Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - The Wawasee Wariors faced quite the challenge Saturday night as they took on the enigmatic DeKalb Barons.
The Barons' squad consists of eight players 6 feet or taller. While the Warriors were able to match up fairly well size-wise with DeKalb, they couldn't match their athleticism as they fell to the Barons 63-49.
Six-foot-8 John Watkins terrorized Wawasee all night as he switched from being a perimeter player to a post player. This left the Warriors with quite the problem.
If they put a smaller player on Watkins, he could post up.
If Wawasee had a bigger player guard him, he could easily drive to the basket. Wawasee tried both strategies and both failed.
The Warriors dodged many early bullets, however. Despite driving to the basket and drawing numerous fouls, Watkins struggled from the charity stripe, connecting on only 4 of 13 from the line all night.
Watkins' ineptitude at the foul line allowed Wawasee to keep the pressure on. Led by 13 first-half points by senior center Andrew Warner, the Warriors were able to keep pace with the Barons. Going into the locker room at halftime, Wawasee trailed DeKalb only 32-28.
However, as Warner went, so went the Warriors. Warner went scoreless in the second half and could only watch as Watkins poured in 11 third-quarter points as the Barons outscored Wawasee 19-14, moving their lead to nine points.Ê
The resilient Warriors refused to roll over as junior forward Jeremy High scored five straight points to start the final quarter, bringing his team to within four points. Wawasee would then go scoreless virtually the rest of the quarter as an R.J Nethaway basket later in the quarter would
conclude the Warrior scoring for the night.Ê
While as a team Dekalb struggled all night from the free throw line,
they did hit the ones in crunch time. The Barons went 6-10 from the line in
the fourth quarter compared to 7-22 prior.
Wawasee now 0-3 hosts the undefeated Warsaw Tigers next friday.
