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A team that struggled shooting the ball in the latter stages of the season, Wawasee's boys basketball team found a hot hand at the right time Tuesday evening.
Trailing Carroll the majority of Tuesday's opening game of the Warsaw 4A Sectional, the Warriors got 10 crucial fourth-quarter points from 6-foot-2 senior guard Stephan Conrad, lifting them to a 49-46 win.
After trailing by as much as five early in the fourth quarter, Conrad drilled a three-pointer to give Wawasee a 42-41 lead with 3:20 remaining. Another Conrad trey, and then a pair of charity tosses, gave the Warriors a 47-43 lead with 1:32 left.
Carroll junior John Bates drilled a three-pointer with just under seven seconds remaining, cutting the Warrior lead to one, but Conrad was fouled immediately and then hit two free throws to ice the game and finish the Chargers' season with the three-point loss.
"Stephan Conrad had two excellent practices for us this week," third-year Warrior coach Phil Mishler said. "He shot the ball well, he shot like he just left practice."
Conrad finished the game 4 of 8 from the field, 4 of 7 from the three-point arc, and made all four of his charity shots to finish with a team-high 16 points.
The win improved Wawasee to 15-7, the most wins since Gary Goshert's team won the sectional in 1995 and finished with a 17-6 mark, and puts the Warriors in Friday's 6 p.m. semifinal game with No. 6 Columbia City. The Eagles advanced by winning a thrilling 45-42 contest over host Warsaw.
Fourth-ranked DeKalb battles East Noble in Friday's bye game, with the winners meeting in Saturday's title tilt.
Despite the absence of two players - junior center Lowell Grissom and senior guard Seth Lochmueller - Rob Irwin's Carroll Chargers were full of spark.
Grissom, whose stepfather Cliff Levingston played on two NBA championship teams with the Chicago Bulls, was recently released from the team because of disciplinary problems. Lochmueller sat out last night's game after suffering a concussion in Friday's regular season finale at Warsaw.
Even without the 6-foot-7 Grissom's play inside, Carroll held Warrior starting senior post players Clint Custer and Ben Knisely, both listed at 6-5, to seven points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field.
Custer finished the game with five points, while Knisely scored two.
The Chargers, on the other hand, got strong inside play from the 6-4 Bates, who finished with a game-high 19 points.
"This was the first game of the tournament for us, the first game of the night," Mishler said. "For a team that hasn't won a sectional game in a long time, things can look big or small, depending on what the situation is. It was ugly, but Conrad had a good game and we get to play again Friday."
Sophomore Kory Lantz added nine for the Warriors, while senior Kyle Lantz finished with seven, despite being saddled with three fouls less than four minutes into the game.
Matthew Vorndran scored eight for Carroll, while teammates Tyler Oyer and Andrew Bourne added seven each and Blake Pond five.
Carroll's season ends at 9-12.
WAWASEE 49, CARROLL 46
Carroll 13 5 14 14 - 46
Wawasee 12 7 13 17 - 49
Carroll FG FT R S Pts.
* Oyer 3-7 0-0 2 0 7
* Pond 2-7 1-1 4 2 5
* Bourne 3-7 0-0 2 0 7
* Vorndran 4-7 0-0 7 0 8
* Bates 6-12 3-3 4 1 19
Faylor 0-3 0-0 3 1 0
Gensic 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Kuehnert 0-2 0-0 1 1 0
Schortgen 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 18-45 4-4 23 5 46
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
* Ko. Lantz 3-7 2-3 8 2 9
* Conrad 4-8 4-4 0 0 16
* Ky. Lantz 3-4 0-0 1 1 7
* Custer 1-7 3-6 7 0 5
* Knisely 1-2 0-0 3 0 2
Kaiser 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Stichter 3-6 0-1 3 2 6
Kauchak 2-3 0-0 1 1 4
Totals 17-38 9-14 23 6 49
Three-point goals - Carroll 4-8 (Bates 2-3, Oyer 1-2, Bourne 1-2, Faylor 0-1), Wawasee 6-13 (Conrad 4-7, Ko. Lantz 1-2, Ky. Lantz 1-1, Stichter 0-2, Kaiser 0-1). Fouls - Carroll 17, Wawasee 11. Fouled out - none.
