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The rivalry between the Warsaw and Wawasee boys basketball programs often has the distinction of beginning Northern Lakes Conference play for both sides. Friday night’s matchup at the Tiger Den was no different. In what was a low-scoring contest that was downright ugly at times, it was the Warriors leaving town with a statement 42-33 victory.
“I thought this was the closest we’ve come to playing a complete game,” Wawasee head coach Joe Luce said after Wawasee’s second win in the Tiger Den in three years. “We talked all week about not getting beat at the rim, and I felt like we did that. We did everything we needed to do.
The Tigers shot just 26.7% from the field in the game.
Neither team seemed interested in attacking the paint in the early going, as most of the attempts over the first four minutes of the game came from deep. The Warriors put the pressure on the home side early, taking a 9-3 lead four minutes into the game thanks to six points from Stephen Akase.
The Tigers were the first team to try and take things down low, as midrange jumpers by Mydin Burgher and Gabe Ioane shrank the deficit to two, but only temporarily. Defensively, Warsaw had no answer whatsoever for Akase. The senior quickly added five more points to his total to extend the lead up to seven and put him in double figures just six minutes into the game.
Akase put an exclamation point on his suburb quarter by emphatically blocking the final Tiger shot attempt of the period. Heading into the second, Warsaw was still looking for answers offensively.
“Ultimately, the difference tonight was that Stephen Akase plays for us and not for them,” Luce said. “We can go through all that, but that’s the bottom line. He was the best player in the gym.”
It would take some time before they’d find some. Over three minutes ticked off the clock before the Tigers put the ball in the hoop for the first time in the quarter, missing a plethora of open shots in the process. On the other side though, the home defense was doing a much better job. The Warriors only managed two points during that stretch, keeping the orange and black in striking distance.
As the stops began to stack, that tight defense began turning into offense for the home side. Down as many as nine, Warsaw began stringing scores together to go with the stops, and suddenly, with three minutes until the half, it was a one-possession game.
With just over a minute to go before the break, Burgher hit his second triple of the night to give his team the lead for the first time. It lasted mere seconds, as the sputtering Wawasee offense suddenly came to life in the final 60 ticks. The last four points of the half belonged to the visitors, putting them up by three at the break.
Warsaw senior Jaron Courtois looks for an opening to the basket around the defense of Wawasee's Kaden Andrew...Nieter
The offensive struggles for both teams bled into the third quarter, as it took nearly four minutes for the first field goal of the quarter to fall, a three pointer by Sam McDaniels that put the Tigers back up in front. Both defenses were having a field day, but it was a combination of that and both offenses just missing good looks.
Wawasee’s first bucket came nearly a minute later, as Akase got back into the score column after a scoreless second quarter. The next few minutes saw the teams sporadically trading the lead with neither side looking like it wanted to take control of the game. The Warriors were able to extend their lead back up to three in the final 30 seconds, but a last-second layup by Burgher made it a one-point affair heading into the fourth.
With six minutes to go in the game, a layup put the Tigers back in front, but moments later, a technical foul called on the Warsaw bench sucked all momentum away from the home side. What followed were two free throws and a dunk from Akase that brought the already-wild Wawasee student section into a frenzy.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened. I don’t like technical fouls, but when you get one to go in your favor, you have to capitalize on them,” Luce said. “We got four points on that possession and that was big.”
The big man wasn’t done there. After another Warsaw miss, the 6’7” senior used every inch of his frame to bully his way into an and-one that put the visitors up by six with just over five minutes to play.
For the Tigers, their inability to make shots was really causing problems now. Three minutes remained and the Warriors were now up eight. The looks had been there all night long, but the home side just could not convert them. As the Warsaw drought reached nearly three minutes, Wawasee had extended its lead to double digits. By the time the orange and black finally got a shot to fall after a missed turnover, they had an eight-point deficit to overcome with two minutes left.
A minute later, the Tigers were no closer to coming back. The Warriors were playing keep away and looked to be running out the clock on a statement victory. Things went from bad to worse as on one particular possession, Warsaw was fouled shooting the basketball three times, but missed the first five free throws.
That would be the final straw, as the visitors took advantage of their trip to the foul line and used the freebies to seal the deal.
Akase had a double-double with 24 points and eleven rebounds. Kaden Andrew had 10 in support. Burgher led Warsaw with 15.
Warsaw (1-3, 0-1 NLC) is at Fort Wayne Carroll Saturday, while Wawasee (4-3, 1-0 NLC) is off until after the holidays, when the team plays Elkhart Christian on Jan. 2
