Warsaw’s Jeremy David blocks the shot of Manchester’s Mason Hamby during the Tigers’ 63-36 win Thursday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – After a long weekend, Warsaw’s boys basketball team made sure there would be no repeat Thursday night. Jumping all over Manchester from the outset, Warsaw hounded the Squires in a 63-36 final at the Tiger Den.

Doing the little things that matter, the Tigers swarmed Manchester on defense and used its superior size to its advantage. Drawing three offensive fouls in the first half alone, Warsaw clamped down to hold the Squires to just 10 total points on 4-18 shooting in the entire first half.

Manchester did a decent enough job on Warsaw’s leading scorer, Kyle Mangas, holding the star to just seven points in the opening half, but as the visitor’s couldn’t get a rhythm offensively, Warsaw spread the ball around. Five different Tigers scored a basket in the first quarter, and a 10-point first quarter lead got out of hand quick as the Tigers went on a 15-6 run in the second.

“They are a very good team on both the offensive and defensive end,” said Manchester head coach Mark Underwood. “When you play a good team like this I think it often times will point out your weaknesses. A real weakness for us is our rebounding, our defensive rebounding. We gave up way too many offensive rebounds. In the first half we gave up 8-10 points off offensive rebounds. By doing that, you’re down 19, and we had a poor shooting night. If we hit a few shots and kept them off the board for those second opportunities, I really felt like this could have been a much closer game.”

Warsaw would score 18 second-chance points in the game, Manchester had nary a point in that category.

Jeremy David had seven of his career-high 12 points in the first half, and hauled in a game-high eight rebounds to boot. Warsaw as a whole won the rebounding battle 32-16 and held Manchester to just 13-38 shooting (34 percent) for the game. Conversely, Warsaw shot 24-44 (55 percent), had 10 different players score from the floor, and Mangas would get his in the second half, finishing with 24 total points.

“That’s close to a double-double, which is hard to do in high school,” said Warsaw head coach Doug Ogle of David’s performance. “Burish had a good game, and Blum hit a couple baskets early. I felt like we improved tonight. Yes, we are better than Manchester. But, still, you can’t take an opportunity and kind of coast because the opponent isn’t as good as you are. You still have to use it. We have a lot of room for improvement. That’s what I appreciated about tonight, I felt like we improved tonight. I am encouraged.”

The Tigers, which lost by 13 at Homestead on Dec. 2 and had to go to overtime to beat Huntington North by four the following night, bounced back to move to 4-1 overall, and again are staring at a back-to-back scenario with Lake Central poised to visit the Tiger Den Friday night.

“Our defense really hasn’t been that good, but we are chipping away at it,” Ogle said. “Our communication was better tonight.”

Mason Hamby led Manchester (0-4) with 10 points and David McAtee and Brayden Casper each finished with seven points. The Squires will host Huntington North Saturday night. Thursday’s cauldron provided Underwood a sneak peak at what Saturday could present once again.

Added Underwood, “Huntington North took Warsaw to overtime, and hopefully these tough games will pay some dividends.”

In the JV game, Warsaw ran away with a 56-16 win. Landen Ferber paced the Tigers with 18 points, Nolan Groninger had 14 points and Brian Elliott had 10 points. Thane Creager and Isaiah Davis each had five points for the Squires.

Warsaw’s Ross Johnson drives in for a layup against Manchester.