LAFAYETTE – The magical journey through March Madness finally ended in sadness for the Warsaw boys basketball team Saturday night.

Haden Deaton gets some love from his teammates during the first half of McCutcheon’s semi-state win over Warsaw. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

The No. 5 Tigers saw their stellar season come to a close with a tough 40-37 loss to No. 4 McCutcheon in the Class 4-A North Semistate game in the Crawley Center at Lafayette Jefferson High School.

The Mavericks, who improve to 28-3, earn the first semistate championship in program history.   McCutcheon will face No. 1 New Albany (26-1) in the Class 4-A state title game next Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. New Albany defeated No. 9 Southport 82-64 Saturday to claim the Richmond Semistate championship.

Warsaw sees its outstanding campaign come to a close at 25-2. The 25 victories are the most for the Tigers since the 1996 team went 25-3 and lost in the State Finals.

Sophomore guard Robert Phinisee, who has already received offers from both Indiana and Purdue, paced the Mavericks with 16 points. Senior Darnell Butler added 10 points for McCutcheon.

Junior Kyle Mangas poured in a game-high 19 points to lead the way for Warsaw. Seniors Paul Marandet and Evan Schmidt each scored six points for the Tigers.

The Tigers battled the quick and athletic Mavericks to the final horn. Warsaw trailed 39-31 after Butler drained a pair of free throws with 38.7 seconds left. Mangas pulled his team within 39-34 with a 3-pointer with 14.2 seconds remaining. Butler then hit the second of two free throw attempts to make it 40-34 with 12.7 ticks left on the clock. Mangas then drained another trey to cut it to 40-37 with just under two seconds to play. The clock was inadvertently stopped at 1.6 seconds to play, but was restarted and the final horn sounded.

Warsaw was simply done in by turnovers and their inability to finish shots versus the quick and athletic Mavericks. The Tigers had 13 turnovers in the contest (to just four for McCutcheon).  Warsaw also shot just 6-6 from the free throw line, while the Mavericks were 10-16 from the stripe.

“We just did not play well enough in any phase tonight to beat a good team like McCutcheon,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle. “In a nutshell, they are very good and our turnovers and the lack of free throws were the difference. We had too many turnovers and we also missed too many shots in the basket area.”

The Mavericks, who entered the game averaging 73.8 points-per-game, led 33-29 after the third period. McCutcheon then opted to hold the ball with Phinisee standing near the half court line dribbling to open the final frame. Warsaw opted to let the Mavericks stall until the four-minute mark in the fourth quarter. Junior Deaton Haden then scored on a drive with 3:14 left to make it 35-29.

“We were down four at the time and not playing very well, so I was okay with them taking it down like that,” remarked Ogle of McCutcheon stalling. “Our defense had not been that good guarding them up until then.”

The Tigers led 8-7 after the opening period as Mangas scored six points. The Mavericks missed their first five shots of the game. Phinisee then sparked a 9-0 run to open the second stanza to give his team a 16-8 lead. Warsaw’s first points of the period came on a Mangas layup with 3:53 to play. The Tigers trailed 19-10 after a Phinisee three-point play with 3:29 left. Warsaw answered with an 8-2 run to end the half, ignited by huge back-to-back 3-pointers by Schmidt, to trail just 21-18.

“We had 11 turnovers at halftime and I couldn’t believe we were only down three,” said Ogle. “It was more our offense tonight. We didn’t handle the ball well enough, did not complete passes and rushed and missed shots inside.  Their defense is hard to play against with their quickness.

“I thought that we hung in there. We just had a hard time containing Phinisee. We were concerned with their 3-point shooting and they got us spread out on defense. They have four guys who can drive it and score and that’s a lot to defend.  They are a very good team.”

Marandet, the classy, do-it-all point guard for the Tigers, summed it up well.

“It’s tough because we know we could have beat this team,” said Marandet, a three-year starter. “We knew that completing passes would be huge and we just didn’t do that. They sped us up.  We were passive. We needed to attack more. If I could replay this game, I would be a lot more aggressive.”

Warsaw entered play Saturday night averaging just 7.9 turnovers per game and averaging 19 free throws per contest. The Mavericks, who had hit 244 treys on the season, were just 2-11 from distance. The 40 points were a season low for McCutcheon, whose previous low total was 55 on two occasions.

Junior Jeremy David had four points and senior Riley Rhoades two points and seven rebounds.

Warsaw shot 13-27 overall from the field, but just 5-14 in the second half. The Tigers were 5-12 from deep. McCutcheon shot 14-32 overall from the field, including its 2-11 mark from distance.