Kyle Mangas stares down his defender Thursday night. The Warsaw star poured in 25 points as the Tigers remained undefeated with a 46-36 win at Manchester.

NORTH MANCHESTER – It may not have been the prettiest of wins for the Warsaw boys basketball team Thursday night.

The play of the Tigers’ backcourt though was absolutely beautiful once again.

The terrific tandem of Kyle Mangas and Paul Marandet led the undefeated Tigers past Manchester by a 46-36 count.

Mangas was simply superb with a game-high 25 points, including outscoring the Squires by himself in the pivotal third quarter.

Marandet had another stat stuffer night as the powerful senior had nine points to go with a team-high eight rebounds and three assists and two steals.

The pair also helped shut down Manchester standout Chase Fierstos. The senior guard finished with just nine points on 3-12 shooting from the field and had four turnovers.

Warsaw improves to 5-0, while the Squires drop to 2-2.

“I feel really good about how Kyle and Paul played tonight,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle. “Both of them played really well and they had to. They essentially won this game for us. Our post play (not factoring in Riley Rhoades since it was his first game of the season) was not very good tonight.

“Kyle is just hard to corral in transition and I thought Paul made some good passes tonight. The combination of those two offensively is strong for us. I’m just glad they are on our side.”

Mangas, who just has a knack to get to the rack, showed his stuff with an outstanding second half. The Tigers led just 19-14 at halftime before outscoring the Squires 15-8 in the third period. Warsaw used a 12-0 run to take control of the contest in the third period. Junior Mangas accounted for his own personal 9-0 run to turn a precarious 22-20 Tiger lead into a 31-20 cushion. Fierstos did not score in the pivotal third stanza.

Kyle Mangas prepares to let fly with a free throw.

Mangas, who led Warsaw in scoring a year ago as a sophomore, then hit seven free throws in the fourth quarter to ice the win. The Tigers, who finished 15-19 from the line, scored 10 of their 12 points in the final frame from the charity stripe.

Ogle, whose team beat Manchester 61-38 last season, saw several things that he did not like despite the win.

“We had too many turnovers (10),” noted Ogle. “I thought that we rushed things too much at times and took a step backwards with the turnovers and not being strong with the basketball. I think we can play better.

“Our defense on Fierstos was pretty good. He was averaging 25 and our goal was to hold him to 15 points and he got nine. Our team defense was good on him. We built a wall when he tried to drive and made him force some things. A bright spot tonight was our defense on him.”

Manchester, coming off a 70-37 win at Wawasee last Friday night in which Fierstos scored 26 points, had its only lead to open the game at 2-0. The Tigers led 9-4 after the opening period and 19-14 as Mangas scored nine points.

Junior Braxton Minix had seven points, junior Jeremy David three and sophomore Ross Johnson two for the Tigers. Warsaw shot 15-33 from the field, including 1-9 from 3-point range.

Riley Rhoades, one of three seniors, made his season debut for the Tigers. The 6-4 forward had missed the first four games due to a knee injury suffered during football season in October.  He had two rebounds, two assists and a steal in 13 minutes of playing time in his return.

Paul Marandet goes up strong inside.

Sophomore Koehl Fluke led Manchester with 13 points. The hosts shot just 12-38 from the field, including 5-17 from distance.

Coach Eric Thompson’s Squires return four starters from last year’s team that finished 17-8 overall and earned a share of the Three Rivers Conference championship at 6-1.

Manchester won the junior varsity game 59-51. Jake Schannep had 17 points and Levi Hicks 16 for the Squires. Asher Blum poured in 24 points and Zach Riley 13 to pace the Tigers.

The Warsaw freshman team beat Plymouth 38-24. Nolan Groninger scored 15 points and Tyler Metzinger and Trevor Rumple each had six as the frosh Tigers improved to 4-0.

Warsaw plays at Lake Central (2-2) Friday night. Manchester plays at Huntington North (2-2) Saturday night.

Ross Johnson looks for a teammate to pass to for the Tigers.