Warsaw Tigers Fall In Regional FinalMICHIGAN CITY – History nearly repeated itself Saturday. In the end, however, a hot-handed Merrillville team put the Warsaw Tigers' season on ice. A year after winning a regional semifinal game in double overtime and then cutting the nets down after a championship game victory, the Tigers topped East Chicago Central 61-59 in two extra sessions Saturday in the Class 4A regional at Michigan City High School. Trying to win back-to-back regional titles for the first time since 1992 and 1993, Warsaw fell 50-46 in the championship game to a Merrillville squad that shot 64 percent from the field. Warsaw's season ended with an 18-10 record, while the Pirates improved to 21-7 and will play No. 4 Fort Wayne North in a one-game semistate Saturday at Huntington North. “They're loaded up offensively. Between (Cameron) Wilbon, Jonah Jackson, and others, they've got a lot of firepower,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle, whose team lost to Merrillville 53-48 in the Tiger Den on Feb. 11. “Our defense really wasn't that bad, they just made a lot of shots. “When we got up by four, we had a string of three possessions where we lost our balance ... individual players lost their balance, and that created turnovers. We had a pretty good chunk of momentum going there, and we lost it right in that stretch. We ended up with only five turnovers in the game, but three of them were in the same stretch.” The Pirates were 18 of 28 from the field overall, 6 of 9 from three-point range, and 8 of 12 at the free throw line. Senior Jonah Jackson led Merrillville with 18 points, while classmate Cameron Wilbon scored 10 points, and senior Mileek McMillan and junior Johnny Bernard chipped in with eight points each. Senior Kyle Mangas, who scored 47 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the two-point semifinal win, led the Tigers with 24 points in the finals, while classmate Jeremy David was 5 of 5 from the field en route to 10 points. Merrillville, a 75-49 winner over South Bend Adams in the semifinals, led 15-12 after one quarter of play and 26-22 at halftime. Warsaw outscored the Pirates 16-8 in the third quarter to take a 38-34 lead, but Merrillville outscored the Tigers 16-8 in the fourth quarter to account for the final score. “They were 11 of 16 in the first half and 4 of 5 on three-pointers,” Ogle said of the Pirates. “We were 9 of 20, and we were only down by four. If you shoot that well you're supposed to be up by more than four. We were thinking we had kind of weathered it.” Merrillville, which won its first regional title since 2013 and the program's eighth overall, scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to take the lead for good, but still had to hold off Mangas and the Tigers. With his team trailing 47-41, Mangas cut the deficit to four with a steal and dunk, and then trimmed it to one point with a three-pointer with 1:21 remaining. Bernard pushed Merrillville's lead to three by hitting a pair of free throws with 46 seconds left. With possession of the ball, Warsaw called a timeout with 30 seconds remaining. Having already scored 71 points on the day, and with his knack for making big shots, it was no secret Ogle's plan was to get the ball in Mangas' hands. The Pirates didn't allow the 6-foot-3 Indiana All-Star hopeful get a good look at the basket and forced him to pass the ball. Warsaw junior Jack Rhoades got an open three-point attempt, but his shot was off the mark and Bernard corralled the rebound and was fouled. He made 1 of 2 charity tosses with four seconds on the clock to seal the deal. “The whole fourth quarter we were supposed to be trapping an making sure we got the ball out of his hands,” Merrillville coach TJ Lux said of Mangas. “We didn't do that a couple times, and he hurt us. But on the last play, Johnny Bernard did a really good job denying him and making it really difficult. Everybody in the gym knows that Mangas is their guy, he's such a great player and he's just a winner, but I thought we played good defense on that last play and we forced him to give it up.” Mangas, who finished his prep career with 1,450 points, good enough for fourth on Warsaw's all-time scoring list behind Kevin Ault (2,028), Nic Moore (1,891) and Jeff Grose (1,749) hasn't been scared of the big moment. He wanted to take a shot, but said he wasn't going to force a bad shot. “I definitely wanted to take it because I feel really comfortable in the fourth quarter with the ball in my hands, but I'm not gonna force up a shot over two guys or anything like that,” said Mangas. “I dished it to the open man. Jack had an open shot, it just didn't fall.” Mangas was simply amazing in the 61-59 semifinal win over East Chicago Central, finishing the game 15 of 23 from the field overall and 15 of 17 from the charity stripe. Mangas poured in 43 points in regulation before scoring his team's final four points with a pair of free throws in each overtime. The wining charity tosses came with two seconds left after junior Asher Blum threw a length-of-the-court pass to Mangas on an inbounds play. Mangas went up to catch the ball between two East Chicago Central defenders, was held and ended up on the floor. Mangas' 47 points was a new career high, easily topping a previous best of 30. Mangas, who scored the Tigers' first 16 points, is just the fourth Warsaw player to score 47 points in a game, joining Moore (50), Mike Niles (49) and Ault (47). “That was crazy,” Mangas said when asked what it felt like to have that type of performance. “At the start of the game, I was feeling it, so I thought to myself 'I'm feeling it, so I'm gonna go for it.' I just kept being aggressive and trying to get to the basket, and it worked.” East Chicago Central entered the regional averaging 71 points per game. Standout senior Jermaine Couisnard, who is being recruited by the Kansas Jayhawks, was averaging 28 points per game. He was held to 18 points, making 5 of 16 attempts and 5 of 6 free throws. Alyion Stubbs scored 15 points for East Chicago Central, while Jabril Harris finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. With Saturday night’s loss, the prep careers of eight Warsaw seniors ended – Mangas, David, Jaceb Burish, Braxton Minix, Sam Miller, Aaron Sandoval, Shane Powers and Kyle Skeans. “It’s been a great four years,” said Mangas. “I’m going to miss everything about the program. The class of the program, the coaches, I’ll never forget what they taught me. That’s going to stick with me. “The fans, the atmosphere at the games, I’m gonna miss it.”
