Squires Struggle In Home Losses To Wawasee, Homestead
18 Dec 2008

by Eric Christiansen
The good news for the Manchester Squires was they held the Wawasee Warriors to five points under their team scoring average. The bad news for the Squires was they still gave up 90 points.
Wawasee brought their high powered offense to Manchester and put on a show, putting up 50 three point attempts, connecting on 16 to pull out a 90-58 win over the Squires.
"Wawasee is a good team year in and year out," Manchester coach Gary Goshert said. "We haven't seen this kind of offensive philosophy. It's kind of hard to simulate in practice, so it's difficult to evaluate what we did tonight.
"They have a nice team," he continued. "They put a lot of pressure on defense and on offense."
Wawasee jumped out to a 14-5 lead behind four three pointers in the first three minutes of the game.
The Squires used a 4-0 run behind an offensive rebound put back from Ryan Binkley and two free throws from Austin Crockett to cut the lead to 19-13, but Wawasee went on an 11-0 run to make it 30-13.
Manchester would score in spurts, but Wawasee would answer with huge runs of their own.
In the third quarter, Aaron Olinger, Austin Flack, and Crockett combined for a 6-0 run, but the Warriors closed the quarter out with a 19-5 run to take a 72-39 lead.
"We can take some things away from this game," Goshert said. "When we take care of ourselves, instead of jumping in the air, or not blocking out, we can get some things done. If not, we won't be able to compete against a team like this.
Olinger led Manchester with 16 points, while Binkley had 12. Scott Baker had 11 points, all in the fourth quarter, Crockett had six points, Flack had five, Austin Gidley and Skyler Dingess both had two, and Aric Howard had one.
Loss To Homestead
Things didn’t get a whole lot easier Saturday night against Homestead, although the Squires did stick around a little longer, before falling to the Spartans 67-38.
Two free throws from Olinger and one from Baker gave Manchester a 3-2 lead three minutes into the game, but Homestead went on an 8-0 run to lead 10-3.
Two free throws from Binkley made it 10-5, and after a Homestead basket, Baker scored Manchester’s first basket from the field to cut the lead to 12-7.
Homestead went on a 9-2 run to increase their lead to 21-9, and finished the half with a 6-0 run to take a 29-13 lead into the locker room.
Baker opened the second half with a basket on an assist from Olinger, but Homestead put the clamps on the Squires, going on an 18-3 run to take a commanding 47-18 lead late in the third quarter.
“Homestead is a very good team, and I’m sure their coach wasn’t really happy with their effort in the first half,” Goshert said. “They showed how good they can be in the second half.”
Manchester, meanwhile, was having trouble holding onto the ball.
“We need to complete a couple of passes so we can get some things done in a halfcourt offense,” Goshert said. “We just have to be able to pass the ball a bit better. It’s amazing what that bounce pass will do, but you can’t be standing straight up and down. We must continue to work on that, because it won’t matter what offense we run, until we can complete some passes.”
Despite the loss, Goshert is enthused by the overall effort his team is giving.
“We had some kids who were just busting their tail on the floor, and that’s great,” he said. “We can’t lose that. We have to stay with that kind of effort, enthusiasm, and attitude.
“There’s going to be a game, and I told them it could be tonight, that the light is going to shine,” Goshert said. “If we keep hanging in there, and keep our nose to the grindstone, and we play well enough on both ends of the floor, it could be a free throw or two that could make the difference. We’re seeing improvement.”
Baker led Manchester with 13 points, Binkley had eight, Austin Flack had six, Dingess had three, and Olinger, Coltin Jenks, Crockett, and Howard all had two points.
Manchester will host Southwood this Friday as part of a doubleheader with the girls' team, then will travel to Class 2A #4 Bluffton on Saturday night.