Boys' Basketball Team Loses To Wabash
22 Jan 2009

by Eric Christiansen
The Wabash Apaches pushed back against the Manchester Squires, picking up their first win of the season 69-56 against the team they lost to two weeks earlier at the Wabash County tournament.
Manchester advanced to the championship game of the county tourney with a 61-49 win over the Apaches, but it was Wabash who controlled the game to pick up its first win.
“One thing we were elated with was our turnovers,” Wabash coach Tom Robbins said. “We had 17, but it was our lowest amount of the year.”
Austin Crockett got Manchester on the board first with a fast break basket, but that was the biggest lead the Squires would enjoy. Manchester led for just 3:45 the entire game.
Wabash’s Ryan Richman led the Apaches with 26 points, and was a catalyst in giving Wabash the early lead. He connected on a three point play with 2:32 left in the first quarter to give the Apaches the lead for good, and increased the lead to 15-9 with back to back baskets late in the quarter, one of them a three pointer.
“Wabash didn’t let us get on the offensive boards like we were able to in the county tourney, and that took some offense away from us,” Manchester coach Gary Goshert said.
With Wabash leading 21-14 in the second quarter, Ryan Binkley scored on an assist from Aaron Olinger, followed by two free throws from Scott Baker to cut the lead to three.
Wabash responded with a 6-1 run, but Baker hit two more free throws, and Binkley hit a jumper to make it a 27-23 halftime score.
“The whole first half was a struggle for us,” Goshert said. “They drove us, they cut us, they got the ball in to the paint at will. It’s not like we didn’t know what to prepare for. It was a little disappointing they got so much of what they wanted offensively.
“At halftime, we talked about taking care of some things defensively, and in the third, we were able to get back into it,” Goshert added.
Wabash opened the third quarter with four straight points, but the Squires used a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 31-29.
Binkley hit two jumpers, while Skyler Dingess connected on a baby hook, but Robby Snyder, who finished with 20 points, hit a free throw and a basket to keep the Apaches ahead 34-29.
Manchester went on a 10-3 run to take their last lead of the game, 39-37 with 1:18 remaining in the third quarter.
Jenks and Binkley both hit jumpers, but Richman responded with a three pointer.
Baker scored five straight points, and Kyle Lahman went 1-2 from the line to give the Squires a 39-37 lead with 1:18 left in the third.
Snyder scored Wabash’s next seven points, and Richman hit a three pointer to give Wabash a 47-41 lead with 7:15 left in the game.
Binkley got a steal and lay up to make it 47-43, but Snyder scored again inside, then hit a free throw to make it 50-43 with 6:01 left.
Austin Flack appeared to give the Squires a spark 30 seconds later.
The Squire sophomore hit a free throw, but missed his second attempt. He raced to the basket, grabbed the offensive rebound and scored to cut the lead to 50-46.
With 4:30 left in the game, however, Baker picked up his fifth foul, and the momentum switched back to the Apaches.
Alex Hentgen scored three straight points, followed by a three point play from Richman to give Wabash a 56-46 lead just one minute after Baker fouled out.
“Wabash was having trouble with Ryan and Scotty, but once Scotty fouled out, it became difficult for us on both ends of the floor,” Goshert said.
Lahman tried to keep things close, nailing a three pointer with 3:09 left in the game, but Wabash answered with five straight points to lead 61-49. The Apaches hit 8-10 free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
“I was very happy with our ball handling down the stretch,” Robbins said. “We took care of the ball when they were putting a lot of pressure on us.”
“Wabash defended us much better tonight than what we did,” Goshert said. “In reality, if you told me before the game that we scored 56 points, I would have been pretty confident that we would come out on the winning side. Normally, if you play a little bit of defense, that’s enough to win.”
Instead, Wabash shot 20-38 from the field and hit 25-43 free throws for the game.
Manchester, on the other hand, shot 20-46 from the field and 14-21 from the line.
“There are some things that we are going to have to take care of if we are going to compete, and we have to do that in practice,” Goshert said. “We played like we practiced this week. We have to realize that we have to be focused, and things have to mean something to them. We need some good practices, because that translates into better play.”
Binkley and Baker both led Manchester with 15 points each. Binkley added nine assists and five rebounds, while Baker had four rebounds.
Flack had 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists, Lahman had four points and three rebounds, Crockett had four points and two rebounds, Coltin Jenks had four points, while Olinger and Dingess both had two points and one rebound.
Manchester will travel to Rochester this Friday with a 6:15 p.m. JV tip-off.