Concord Blows Past Wawasee [VIDEO]
SYRACUSE – Simply put, there was nothing good about Friday night for the Wawasee boys basketball team.
The Warriors welcomed in Concord for a Northern Lakes Conference tilt at the Hardwood Tee Pee and practically handed the game to the Minutemen with a flurry of turnovers and missed shots. Concord took advantage of nearly every Wawasee miscue on its way to a 67-43 victory.
“We wanted to get out to a great start,” started Concord head coach Steve Austin. “We had not done that in a while so that was a big goal for us tonight. We really wanted to press them. With our speed we knew it could hurt them so we did some half court and a little full court just to mix it up a little bit.”
It did no matter what kind of press Concord through at Wawasee on Friday night, the Warriors struggled to get anything going. The tone was set in the first quarter as Wawasee founds itself trailing 12-5 going into the second quarter but had committed six turnovers in the opening frame. That turnover count would eclipse 10 by halftime and only continue to grow in the second half. Wawasee trailed 31-20 at the break.
Concord extended its lead to 19 points midway through the third quarter but the Warriors fought their way back to make it a manageable 12-point deficit going into the fourth, down 46-34. Unfortunately, the third quarter push would be the last for Wawasee on the night as Concord ran away with the fourth quarter.
Wawasee’s players had a tough time finding the basket outside of Gage Reinhard and Alex Clark. Reinhard led Wawasee with 18 points, Clark had 13. Junior Aaron Voirol was one bright spot for the Warrior offense. Voirol finished with nine points, going three of four from behind the arc.
Concord was led on the stat sheet by Filip Serwatka who had 23 points. Standout point guard Ramon Johnson added another 19 points or the Minutemen.
“I’m hoping this performance was due to the layoff we had,” said Wawasee head coach Steve Wiktorowski. “But, Concord had a layoff too and only had seven turnovers. I’m not upset with our shooting, I will give the guys a break with that after not playing for so long but I was disappointed with other aspects of our game.
“Concord’s defense was tougher to play against tonight than ours was, that was disappointing. The trapped us and did well with that, they forced some turnovers but I felt a lot of our turnovers were unforced. We don’t have an excuse for the unforced errors tonight. We have to come out and play better on our home court, especially since we are hosting sectionals.”
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The Warriors have yet to win a home game this season but will have a nice opportunity on Saturday night against a below average Lakeland team.
“The kids know they didn’t give Concord their ‘A’ game tonight,” said Wiktorowski. “I think they are anxious to get back out here tomorrow night and play again. Hopefully we play a great game at home tomorrow for really the first time this season.”
Wawasee (2-10, 0-4) has now lost 18 consecutive NLC games. The Warriors tip-off against Lakeland at 7:30 p.m.
Concord won the junior varsity contest over Wawasee 30-27.