Rich Hill vs Warsaw Archie Tournament
The Rich Hill Tiger Varsity boys met The Warsaw Wildcats in the first round of the 90th edition of the Archie Invitational Tournament on Tuesday night in the 5:30 game. The Tigers came into the game with the fifth seed and Warsaw the fourth seed. The Tigers were coming off a disappointing loss during the homecoming game last Saturday and playing for a better outcome in this game. The Warsaw team had played a tough schedule and although their record was not as good as they would like, they were a very challenging test for the Tigers. This was the first meeting between these two teams for some time if ever in basketball.
In the first quarter both teams’ offenses started off cold, but the Tigers defense and rebounding came to play and were able to hold the Wildcats to just four first quarter field goals. The Tigers found themselves down by two at the end of one, 7-9. The second quarter proved to be just about even with the Tigers dropping 16 points and the Wildcats scoring 15. At half time the Wildcats held a slim one point lead of 24-23. Turnovers hurt the Tigers during the first half and Coach Moles tried to make some adjustments to cut down on that area of the Tigers game. The defense was doing its job and the Tigers were rebounding better than they had in the last game. The second half was going to be pretty much a mirror image of the first half with neither team being able to pull away from the other. The Tigers were able to gain the advantage by the end of the third quarter and took a two point lead going into the final period. The fourth quarter saw both teams trying to get and hold the lead but with about three minutes left the Wildcats opened the biggest lead of the night of four points. The Tigers held their ground making enough to kept it close until with a minute seventeen left Rich Hill connected on a trey from the left wing tying the game at 48 points apiece. From that point free throws became important for both teams. The Wildcat were able to connect on a couple pushing their lead to 50-48 but with 9 seconds the Tigers hit one of two free throws close the gap to one and with seven seconds left a loose ball foul sent Warsaw to the line. A miss by Warsaw allowed the Tigers to rebound the ball and go the full length of the court for a final lay-up attempt that was laid off the glass for the final two points and a win for the Tigers, 51-50.
With the win the Tigers move on to the winner’s side of the bracket to face the Adrian Blackhawks for the third time this year. They will play in the dome at Archie on Thursday night at nine o’clock. The win improved the Rich Hill Tigers to 7-10 for the year. The Tigers put three players into double figures for the night with Sage Bolser with 20, Brady Querry 11, Clifton Bridgewater 10 followed by Daylon Walton and Magal Chol with 3 each and Adrien King and Lucas Hardwood with 2. Leading rebounders were Clifton Bridgewater with 10, Bryce Yohe 7, and Sage Bolser 6