SYRACUSE - It was a wild night at Wawasee High School's Hardwood Tepee Saturday, and one that ended the season of the Wawasee boys basketball team.
Despite opening the game with a 10-0 lead, the host Warriors (17-6) failed to defend their Class 3A Sectional 21 crown, falling 67-66 to the Columbia City Eagles (17-5)."Our whole team came out and gave all they had," Wawasee coach Phil Mishler said. "I don't have any regrets. They shouldn't have any regrets. It was two good basketball teams playing to one point. It just didn't go our way."
Things were going Wawasee's way for much of the game, as it never trailed until Columbia City used a 14-0 run between the 4:54 and 1:37 marks of the third quarter to take a 54-45 lead of its own.
"It wasn't a nice third quarter for us," Mishler said. "Columbia City had a plan and they came out and hit some shots."
During the 14-0 run, Columbia City's 6-foot-6 senior Kyle Moser scored six of his 11 points, helping to sway the momentum.
"They stopped our penetration a little in the second half, but then we were able to get some post feeds to Tyler," Columbia City coach Chris Benedict said. "Tyler did a really nice job in the third quarter of going to the rim strong."
Wawasee did retake the lead when junior Jake Clark converted two free throws after being fouled while trying to nab a rebound with 58 seconds remaining in the game. The made free throws gave the Warriors a 64-62 lead, but it was short lived.
On the Eagles' ensuing possession, sophomore Derek Hinen drove to the bucket, drawing a foul while making the bucket. After making his free throw, Hinen gave his team a lead it wouldn't lose, although it did come close to.
After failing to score on its next possession, Wawasee was forced to foul Columbia City, but a foul by Clark on Eagles sophomore Brandon Gay was more of a tackle, and led to an intentional foul being called.
"We wanted to try to get a steal in the full-court press with 24 seconds left," Mishler said. "If not, we wanted to get an immediate foul. It was just a great job of their kids to keep the ball in the good free throw shooters' hands. It got desperate, then we just needed a foul. He wanted to get it done, then that was just the call."
Gay went on to make just one of his two free throws, but after getting the ball back because of the intentional foul, Moser was then sent to the line, where he made one of two, increasing the Eagles' lead to 67-64 with 9.9 seconds remaining.
Out of timeouts, Wawasee came down and shot a three-pointer, which was missed, but senior Cody McBride grabbed the rebound and was fouled on his putback basket.
The foul left Benedict stomping and screaming at the referees, but after McBride missed the free throw, his emotions changed with the realization his team had won its first sectional title since 2004.
"High school sports at their best, I guess," Benedict said. "To get down the way we got down in the first half, then to put ourselves in a position to even be in the game. I was just proud of our kids and the way they stuck with it."
The win was a nice sendoff for the Eagles, who will be leaving Class 3A to join 4A next season.
"It's exactly the way you'd like to end it," Benedict said. "We've moved every time they've reclassified. We were 3A, then 4A, then 3A and now back to 4A. The move is nothing new to us. It is a nice way to end being in 3A."
Columbia City avenged a 66-48 home loss on Dec. 21 to Wawasee, and was actually outrebounded 41-21 in the win.
"They rebound like no other team I've ever seen," Benedict said.
Senior Riley Stichter led the rebounding party, hauling in 17 to go with his 20 points. Senior Trevor McKibben closed his prep career with a 19-point game, while Clark scored 10 and McBride netted eight.
Columbia City was led by sophomore Drew Benedict's 17 points, while Hinen scored 16 to go with Moser's 11.
The Eagles move on to the Blackford Regional, where they will face Delta at 10 a.m. Saturday. The winner of that game moves on to the night's championship game against Fort Wayne Harding or Norwell.
"Hopefully we can go next week and represent our sectional well, because there's a number of teams in this sectional that can make deep runs," Benedict said. "Hopefully we're one of them. NorthWood had a great year, Whitko had a great year and Wawasee is phenomenal. We just feel very, very fortunate to be able to move on."
Three years ago, Mishler implemented a go-go-go style of play due to a lack of size, and it seems to have worked, claiming one sectional title and being two points shy of a second.
"I think we played to our strength," Mishler said. "Our guys responded to it, they believed in it and they made it happen. They shot 60,000-plus shots every offseason to get ready for this kind of style. The plan was to win a state championship."
