12-08-2003SOUTH BEND - Ten years ago a matchup between South Bend Clay and Warsaw would call for standing room only seating at the Colonials’ gym. While Warsaw, now under the tutelage of Doug Ogle, remains one of the state’s top programs, the same can’t be said for Clay. Successes have been few and far between since Jaraan Cornell led the Colonials to the 1994 state championship over Bryce Drew and Valpo. Success went Warsaw’s way on Saturday night with a 54-44 victory in South Bend.
This year’s Colonial squad came into Saturday night’s contest 0-2 with close losses to Glenn and East Chicago Central. Warsaw, crisscrossing the state, came in with a 2-1 record that included a win 60-46 against Fort Wayne South the night before in the Summit City.
On paper it looked as if Warsaw should control the game. A sparse but enthusiastic crowd saw Clay scrap and fight for an upset. Early on however it appeared as if Warsaw was ready to deliver the knockout punch.
After struggling to get the goose egg off the scoreboard the Tigers went on an 11-0 run to take an 11-4 lead. Unfazed the Colonials went on a 9-0 run of their own to overtake the lead at 13-11. Ryan Schultz’s three-pointer from the corner as time expired gave the Tigers the one point edge, 14-13, after one.
Both teams struggled from the field early and often and looked sluggish at times trying to get into any sort of groove.
Warsaw’s Adam Griggs was one of the few on the court who looked sharp for all 32 minutes. The 6-5 senior controlled the interior on his way to a game-high 21 points. While the rest of the Tigers struggled on offense Griggs kept his squad ahead scoring 10 of the team’s 14 second quarter points.
As poorly as Warsaw may have shot, 18-40 for the game, Clay was abysmal. That was evident in the second quarter where the Colonials went 3-14. Offensive rebounding by Ashton Daniel allowed for second chance scores and kept the Tigers from increasing their lead to double digits. Daniel received extended playing time due to senior Dannie Parker’s persistent foul trouble.
Parker picked up his second foul at the 3:59 mark of the first quarter and was forced to sit out most of the rest of the first half. While Daniel and Co. did an admirable job of filling in Parker’s offense was missed. Parker led Clay with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field in limited action.
The second half saw a bit of a burst from Warsaw point guard Michael Moore.
The 5-foot-8 junior struggled from the field unable to connect on his four first half attempts. Matters weren’t helped when a hard foul by a Colonial nearly separated Moore’s shoulder from the rest of him. Last year Moore was sidelined for a good part of the season with an injury to that same shoulder. Moore played the rest of the game without incident and after the game Ogle believed Moore was alright.
He opened up the third-quarter scoring driving right past his defender for an easy layup and his first points of the night. The points would be harder to come by for Warsaw after that. Clay’s patchwork offense put points on the boards when needed and drew to within one when forward Craig Moore’s short turnaround jumper made the score 32-31. Moore once again connected from the field late in the quarter to even the count at 37-all going into the final quarter.
Clay was able to use smoke and mirrors for the first three quarters on offense but that began to fade late in the game.
Warsaw became more aggressive in the final period leading to more offensive continuity and trips to the foul line. The Tigers went 9 of 11 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter alone, including two from Todd Braddock with 2:19 left to put Warsaw up by five.
Resilient to the end, Clay answered when Ryan Varga stole the ball from Moore, drove the length of the court and dished to Roy Winston for the layup cutting the lead to 47-44.
The death knell for Clay came when Griggs’ found Dan Gensinger with a minute left to extend Warsaw’s lead and the Tigers would never looked back.
As impressive as Griggs was on the offensive end, Ogle was more pleased with his all around game.
“Adam is a versatile player who is playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Ogle. “Although he didn’t score a lot of points at the end, he did come up with big rebounds and made some nice passes to help set up his teammates.”
As for the overall performance Ogle just seemed happy to finish the weekend road trip with two wins.
“I know that we can play better,” said Ogle. “Clay played with some urgency and did a
good job of getting inside on us. We finally had better execution in the fourth quarter.”
Anytime you can come into a tough environment and come away with a victory is an accomplishment. This weekend, we were fortunate enough to make the most of two long trips.”
Warsaw now 3-1 will host Gary Wallace Friday night at 6:45 in the Tiger Den.
WARSAW 54,
SOUTH BEND CLAY 44
Warsaw 14 14 9 17 - 54
Clay 13 8 16 7 - 44
WARSAW FG FT A S R PTS
Moore* 2-9 0-0 5 2 2 4
Schultz* 1-7 2-2 1 1 3 5
Griggs* 7-9 7-8 4 1 5 21
Wienhorst* 4-9 2-3 0 1 9 11
Braddock* 2-3 5-9 3 1 5 9
Geinsinger 1-2 0-0 0 0 6 2
Alison 1-1 0-1 0 0 1 2
Sherman 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
TOTALS 18-40 16-23 13 6 32 54
SB CLAY FG FT A S R PTS
Payne* 1-5 1-2 0 0 4 3
Parker* 5-9 1-2 1 2 4 12
Moore* 4-14 0-0 0 0 7 8
Harnoff* 0-7 0-1 1 1 2 0
Varga* 1-7 0-0 3 1 1 3
Keultjes 1-2 2-4 1 0 1 4
Daniel 2-4 2-6 0 0 11 6
Winston 4-8 0-1 0 0 3 8
TOTALS 18-56 6-16 6 4 33
Three point goals: Warsaw 2-13 (Wienhorst 1-4, Schultz 1-4) Clay 2-13 (Parker 1-2, Varga 1-5). Team Fouls: Warsaw 15, Clay 19. Turnovers: Warsaw 15, Clay 17. Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: Parker (Clay)
JV: Warsaw 44, Clay 32
Warsaw Leading Scorers: Matt Boots 11, Mitch Reinholt 10, Colin Clemens 7