By Stu Swartz
The “Tiger Den” in Warsaw is Friday night’s destination for Goshen High School’s boys basketball Redskins who also hope it is a venue for destiny.
Sitting at 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the Northern Lakes Conference, the Redskins could use a signature victory to vault them into the second half of the regular season.
Goshen wins in Warsaw have been few in the past three decades. The same would be true for other league rivals of the Tigers.
This is the 103rd boys basketball meeting between GHS and Warsaw.
“This is a great challenge for us and we’re trying to get the guys into a mentality of relishing it,” said Redskin coach Brian Bechtel.
“Warsaw is a very talented team which does things the right way and they are very difficult to defeat anywhere, especially at home.
“They have a very balanced attack led by (5-9 junior and third-year starter) Nic Moore. There is a lot of experience to go with a couple good sophomores.
“Warsaw does a great job in the rebounding game and our focus is to win that battle. We must be ready to play a physical style of basketball. Warsaw does a great job drawing fouls and killing teams at the free-throw line.”
The Tigers own wins over Tippecanoe Valley 62-49, Columbia City 52-40, Huntington 35-18, Rochester 49-38, Wawasee 97-82, Blackhawk 71-58, Lafayette 74-63 and Northridge 60-34. Losses were to Fort Wayne South 69-57 and Noblesville (at Purdue), 53-47.
Moore scored a high of 31 points in the Blackhawk game while 6-3 senior Justin Clemens had 28 against Wawasee, 6-1 senior Andy Conrad 13 against Rochester, 6-3 sophomore Jordyn Coon 15 against Columbia City, 6-2 senior Zack Linky 11 against Wawasee, 6-5 sophomore Lucas Grose 28 against Lafayette and 6-2 junior Jalen Roscoe 11 against Wawasee.
“From our standpoint, we simply need more guys scoring in the 8-12 point range,” said Bechtel. “Someone needs to step up behind (6-7 senior) Taylor Kolbus.
“Defensively, we need to be better than last week at Concord. Our communication was not good in that game and we allowed people to attack the basket.
“We also need better bench play due to the nature of a game we expect at Warsaw.
“A team needs to understand the ebs and flows of a basketball game. It is so crucial to be sharp for 32 minutes in any NLC game.
“We must cut down our turnovers (20) from the Concord game when we forced too many things. We need to attack, execute and hit our shots.”
The Redskins play their only home game of January next Friday against the NorthWood Panthers and wrap up the month by playing Memorial at North Side Gym on the 29th.
