COLUMBIA CITY - Now that's how you start the 100th IHSAA boys basketball state tournament.
The opening game of Class 3A's Sectional 21 at Columbia City was the epitome of Hoosier Hysteria, as it ended with a last second shot that fell short, leaving the Wawasee Warriors (13-8) with a thrilling 60-59 victory over the Whitko Wildcats (10-11).The win puts Wawasee in Friday's 6 p.m. semifinal against the Columbia City Eagles (13-7), but before getting to that game, they first had to deal with Whitko sophomore Logan Irwin.
Averaging 25.4 points game, Irwin went off in the sectional game, scoring 44 of his team's 59 points on 19-of-32 shooting, leaving him with 1,003 career points.
Making the feat even more impressive was the fact he broke the scaphoid bone in his left wrist in the second quarter, confirmed by a trip to the doctor this morning. Playing with a wrap on his non-shooting hand, Irwin hit 13 of his 17 shots in the second half, becoming a one-man show in the process.
"We played him the same way the whole game," Wawasee coach Phil Mishler said about defending Irwin. "We realized, at the end, we just needed to get the ball out of his hands. We were sending two or three guys out at him, but then we'd just have two or three guys left behind him."
As the father of Logan, Whitko coach Rob Irwin has seen the six-foot point guard get into a shooting zone before, but knows he'd trade a win for a high point total.
"He's an awfully good player," Rob Irwin said. "I don't think a lot of other guards have that will to win like he does.
"Logan would gladly prefer to have some other guys score 25 points each if we won and kept playing," he added.
Instead of getting help, only two other Wildcats scored, junior Zac VanDeWater with 10 points and freshman Alex Stoddard with five.
"Alex and (sophomore) Derek Snep have never played in a sectional game before, and they're playing 32 minutes," Irwin said. "It's a little different pressure in the postseason."
To contrast Whitko's scoring, Wawasee had six different players score at least seven points, led by senior Keegan Beer's 12, followed by junior Logan Hatfield and freshman Jake Thompson's 11.
The latter two Warriors made their biggest impact in the final quarter, when Hatfield scored eight of his points and Thompson went 4 of4 from the free throw line.
Thompson's last two free throws came with 10.9 seconds remaining, giving Wawasee its 60-59 lead.
Whitko's final attempt came from Irwin, who's shot fell short, but was understandable as he was gassed by that point in the game.
"Getting by the first game in the sectional is always the big one," Mishler said. "Now, the guys understand the intensity and the nerves are worked out."
The idea of getting past that first game was looking bleak in the opening half, as Wawasee connected on just 2 of its 17 three-points attempts and junior Riley Stichter, the team's leading scorer at 22 points a game, was limited to just four points.
"They were double and triple teaming him, so we decided to go to our perimeter people for shots," Mishler said of Whitko's defense on Stichter. "In the first half, (the defense) worked well because we weren't hitting."
The biggest scoring drought for the Warriors came early in the second quarter, when they didn't score their first points until the 2:38 mark, falling in a 21-8 hole in the process.
Showing the ability to make runs quickly, Wawasee then scored 12-straight points over the next 59 seconds, cutting the Whitko lead to 21-20.
"We knew there were going to be huge runs," Irwin said.
After the Wawasee run, Whitko couldn't shake the Warriors, who eventually took the lead at 58-56 on two free throws by junior Trevor McKibben with 1:34 to play.
Despite the loss, Whitko can still hang its hat on the fact they don't lose anyone from this year's team.
"I really think Alex can get to 10 points a game next year," Irwin said. "Then, some of the juniors need to decide if they want to work this summer. Either they'll produce or they won't play."
