by Beau Wicker
ROCHESTER — Winamac’s boys basketball team has made big strides after a rocky start to the season.
That trend continued here Wednesday night in the consolation game of The Winning Edge Holiday Tourney. The Warriors nearly came all the way back from a 16-point, second-half deficit against Tippecanoe Valley, but the Vikings were able to hold them off at the end to win 60-53.
“It was a great effort by the guys,” Winamac coach Bill Ball said. “They didn’t give up. They keep playing hard. We’re getting better and better, it’s just we’ve got to keep working at it and the wins will come.”
The Warriors (2-7) trailed 20-11 after one quarter and 33-19 at halftime. After the Vikings (3-6) opened the third quarter with a field goal to make it 35-19, it took Winamac about two minutes to cut the lead in half with an 8-0 spurt. The run consisted of back-to-back 3-pointers by Zach Shidler and Andrew Malott, and Shidler later added a field goal of the two-point variety.
The Warriors trailed 44-36 after three quarters and kept chipping away at the Vikings’ lead in the fourth. They got as close as 53-50 with just under two minutes to play after a Malott free throw and a Bryan McKinney putback for an unconventional three-point play.
The Warriors fouled on the other end and Bret Cooper made them pay by drilling both free throws to make it 55-50 with 1:22 left. McKinney missed a pair of free throws on the other end, and a Taylor Burkhart basket gave the Vikings a seven-point lead.
Quentin Blount drilled his third straight 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 57-53 with :43 remaining. After a Tippy Valley free throw, Malott misfired on a well-contested 17-footer with :12 left, and the Vikings closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws in the final seconds.
“It was a great effort in the second half, but it’s tough to come from behind when you get down that many points to a good team in the first half,” said Ball, who added the first-half deficit was caused by “a lot of turnovers, just some unfortunate mistakes for us, not communicating on defense.
“If we keep doing the things we’re doing and eliminate some of those mistakes and those big gaps when teams are making those big runs, we’ll be OK.”
Malott led the Warriors with 15 points. Blount finished with 12, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Shidler, a freshman, scored 11.
Zach Owens scored 13 of his game-high 16 points in the first half to lead four Vikings in double figures. Burkhart had 15, Cooper had 13 and Anthony Tolson scored 12.
“I thought our first half was pretty solid, really,” Tippy Valley coach Bill Patrick said. “Our rebounding was solid the first half and we moved the ball and had some assists. In the second half we didn’t rebound well, we just didn’t have the ball movement, we made a couple mistakes. Winamac hit a couple big threes.”
Patrick, a Hall of Fame coach, was impressed with Winamac.
“Actually it’s a pretty good team,” he said. “They’ve got two or three kids that can shoot the [3-pointer] well and a couple kids that rebound pretty well. … They’re young, they’ve got a couple young kids there, but by the end of the year they’re gonna be a pretty solid team.”
Winamac’s Steven Wagner left the game with 2:13 left in the first quarter with an ankle injury after scoring four quick points. Ball expects Wagner to be back for the Warriors’ next game on Jan. 9 against Knox. Ball added center Gavun Henry had an MRI on his shoulder Wednesday and that his status remains unknown.
