SYRACUSE - For the majority of Saturday night's high school boys basketball game at the Hardwood TeePee, Wawasee's student section taunted Whitko junior Logan Irwin.
Irwin was called "over-rated" and referred to as "daddy's girl."
It was Irwin and his teammates who got the last word, however, as the visiting Wildcats overcame a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter and beat the Class 3A No. 8 Warriors 80-75."That was the first time in Logan's three years I've seen someone really get in his head," said Whitko coach Rob Irwin, the talented point guard's dad. "He missed some free throws, but when it was time, he did his job."
Irwin scored 14 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth quarter, as the Wildcats used a 23-3 run to turn a 67-53 deficit into a 76-70 lead with two minutes remaining in the game.
Senior Zac VanDeWater scored 18 points and pulled down eight rebounds before fouling out with 4:18 to play, while senior Max Elder scored 12 points and sophomore Alex Stoddard added eight points.
"All the kids chipped in," said Rob Irwin. "They could have folded when we were down 14, but they didn't."
Whitko extended its winning streak to four games, while Wawasee's four-game winning streak was snapped. Both teams are now 4-1.
"When we get a lead, we've got to put them away," said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler. "This is hard to swallow."
The Warrriors led 25-17 after one quarter of play, 43-34 at halftime and 60-49 and the end of the third quarter.
After scoring the first four points of the fourth quarter, Wawasee held what appeared to be a commanding 14-point lead at 63-49.
The Warriors, however, struggled shooting the ball and were outscored 31-12 the rest of the way.
Wawasee went from shooting 42 percent from the field in the first half to making just 28 percent of its shots in the third and fourth quarters.
The Warriors, a team known for scoring a lot of points because of their three-point shooters, were 23 of 63 from the field overall and 7 of 31 from three-point range.
Whitko, on the other hand, shot better as the game went on, shooting 41 percent in the first half and 59 percent in the second half.
Sophomore Jacob Thompson led Wawasee with 25 points, while senior Trevor McKibben scored 16 points and seniors Riley Stichter and Logan Hatfield with with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Because they play in the same sectional, the Wildcats and Warriors could meet again this season.
In the last three meetings between Whitko and Wawasee, the games have been decided by a total of 10 points.
"I don't know if I would call it a rivalry," said Mishler, whose team fell 75-71 at Whitko in the regular season but later beat the Wildcats 60-59 in the sectional opener at Columbia City.
"I just think it's a product of good players and good teams," added Mishler. "Kosciusko County and the area is up right now, there's a lot of good teams and good players."
The Warriors will face another talented player and team Friday when they open Northern Lakes Confernce play by hosting rival Warsaw and standout guard Nic Moore.
The Tigers are 4-0 and ranked third in the Class 4A poll. Moore is averaging 34 points per game.
"I don't think we could have asked for a better game to get ready for the NLC," Mishler said of the battle with Whitko. "Whitko was aggressive and got after things. That's how it's going to be in the NLC every night."
Prior to the start of the varsity game between Whitko and Wawasee, the second class of the Kosciusko County Basketball Hall of Fame was introduced to the crowd.
Members of the induction class included Lyle Witham (Atwood), Larry Bibler (Beaver Dam), Virgil Gagnon (Burket), Dick Morris (Claypool), Dallas Stouder (Etna Green), Bob Ferverda (Leesburg), Clarence Dickey (Mentone), Bill Speicher (Milford), Daryle Hill (North Webster), Jim Stouffer (Pierceton), Gene Likens (Sidney), Carl Sands (Silver Lake), Lowell Barnhart (Syracuse), Larry Pinkerton (Warsaw) and Kent Adams (Warsaw).
The group will formally be inducted into the Kosciusko County Basketball Hall of Fame in June.
