By Greg Keim
Playing at a pace faster than normal was not a good thing for the Goshen Redskins Friday night.
Goshen turned the ball over four times before even getting a shot off in a 56-34 loss to the Warsaw Tigers in a Northern Lakes Conference high school boys basketball contest in Warsaw.
"Our whole team got speeded up at the beginning of the game," Goshen coach Brian Bechtel said. “It took us a few times to break the Warsaw press. Once we broke the press we were taking shots that are not within the realm of our offense. We took too many shots with no rebounders underneath.
“Warsaw is a very talented team. They had us overmatched at every position.”
Goshen (5-6 overall, 1-2 NLC) hosts NorthWood and Warsaw (9-2, 3-0) travels to Concord next Friday.
The Redskins fell behind 9-0 before 6-2 sophomore Jake Speicher broke the ice with a 3-pointer at 4:28 of the opening period.
Goshen settled down with 6-7 senior Taylor Kolbus netting five points as the Redskins trailed 13-8 after one quarter.
Goshen then gained a little momentum when 6-5 Warsaw sophomore Lucas Grose received a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
Six-one junior Carson Roberts made both free throws and 5-10 senior Andrew Litwiller added a freebie on the ensuing possession and the Redskins were down 14-13 at 7:15 of the second period.
Goshen trailed 15-14 following a ‘3’ by Litwiller at 6:21 but after that the rest of the half belonged to the Tigers. Warsaw went on a 15-0 run and led 32-16 at halftime.
“I thought our guys had the right mindset going into the game,” Bechtel said. “We got beat in the first quarter. We had problems doing a lot of the little things in the first half. Things like not getting into our press breaker, taking bad shots and fumbling the ball. But the one that hurt the most was getting beat down the floor.”
The Redskins did much better is the third period outscoring the Tigers 12-6. Kolbus had six points in the period.
“Our goal was to beat Warsaw in the second half,” Bechtel said. “For the most part we did that, we just couldn’t maintain it. We gained some confidence because we were playing at a pace more to our liking.”
Kolbus scored 14 points to lead the Redskins. Speicher added five, Litwiller, Roberts and 6-1 sophomore Warren Kay each four and 6-2 sophomore Louis Kissinger three.
Six-three senior Justin Clemens poured in 25 points to pace the Tigers.
“We let Clemens catch the ball way too deep,” Bechtel said. “We put no pressure on him to make him catch the ball away from the basket.”
Five-nine junior Nic Moore chipped in with 15 points and dished out seven assists.
