The Mail-Journal, Volume 22, Number 10, Milford, Kosciusko County, 6 March 1985 — Page 8

THE MAIL-JOURNAL —Wed., March 6,1985

8

Sports

Koble hits 28 — Tigers scalp Warriors for sectional

By CHRIS CAULEY Sports Editor The WaWasee Warriors were faced with a physical impossibility Saturday night: how to guard seven Warsaw players with only five’of their own. Warsaw really didn’t have seven players on the court. It just seemed that way. The Tigers’ 64-56 victory over Wawasee in the championship game of the Triton Sectional was simply a case of too much Jeff Grose and too much Rick Fox. Together, they were too, toooo much. Grose, the Tigers’ Mr. Basket-

I B ** Ji feKT. fofll fTa ByW ® W rT ; » / 'HF* mi- * - Jk •**- » IHfe «i *•« ‘ ~ W* X ‘ ".?■ HIGH SCORER — Brooks Koble scored on this play against Warsaw, driving the baseline and then muscling in underneath. The Warriors' scoring leader finished the game with 28 points. (Photo by Chris Cauley) Warsaw tops Valley after a hard fight

By CHRIS CAULEY Sports Editor Tippecanoe Valley had Warsaw’s Rick Fox and Joe Sands on the bench, they had high-scoring Jeff Grose limited to only 12 points, and they had Warsaw’s lead — 10 points at one time — whittled down to two points early in the fourth quarter. In short, the Vikings had Warsaw on the ropes. Somehow, though, the sixthranked Tigers managed to stave off the upset-minded Vikings for a 61-53 victory in the Triton Sectional semi-findls last Friday night. An eight-point run in the first quarter enabled the defending state champs to jump to a quick 14-4 lead, and they maintained that advantage going into halftime, 30-20. Tippy Valley gamely battled back throughout the second half, but every time they closed to within two, three, five points — which was several times —a costly turnover or a poorly selected shot or a miss of a downright easy shot would ice their momemtum. ; “I’m very proud of the way we held them off several times when they made runs at us,” said Warsaw coach Al Rhodes. “You have to credit the leadership of Steve Hollar, Jeff Grose and Jeff Tucker. Their composure is what kept us in it.” That the Vikings could have won the game was not lost on Coach Bob Dußois. “I honestly felt we out-played them,” he said. “We didn’t outshoot them, but we had more rebounds than they did and we had less turnovers than they did. We just didn’t hit the shots.” The Vikings managed to contain Jeff Grose by playing a box-and-one defense, but the Tigers shot almost 50 percent from the floor and had four players finish in double figures, with two more players not far behind. Tippy Valley, meanwhile, went almost exclusively to its inside game for offense, only to miss numerous easy shots near the basket. The Vikings wound up only 18-for-57 from the field. “I felt all along that we could

ball candidate, poured in 30 points, all of them in the last three quarters. Fox, a sophomore center, scored 19 points. Together, Grose and Fox made 20 of 33 shots*from the floor as they accounted for 49 of Warsaw’s 64 points. Brooks Koble was Wawasee’s one-man gang, scoring 28 points against Warsaw to give him 53 points for the tournament. “We can’t handle Grose with one person, just as they cannot handle Koble with one person,” Wawasee coach John Wysong said. “We also cannot handle Fox with just one person. That makes

beat them,” Dußois said. “I felt that we matched up with them well. But the shooting... the last three games we shot 50 percent from the floor and tonight we didn’t.” “They played us tough before,” Al Rhodes said when asked if he expected that tough a game from Valley. “And, especially, I was expecting it if we got in foul trouble, and tonight we did.” Four points by David Hopkins climaxed Tippecanoe Valley’s final run and made the score 45-43 early in the fourth quarter. But the Tigers finally got their starting five back in shortly afterwards — Rick Fox and Joe Sands both got into early foul trouble — and the Tigers wound up winning the game from the free throw line down the stretch. Twelve of their 16 points in the final stanza came at the charity stripe. Os his team’s failure to capitalize on its opportunities to tie or go ahead, Dußois said, “Warsaw’s like that. If you make a mistake they come back at you. They’re an awfully good team with an awfully good coach. I’ve got to be proud of my kids, being 10 points down and coming back. They didn’t quit against Warsaw, and a lot of kids would have.” Wirww(il) FG FT Pte Sands 4 2-4 10 Tucker 2 4-4 0 Fox ? 5 0-2 10, Grose 5 2-2 12 Hollar 3 9-11 15 Johnson 14-7 6 Bair 0 0-0 0 Hall 0 0-0 0 Henn 0 0-0 0 Wilson 0 0 0 0 Totals 20 21-30 61 T.Valley (53) FG FT Pte Miller 3 68 12 Cumberland 3 2-2 8 Johnson 3 2-3 8 Hopkins 5 6-7 16 Lester 0 0-10 Blbler 3 13 7 Butt 1 0-1 2 Shepherd 0 0-0 0 King 0 0-0 0 Zolman 0 00 0 Zlmpleman ■, 0 0-0 0 Totals 18 17-25 53 Warsaw 18 12 15 16 — 61 T.Valley - 9 11 19 14 — 53 Fouled out — Sands, Johnson, Hopkins. Total fouls — Warsaw 18, Tippecanoe Valley 23.

it really tough. It’s hard to double two people.” The sectional title was the third in a row and the fifth in six year? for the sixth-ranked Tigers (21-2), who will meet’East Noble (14-10) in the Elkhart Regional Friday night. Rick Fox, working inside, scored 10 points as Warsaw grabbed a 12-11 lead after one quarter of sectional championship. Grose then scored 12 of Warsaw’s 15 points in the second quarter as the Tigers led at halftime by 27-23. Brooks Koble accounted for 11 of Wawasee’s first half points. Grose had scored four more points, Koble six more, when Wawasee closed to within two points, 33-31, two minutes into the second half. Then Grose went on a rampage, hitting his next four shots, as the Tigers expanded their lead to 43-32. Six points early in the fourth quarter by Rick Fox made it 51-35, and the Tigers sealed their victory by making 11 of 13 free throws down the stretch. For Jeff Grose, the Tigers’ championship and his own 30 points helped erase memories of Friday night when he scored only 12 points, his season low. “Last night our timing was off,” Grose said of the Tigers’ hard-fought win over Tippecanoe Valley. “Tonight we got everything going and it worked out fine. We’re really happy with the way we played tonight.” Grose scored almost at will once his shooting touch warmed up. He missed his first five shots from the floor, but hit 12 of his next 18 in giving new meaning to the phrase, “Eye of the Tiger.” “The guys look to get me the ball when I am hot,” he said, “and I just try to keep it going. It’s a good feeling.” “We tried three different people on him,” said Warriors’ coach John Wysong. “We always seem to have problems, no matter who we put on him. We didn’t know

Wawasee runner-up in sectional

By CHRIS CAULEY Sports Editor To no one’s surprise, Elkhart Memorial walked off with the

•GUNN’-ING FOR GLORY — Wawasee’s Jeanine Gunn looks to the judges after her performance on vault during Saturday’s gymnastics sectional. Gunn received a score of 7.3. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

- '' • ■ 'sAg SECOND PLACE FINISH — Wawasee’s girl** gymnastics team finished second to Elkhart Memorial at Saturday’s gymnastics sectional at Wawasee High School. One Warrior gymnast, Kathy Campbell, will be competing at the Valparaiso Regional. From left to right (back to front) in the photo are Coach Barb TTobaugh, Assistant Coach Deb Haab, Manager Laura Tracey, Tressa Littleton, Julie Schmahl, Raeni Rinker, Jeanine Gunn, Kathy Campbell, Paula Smith and Shelly Daniels. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

what to do with him. We were sluffing off some people (to help I defend Grose), but there’s not too many on that team you can sluff off of.” Warsaw coach Al Rhodes, meanwhile, was both happy with his team’s victory and unhappy with certain members of the press, who he felt had overplayed Grose’s low point total Friday night and under-played the fact that six Tiger players scored between six and 15 points. “All of our team played well,” Rhodes'said. “I was very disappointed with the articles in the newspaper about last night’s game. All I 'read was, ‘Grose scores only 12.’ We used him at point guard for 2 quarters! We almost had six players in double figures, and that was ndt noticed by the press. We have a very fine basketball team. Everyone contributes.” However, Rhodes allowed, the Tigers did try to utilize the individual skills of Grbse and Fox against Wawasee more than they had against Tippy Valley. “Because of Wawasee’s good man-to-man defense, we did try to concentrate offensively on going to Grose and Fox,” Rhodes said, “and we were successful in doing that. But we played well as a team in both games.” What was a surprisingly successful season for Wawasee ended Saturday night at 14-8. Coach John Wysong felt the Warriors played better in the sectional finals against Warsaw than they had in an early-season 70-58 loss. “I thought we played better this game,” Wysong said. “It was more in the type of tempo we needed. The big change is Fox and his improvement. I don’t see why he shouldn’t be an all-state player by the time he’s a.senior.” HARDWOOD NOTES - While Wysong felt the Warriors played better against Warsaw in the sectional than during the regular season, he did feel that they could have played better yet. “We let it

team championship of the Girls’ Gymnastics Sectional at Wawasee last Saturday. With a team score of 102.3 points, the Chargers easily out-

get away from us when we didn’t execute and take good shots during that one stretch (in the third quarter),” the coach said. “When it was 41-31, that’s when it became catch-up city.”... In the championship game, the Tigers made only one turnover in the first half and had only four turnovers through three quarters before making five in the final stanza. The Tigers also finished with a 28-21 edge on the boards... As a team, the Warriors made 21 Os 48 shots Saturday night while Warsaw shot an even 50 percent (24-for-48)... It says something that with the money on the line in the sectional championship game, established “stars” Brooks Koble and Jeff Grose would score 28 and 30 points, respectively, while budding “star” Rick Fox would net 19. “The key thing in a tournament,” Wysong said, “is, when the score is tight, can you go to a star and the star produce? I believe in team play as well, but even the best-balanced teams have particular individuals that they go to to deliver. And Warsaw had a couple more people to come at us with.” Wawasee (M) FG FT Pts Koble 11 6-9 28 Kistler 4 0-0 8 Swihart 2 1-2 5 Jones 0 12 1 Hapner 1 6-6 8 Evans 2 0-0 4 Hutchinson i 0-0 2 Mangas 0 00 0 Totals 21 14-19 56 Warsaw (64) FG FT Pts Tucker 0 4-6 4 Hollar 1 3-4 5 Grose 12 67 30 Pox 8 3 5 19 Sands 1 0 1 2 Johnson 1 0-3 2 Bair 1 0 1 2 Henn 0 0-0 0 Totals 24 16-27 64 Wawasee 11 12 9 24 - 56 Warsaw 12 15 16 21-64 Fouled~out — Kistler. Total touts — Wawasee 22. Warsaw 16. '

distanced the rest of the six-team field in winning the sectional for the second consecutive year. Wawasee finished as runnersup with 86.6 points, and Plymouth was third with 78.15 points. Warsaw, Elkhart Central and North Wood did not*have full teams. Memorial advances to this Saturday’s regional at Valparaiso, along with the top four individual finishers in each event and the top four allarounds. Wawasee’s lone regional representative will be sophomore Kathy Campbell, who earned a third place finish on the bars despite being hampered by a sprained ankle. Her score was 7.9. Campbell also placed seventh on vault with a score of 7.85. Elkhart Memorial, ranked 17th in the state, was paced to its easy win by senior Stephanie Reich, who captured All-Around honors at the sectional for the third time in her four-year career. Reich, the defending state champ on the balance beam, has not lost in optional all-around competition this year. Her coach, Roberta Litherland, believes she has a chance to win the state in all-around this year. Her scores Saturday were 9.5 on beam, 9.45 in floor exercise, 9.4 on bars and 9.35 on vault. No

A »■ 1 ~ OFF-BALANCE SHOT — Wawasee’s Brooks Koble drives between Robert Johnson (51) and Jeff Grose (43) to put up Ulis off-balance shot during the Triton Sectional championship game Saturday night. Koble concluded his stickout senior season by scoring 53 points in two sectional games, a z tournament-high. Number 44 in the photo is Warsaw’s Rick Fox. (Photo by Chris Cauley) 3 rri'--g >r UL a* wy MfijLl ■-> w® & f 'WK T* I HPawIL F fiU '•- M < SCRAMBLE — Wawasee’s Bill Hutchinson dove to the floor in pursuit of a loose ball during Saturday night’s sectional championship game at Triton. Teammates Dave Kistler (30) and Brooks 4 Koble (14) watch the action. The Tigers beat the Warriors, 64-56, for their fourth sectional title in five years. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

other gymnast earned a score of 9.0 or better in any event. Reich’s teammate, Lori Lapham, gave the Chargers a potent 1-2 punch as she finished second in all-around with a fourevent total of 32.55 points. Reich’s total was 37.70 points. Wawasee formerly dominated its own sectional, but a combination of injuries and disciplinary suspensions did in the team this season, said Coach Barb Trobaugh. “We’ve got the talent,’’ Trobaugh said. “We just didn’t have the depth because of injuries and parties. I think we > could have won, I really do. During the regular season, I had two injuries when we went against Elkhart Memorial before and they only beat us by seven. “I thought that with those two back we’d be a sure thing to either beat them or at least be close,” the coach continued. “But since then we’ve had more injuries. It was one on top of another.” Besides Campbell, the Warriors’ list of walking wounded included junior Jeanine Gunn, who suffered a hyperextended elbow a month ago. She earned a 7.3 with her vault routine Saturday, but had to forego her floor exercise routine. One of the team’s better gymnasts, Angie Graff, competed in only one meet this season after suffering cracked vertebrae. She would have been in three events (beam, vault and bars) this season. “She was probably worth at least 18-20 points to us per meet,” moaned Trobaugh. Finally, an intermediate allaround, freshman Stephanie Jamiel, dislocated a knee a week ago and had to sit out the sectional. In their absence, other Wawasee gymnasts filled in as best they could to pick up the slack. Julie Schmahl, for example, competed on both floor exercise and vault Saturday in addition to her specialty event, beam. “It just wasn’t a good year,*’ Trobaugh said. “I’m hoping that we can take the program yearround and keep the girls conditioned, maybe have them lift weights. — things that hopefully x will help us prevent injuries.” And, while the Warriors did worse than Trobaugh expected (“Definitely worse. Worse, worse, worse!”), the coach also offered that, "They tried jo do their best, but with the injuries and certain other things they

were here mentally only half the time and not here half the time. Girls can understand that — sometimes men can’t.” Concord captured the Intermediate title with a team total of 59.45 points. Wawasee finished sixth out of seven teams with 38.8 points. Sherry Daniels took a first place ribbon for Wawasee by scoring a 7.4 on the balance beam, and Nicole Iwankowitsch finished second on the bars with a score of 7.95. Stephanie Crow finished tied for fourth place on vault with a score of 8.1. Gymnastics Sectional Optional Team Scores I.Elkhart Memorial (EM) 102.3. 2.Wawasee (W) 86.6. 3.Plymouth (P) 78.15. 4. Warsaw (WA) 62.75. 5. Elkhart Central (EC) 49.15, 6-NorthWood (NW) 14.20. By Event Floor Exercise — EM 27.05, W 23.60. P 21.55, WA 16.95. EC 16.30. NW 6.90. Beam - EM 24.85, W 18.20, P 16.55. WA 14.10, EC 13.90, NW 0. Vault - EM 25.10, P 25.15, W 25.10, WA 17.20, EC 13.75, NW 7.3. Bars - EM 25.3, W 22.55, P 14.90, WA 14.50, EC 5.2, NW 0. Individual Results All-Around I.Stephanie Reich (EM) 37.70, 2.Lori Lapham (EM) 32.55, 3.Jana Hollenbaugh (P) 32.25, 4.Nancy Burr (WA) 31.55, 5. Katrina Curtis (WA) 31.20.

WALKING A FINE LINE — Wawasee’s Shelly Daniels goes through her beam-routine during the gymnastics sectional Saturday. Daniels scored a 6.2 on beam and did even better on bars with a score of 7.3. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

, Bars I.Stephanie Reich (EM) 9.4, 2.Lori Lapham (EM) 8.4. 3.Kathy Campbell (W) 7.9, 4.Jana Hollenbaugh (P) 7.85, S.Tracy Smith (EM) 7.5. Beam I.Stephanie Reich (EM) 9.5, 2.Melissa Harrington (EM) 8.0, 3.Alicia Walter (EC) 7.95, 4.Katrina Curtis (WA) 7.75, S.Anita Wenzel (EM) 7.35. Vault I.Stephanie Reich (EM) 9.35, 2.Nancy Burr (WA) 9.25, 3.Jana Hollenbaugh (P)8.9, 4. Lori Lapham (EM) 8.6, S.Kris Fehrer (P) 8.45. Floor Exercise I.Stephanie Reich (EM) 9.45, 2.Lori Lapham (EM) 8.95,3. Nancy Burr (WA) 8.70, 4.Tie: Melissa Harrington (EM), Jenny Pletcher (EC) 8.65. Intermediate Team Scores I.Concord (C) 59.45, 2,Elkhart Central (EC) 52.75, 3.NorthWood (NW) 57.35, 4. Plymouth (P) 52.7, 5. Elkhart Memorial (EM) 48.6, 6.Wawasee (W) 38.8, 7.Tippecanoe Valley (TV) 37.95. Individual Results All-Around l.Brendi Clouse (NW) 30.85, 2. Jenifer Johnson (TV) 29.85,3. Jamey Pitts (P) 25.75. Beam I.Sherry Daniels (W) 7.4, 2.Rachel Ritzman (C) 7.25, 3.Brenda Clouse (NW) 7.0, 4.Jamey Pitts (P) 6.60, S.Jennifer Johnson (TV) 6.3. Vault I.Kelly Chris (EM) 9.1, 2.Jamie Bittle (C) 8.65, 3.Jennifer Johnson (TV) 8.45, 4. Tie: Laura Riedel (TV), Stephanie Crow (W) 8.1. Floor Exercise l.Kim Wilkins (EM) 9.05, 2.Brenda Clouse (NW) 9.0, 3.J111 Rodino (EC) 8.90, 4.Aime Conches (EM) 8.85, s.Rachel Ritzman (C) 8.55. Bars l.Shonne Slack .(EM) .0.45. 2.Nicole Iwankowitsch (W) 7.95, 3.Rachel Ritzman (C) 7.8.4. Tie: Brenda Clouse (NW), Jennifer Johnson (TV) 7.2.