On a night that saw legendary Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda in the Tiger Den, the Warsaw Tigers dismantled the Wawasee Warriors to open NLC play. The former LA Dodger's skipper was in attendance to watch family friend Rhett Kesler. Little did anyone of the 4,000+ fans in attendance expect what Rhett and his Tiger teammates were about to do.

The visiting Wawasee Warriors from Syracuse, Indiana were a runaway train that previous opponents had no idea how to stop. The Warriors were a perfect 5-0 leading up to the showdown in Warsaw Friday night. Not only were they winning, but Wawasee had been blowing out teams by more than 20 points per game.

Scoring off the opening tip, the Warriors hit he scoreboard first. Was Doug Ogle's Tiger team about to be the next Warrior victim to be tomahawked?

Uh, no...

The Tigers scored on their first three possessions of the game. Senior Jordyn Coon led the early attack with a scoring drive in the paint. JSmooth struck again with a field goal the next trip down the court. Fellow senior Lucas Grose scored on successive offensive series as well for Warsaw. The senior duo quickly sent a message to the team in green. The Warriors were going to have to play some defense to have any chance at stopping the team in orange and black.

Warrior junior guard Jacob Thompson hit his first of three outside shots of the night to keep Wawasee in the game. The Tigers owned a 16-9 lead after the first quarter.

Wawasee started the second quarter in a full court man-to-man press that forced Warsaw to adjust their attack. Jared Bloom quickly drained a 3-point field goal to extend the Tiger lead to 10 points. Warsaw continued to fight fire with fire. Coach Ogle applied as much defensive pressure as possible. The Tigers forced 17 Warrior turnovers that turned into 20 Warsaw points. Compared to just 6 points off of turnovers for Wawasee. Obviously Warsaw knew what was coming and had prepared an excellent game plan of how to take care of the basketball while dictating the pace of play.

HALFTIME SCORE: Warsaw 31 - Wawasee 21

The Warriors again struck first in the 3rd quarter as guard Jake Clark hit an outside jumper to cut the Tiger lead to just seven points. Lucas Grose answered for the Tigers on one of his 3 offensive rebound put-backs. The Tigers out-rebounded the Warriors by a total of 35 to 27. In a high possession basketball game, the team who wins the rebounding battle by a decisive mark has an excellent chance to win the game.

Wawasee continued to fight. At the three-minute mark of the 3rd quarter, the Warriors had battled back to trim the Warsaw lead to 7 points. Before the Warriors could get any closer, Lucas Grose slipped behind the full-court pressure. The 6'6" senior caught a long pass that flew over the entre Warrior defense. Grose skied in the air and jammed the basketball through the net for his first slam dunk of the year. BEDLAM ENSUED!

The Tiger Den erupted with the crazed screams of Tiger fans. The third quarter had drawn to a close in dramatic fashion. Warsaw led by 17 (50-33) headed into the 4th quarter.

Warsaw's guards took care of the basketball in the final quarter to eliminate any hope of a Wawasee comeback. Rhett Kesler, Jordan Stookey, and Jordy Coon really did an excellent job of remaining patient in the face of the pressure. Jacob Thompson single handedly tried to keep Wawasee in this game. Thompson scored a game-high 30 points, but he just didn't get enough help on this night.

Warsaw executed 17 of 24 free throws for the game to close out the win.

Complete Scoring for Warsaw:

Grose and Bloom led the rebounding effort with 6 boards each. Stookey led the Tigers in assists with 6.

With the victory Warsaw improves to 5-1 on the season. Coach Doug Ogle's Tiger program has compiled a 65-12 record over the past 77 games. That is a phenomenal 84.4 winning percentage during this span. Tiger fans have certainly grown accustomed to good outcomes.

Warsaw will host the 5-2 Triton Trojans this Tuesday night (12/20/11) in the Tiger Den. Triton has enjoyed a similar run (99-14 over the past 113 games) of winning under Coach Jason Groves. That's a winning percentage of 87.6%! Obviously both teams cannot win Tuesday night, but the battle for the victory will sure be worth the price of admission.

Whether you are a Warsaw Tiger fan or a Triton Trojan fan, you need to make sure you head over to the Tiger Den to watch this battle of two powerhouse basketball programs. Last season this game was played on the campus of Grace College in front of a SOLD OUT Orthopaedic Capital Center crowd.

Remember this, seats above the rail at the Tiger Den are sold on a "first come/first serve" basis. So get to the game between 5:45 and 6:30 to make certain you get a good seat for this game. Triton fans travel well and love their Trojan basketball team. Warsaw fans are no exception as they proved in this Wawasee game - the Tiger Den was PACKED!!

See you Tuesday night!

Posted In: Boy's Sports > Basketball

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