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BOYS BB: Logan surges past Winamac in 4th quarter

beau wicker, pharos-tribune, logansport, ind.
·5 min read

Feb. 7—Winamac came into the Berry Bowl upset-minded and like usual played Logansport tough in a boys basketball game Tuesday night.

It was a back and forth contest most of the way before the Berries pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 66-59 win.

The Berries won the turnover battle 14-5 which led to 10 more field goal attempts. The Berries also outscored the Warriors 14-7 from the foul line.

Jacob Taylor scored 17 points including eight in the fourth quarter to lead the Berries (9-10). Carson Dubes scored 13 on 4 of 6 shooting from the field and 3 of 3 from foul line. Russell had 10 points including a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Chris Del Valle had nine points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Cooper Smith and Loran Taylor added six points apiece and Cayden Walker added five.

John Malchow led the Warriors (8-11) with 24 points and six rebounds. He shot 9 of 14 from the field and 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Justin Potthoff scored 14 points on 6 of 8 shooting from the field and 2 of 3 from 3. Brendan Hines scored nine and Jayse Bentle and Will Malchow each added six.

The Warriors shot 22 of 40 from the field (55%) and 8 of 18 from 3 (44%) but couldn't overcome 15 turnovers.

The Warriors led 17-12 after one before the Berries came back to take a 31-30 lead at halftime. Following a Winamac turnover with 3.1 seconds left, Del Valle took an inbounds pass near midcourt and scored a layup at the buzzer to give the Berries the lead.

Hines hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for Winamac to tie the game at 44-all entering the fourth.

Russell, Walker and Dubes hit back-to-back-to-back 3s to give the Berries a 53-44 lead to start the fourth. A basket by Taylor pushed the lead to 11 three minutes in.

Russell hit a 3 to make it a 60-50 game with 3:00 left. Russell was 1 of 8 from 3 entering the fourth when he sank 2 of 4 attempts to help the Berries secure the victory.

Winamac got to within 60-55 before Smith scored on a putback basket to push the lead back to seven. The Warriors got it as close to three when Taylor made four straight free throws in the final 27.4 seconds to make it the 66-59 final.

"They're very well coached and he does such a nice job. I think they're very fundamentally sound," Logansport coach Matt Lange said of the Warriors. "I think what ended up happening is we ran just enough to I hope just tire them down enough and we hit some shots when we needed to and we were able to get the victory.

"Hat's off to Winamac, they hit some shots, goodness sakes, and we were watching. They'd run 45 seconds to a minute of a set and they'd tire us and then we'd go down and we'd do whatever we'd do and they'd come down and run 45 seconds to a minute to a set and then they'd get something. It started to wear on us. I was like, 'boys, we've got to play defense. We've got to take some sort of pride in what we're doing on that end of the floor.' We did get some stops and some block outs and rebounds there in the fourth quarter and came away with the win."

It's been a season of winning streaks and losing streaks for the Warriors. They dropped their third straight game but they put together a strong upset bid against a Class 4A opponent.

"Our kids played really hard tonight and they were really focused," Winamac coach Mike Springer said. "We've had a couple rough games but they've made us better. We've learned from them. I've always felt like our team was a good shooting team and tonight I think we showed ourselves that we were and our confidence needs to be high. But Logan made big plays there in the fourth quarter and got that lead to nine or 10 or whatever it was and we just couldn't cut it after that. Logan made shots at the end there and we weren't able to keep them. I felt like our defense was good all night long. Our kids are just trying to get better and better each time we step out on the floor and I feel like we are."

It had been 24 years since Springer last coached in the Berry Bowl. He was a boys varsity assistant at Logansport from 1995-98 and was the girls head coach from 1998-2000.

"It was '99-2000 was the last time I coached a game in here and we were not very good when I coached the girls here. But I had a really good group of kids that worked extremely hard," he said. "But we stay in touch with people. I saw people in here tonight that I haven't seen for awhile and that's always a good thing to make those contacts. It's a great place to play, a lot of big games have been played. I sat on the Berries' bench and saw a lot of good games by our kids back in the late '90s. It's a good place, it's a place that's near to my heart because I had some kids born here too. I enjoyed working here. There were good people to work with. It's nice to get back but I wish we would have had a W."

The Warriors travel to North White on Thursday. The Berries travel to Anderson Friday and host Class 4A No. 9 Richmond Saturday for an NCC doubleheader in their final year in the conference.