defensively, they started to take it inside on us. (Marandet) hurt us in that second quarter with some drives, he hit a nice pull-up on the baseline then that shot at the buzzer with a guy in his face. I thought those two guys really hurt us and got the momentum going for them.” There was no sense of panic in the Tigers after taking Wawasee’s best shot early. “We talked about that at halftime; I was proud that we didn’t have a good start, but yet we hung in there and kept playing,” Ogle said. “We have a very experienced team, and I was proud that none of our guys pushed the panic button.” The Warriors continued to battle, and Gage Reinhard and Alex Clark hit back-to-back threes to close the gap to 14 with 3:27 to play, but Wawasee got no closer. “I thought we lost our mojo in the second half, especially defensively, and let them get loose for too many threes,” Ogle said. “We just quit playing intelligently, and with effort on defense. They started making shots, and they got it back down to 14, and it’s a game when you get it to 14 with three minutes to go.” Rashaan Jackson led Warsaw with 16 points, while Mangas added 13 and Swanson and Marandet scored 11 each. Clark scored 16 points for Wawasee, while Reinhard added 14. Wawasee, now 5-2 and 0-1 in the NLC, travels to Columbia City for a 7:45 p.m. Tuesday start. Warsaw improved to 5-1 and 1-0 in conference and hosts South Bend Riley in the opening round of the Warsaw Holiday Tournament at 10 a.m. on Dec. 27.
WARSAW 63, WAWASEE 42 War 17 15 13 18 – 63 Waw 12 5 7 18 – 42 Warsaw – Kyle Mangas 5-6 2-2 13, Paul Marandet 3-4 4-5 11, Jeremy David 0-0 0-0 0, Peyton Long 1-1 2-2 4, Evan Schmidt 0-0 0-0 0, Tim Swanson 3-4 3-3 11, Nick Sands 1-4 0-0 3, Jake Mangas 1-1 0-0 2, Rashan Jackson 5-10 6-7 16, Riley Rhoades 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 20-32 17-21 63. Wawasee – Aaron Voirol 0-3 1-2 1, Jeffrey Moore 0-1 0-0 0, Gage Reinhard 5-8 2-7 14, Jake Hutchinson 0-3 0-0 0, David Rocha 1-2 2-2 4, Jayce Boatwright 0-2 0-0 0, San Clark 0-3 2-2 2, Parker Hatfield 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Clark 5-10 3-4 16, Stori Bright 1-4 3-5 5, Stephon Miller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-36 13-22 42. Three-pointers – Warsaw 6 (Swanson 3, K. Mangas, Marandet, Sands), Wawasee 5 (A. Clark 4, Reinhard 2); Rebounds – Warsaw 15 (Marandet 3, Jackson 3); Turnovers – Warsaw 10, Wawasee 14; Steals – Warsaw 6 (Marandet 2), Wawasee 2 (Reinhard, Bright); Fouls – Warsaw 20, Wawasee 19; Fouled out – none; Records – Warsaw 5-1 (1-0), Wawasee 5-2 (0-1) JV – Wawasee 47, Warsaw 45 Warsaw – Rane Kilburn 13, Braxton Minix 12, Sam Miller 9, Jacob Burish 5, Ross Johnson 4, Jordan Steffensmeier 2 Wawasee – Cayden Wegener 16, Aaron Beer 11, Tim Conley 10, Stephon Miller 5, Chase Rookstool 3, Austin Pearish 2
