PREP ROUNDUP: Winamac boys have good showing at Kitchen Classic

Dec. 23—The Winamac boys basketball team turned a five-point loss to North Newton from earlier in the season into a 46-26 win in the third-place game of the Indiana Kitchen Holiday Classic Thursday at Delphi.

The Warriors did so without leading scorer John Malchow, who was out with a knee injury but should be back soon.

They accomplished that with stingy defense and running their offense well.

It was a good showing at the holiday tournament overall for the Warriors (2-9), who also had a 48-38 win over Delphi Monday and 40-28 loss to Frankfort Tuesday. Frankfort defeated North Montgomery 53-34 Thursday in the championship game.

"I think that's the first time this year we put four quarters together from start to finish," said Winamac coach Cameron Bennington, who picked up his first win as a varsity head coach Monday. "We had the first one earlier this week that I think built some confidence for us. And then we got punched in the mouth on Tuesday night which was good for us too to help solidify the things that we've talked about and make some of the changes permanent. Because we learned that we're not good enough to just show up and win. But when we stick to our principles and the things that we teach, we've got a chance to do some nice things. I'm just really proud of our effort and our attention to detail defensively. They knew the game plan and executed it to near perfection defensively."

Sawyer Depoy scored 16 points to lead the Warriors. Jayse Bentle had 14 points, three assists and three steals. Brendan Hines had nine points, four boards, three assists and two steals. Michael Loehmer had four points, five boards and two steals. Gavin Taylor added three points, five boards and three assists.

The Warriors shot 54% from the field overall (19 of 35) including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. They also limited themselves to nine turnovers while outrebounding the taller Spartans 23-16.

"Gavin Taylor did a great job for us coming off the bench," Bennington said. "It was his first major minutes of the year and he was a difference-maker offensively from his passing. He didn't score a lot of points but he was passing the ball really well, we were getting the ball deep into the paint. Our pullup jump shots today happened 8 to 10 feet, they weren't happening 14 to 16 feet. If we can get to 8 to 10 feet, that's where we want to play and that's our goal is to get downhill, get in the paint. Then be unselfish from there. I thought we were being really good at being unselfish today and we played as a team and we were really hard to stop. That was fun to watch."

Loehmer was selected as Winamac's Sportsmanship Award winner for the tournament.

Evan Gagnon, a 6-5 junior, led the Spartans (5-5) with 10 points and five boards. Patrick Barry added seven points.

Winamac avenged a 47-41 loss to North Newton in the second game of the season.

"In that first game I think we were still trying to figure out who we were and what our identity was going to be," Bennington said. "We didn't have much of a scouting report so it was hard to have a very good defensive game plan playing in Game 2. But this time we've seen them play, we've played them, we implemented a game plan and we did a good job of keeping it out of their star player's hands inside and making all the other shots they took contested. The thing I'm most proud of is we finished possessions. We were severely undersized and we rebounded very well."

Malchow was a third-team All-Loganland selection as a sophomore a year ago. Bennington is hoping he'll be back soon.

"We don't know how long he's going to be out," he said. "He injured his knee in the Manchester game [last Saturday] but he'll be back sometime, hopefully over the next couple weeks."

Winamac returns to action Saturday, Jan. 7 at Knox.

"We've got two weeks here to kind of regroup and hopefully get a little bit healthier, tweak some things and be ready to keep going," Bennington said.

WABASH 78, CARROLL 66

Wabash beat Class 2A No. 3-ranked Carroll 78-66 Tuesday, ending the Cougars' 23-game home winning streak.

The Apaches — who nearly beat Marion earlier this month — took control in the second quarter when they outscored the Cougars 25-16 for a 39-29 halftime lead. They led 52-41 after the third quarter. They hit 17 of 21 free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

Izaak Wright led Wabash (6-2) with 21 points. Chris Huerta led Carroll (5-1) with 18.

Carroll will play in three games at the Clinton Central Holiday Tournament next week, starting with No. 14 Tipton at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday.

WINAMAC 44, N. MONTGOMERY 25

The Winamac girls team also had a good showing at the Indiana Kitchen Holiday Classic.

The Lady Warriors won the fifth-place game by 19 points over the Lady Chargers at Frankfort's Case Arena.

Maggie Smith led the Warriors (3-13) with 17 points. Piper Link scored 10, Emma Goodman had eight and Kandace Kroft added four.

Hailey Attinger was recognized as Winamac's recipient of tournament Sportsmanship Award.

Macee Norman led the Chargers (3-13) with nine points.

Winamac was coming off a 68-34 win over Frankfort.

The Warriors next travel to Knox on Friday, Jan. 6.