Jeremy David goes up strong inside for Warsaw Friday night.

WARSAW – Ross Johnson, according to his coach, had a good week of practice in preparation for Warsaw’s home opener Friday night.

It sure carried over to the game for the sweet-shooting sophomore too.

Johnson was dialed in from distance in pacing the Tigers to a convincing 65-50 win over Homestead.

The 6-3 guard drained a trio of treys as Warsaw lit it up from outside all game long in downing the defending Class 4-A state champions.

Johnson, who had scored a total of six points in the first two games, finished with a team-high 15 points on the night as the Tigers improved to 3-0.

Junior Jaceb Burish tallied 14 points and junior Kyle Mangas, despite playing in foul trouble most of the night, added 13.

Senior guard Tahj Curry, the lone starter back for the Spartans from last year’s title team, led all scorers with 22 points. Curry averaged 9.6 points-per-game last year and had a team-high 23 in the state championship contest.

“Ross has been shooting it well in practice, but not that well,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle as he scanned the final stat sheet Friday night. “He was lights out tonight for us. It’s really nice when you can bring in a guy off the bench and he scores like that.

“I’m just really happy with our team depth right now. It’s a big plus for us for our bench to be so helpful this early in the season. That says a lot about our guys. I’m also really impressed with how unselfish this team is.”

The Tigers, who beat Homestead for the first time in five meetings, led just 47-43 with five minutes left in the game before outscoring the Spartans 18-7.

Warsaw was tremendous in taking care of the rock in the win. The hosts had 16 assists to just five turnovers. Senior Paul Marandet dished out seven assists and Mangas six, while the pair of terrific guards combined for just one turnover in the win.

Ross Johnson had an outstanding game with 15 points.

“A big key and a big plus for us right now is our assist to turnover ration,” Ogle said. “Tonight it was better than three to one. When your two best players (Kyle and Paul) are distributing the ball like they did tonight, we’re hard to defend. Kyle was unselfish almost to a fault tonight.

“Burish was really good for us again tonight. This is a good win. We didn’t start really well tonight, but we finished strong in the second and third quarters and at the end of the game too.”

The contest was tied at 12-12 after the opening frame. Warsaw closed the first half with an 8-2 run to lead 28-24 at halftime. The hosts were 7-10 from 3-point land and Johnson came off the bench to score 11 points in the opening half.

Warsaw started slow in the second half as the Spartans took a 30-29 lead. The Tigers responded, sparked by Marandet, to close the period with another 8-2 run to lead 43-37. Marandet hit a key triple and then fed Burish with a gorgeous pass for a layup to end the third quarter.

Warsaw shot 20-37 overall from the field, including 9-15 from distance, in the win. The hosts were also 16-21 from the line.

Homestead, ranked No. 10 in Class 4-A, went 29-2 a year ago and won the Class 4-A title game 91-90 over Evansville Reitz in overtime. The Spartans, who beat Warsaw 60-59 at home last season, graduated seven seniors, including All-American Caleb Swanigan (now at Purdue) and star guard Jordan Geist.

“It’s tough to beat a team that shoots the ball like that,” said Homestead coach Chris Johnson of the Tigers. “Give them credit. They got hot and were making shots. They had guys, like No. 20 (Johnson) step up and hit big shots for them. They were poised and played well.”

Evan Schmidt dials one in from deep Friday night.

“I thought that our guys hung in there. Our margin for error is much slimmer this year. It’s going to take us some time. I thought that we played extremely well in our first game (a 65-56 win at Huntington North on Nov. 25). Tonight we did a lot of 1-on-1 and a lot of dribbling and we can’t do that. We also can’t fall behind teams and have to chase them like tonight. We don’t have the firepower to do that.”

Junior Jeremy David had a strong game for Warsaw with nine points and four rebounds. Marandet had eight points and senior Evan Schmidt six for Warsaw.

Brandon Durnell, a 6-6 junior, had 12 points and eight rebounds and junior Parker Manges 10 points for Homestead.

Warsaw won the junior varsity game 46-31. Jack Rhoades led the winners with 11 points, while Landen Ferber scored nine Zach Riley and Jack Grose each had seven. Logan Pauly and Kade Kolpien each had nine points for Homestead.

Warsaw also won the freshman game 50-16. Trevor Rumple scored 15 points, Nolan Groninger 12 and Eli Owen seven for the Tigers, who improve to 3-0.

Warsaw (3-0) hosts Huntington North Saturday night. Homestead (1-1) plays at Fort Wayne Dwenger Dec. 11.

Kyle Mangas had 13 points and six assists for the Tigers.