Wawasee Boys In Search Of Third Straight Class 3A Hoops Sectional Championship
Posted
Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
SYRACUSE - Wawasee enters this week's state tournament with a 15-5 record and in search of its third straight Class 3A NorthWood Sectional championship.
The Warriors drew the bye and play Angola Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Wawasee beat Angola 53-31 in the second game of the regular season, but don't get caught up thinking the Warriors are overlooking the Hornets and already preparing for Saturday's sectional championship game."I remember three years ago when we beat Columbia City and Tippecanoe Valley and then got beat in the sectional," said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler. "We don't want that to happen this year."
In the final two regular season games of the 2003-2004 regular season, Wawasee beat state-ranked Valley and Columbia City, only to fall 73-65 to Angola in the sectional.
The Warriors had beat Angola 68-43 earlier that season and entered the sectional with a 16-4 record.
It sounds eerily similar to this season.
Wawasee finished the regular season with a 77-70 win at Valley, which finished the regular season with an impressive 16-4 record.
And Wawasee enters sectional play against an Angola (11-9) team it has already beat by 21 points this season.
While a third consecutive sectional championship might be in the back of the players' and coaches' minds, that can wait until Saturday. Friday night's game against Angola is priority No. 1.
"We're not overlooking anybody," said Mishler, who could up his coaching record to 100-59 with a win over Angola. "The bye, for our health, is extremely good. Andrew Mock is coming off a hamstring injury and Tylor Trobaugh has been ill. We look at the bye as a gift and we're going to try and take advantage of that gift."
West Noble (5-15) and host NorthWood (14-5) open sectional action at 6 p.m. tonight, followed by Lakeland (14-7) and Northridge (10-10).
Tonight's winners play at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by Wawasee and Angola.
Friday's winners will meet in Saturday's sectional championship, with the winner playing the Bellmont Sectional winner March 10 in the four-team NorthWood Regional. The winners at Fort Wayne Wayne and Blackford play are pitted against each other in the other regional semifinal game.
The Warriors, who enter sectional play winners in three of their last four games, have advanced to the regional round of the state tournament the past two years.
Two years ago, led by Kory Lantz and Austin Kaiser, the Warriors advanced to the Class 3A semistate for the first time in school history.
Last season, Wawasee fell to eventual state runner-up Jay County in the regional final.
To say the least, Wawasee's player are tournament tested and have experience.
"The experience of this team is huge," said Mishler. "We feel good about our chances, but we're going to have to play two very good basketball games. This is a whole new season and everybody has a clean slate. This is an extremely tough sectional."
Lakeland has played the five other teams in the sectional this season and posted a 4-1 record, while NorthWood is 3-1 this season against sectional opponents. Northridge (3-2) is the only other team to have a winning record against the rest of the sectional field this season.
Angola is 2-2 this season against the rest of the sectional, while Wawasee is 2-3 and West Noble is 0-5.
Senior Leach leads Wawasee in scoring with 13.8 points per game, while classmate Trobaugh and junior Brandon Geiger average 11 points each and senior Mock scores 10.
