Austin Miller slides past Cade Gall for a lay-in in the second half of Wawasee’s boys/ girls doubleheader at Fairfield Tuesday night. (Photos by James Costello)

GOSHEN — The two games in Tuesday night’s boys/ girls doubleheader in Fairfield were almost mirror images of one another.

Wawasee’s girls got off to a slow start for a second straight game, and it cost the Lady Warriors their third straight loss. The Warriors had the run of play early in their game, meanwhile, and rode an early 10-0 lead to victory in their season-opener.

WARRIORS 44, FALCONS 37

After all the kerfuffle in the preseason — the dismissal of head coach Jon Everingham and the later reversal that left the fourth-year skipper at the helm of the program — there were understandably some nerves ahead of Wawasee’s season-opener Tuesday.

The Warriors jumped on their hosts early and never trailed in an inspired win in Goshen.

“I just told the guys, this one tends to feel just a little bit sweeter than some of the other ones that I’ve experienced. We’re a family, and we’ve come a long way as a family,” said Everingham. “To stay together through the ups and downs and to work really, really hard — I know it’s game one, but this one felt different at the beginning. I was really nervous. Just different emotions kind of coming into this game. I love my team. I’m telling you, we’ve got really good kids, and they play with emotion. And I thought everyone saw that tonight.”

Jon Everingham directs his players from the sideline Tuesday.

Wawasee put Fairfield on its heels early with a full court press and swarming half court pressure out of the 3-2 zone, opening the game 10-0. The Falcons responded to cut that advantage to as little as one point at 14-13 early in the third, but the Warriors never let them get out front, building back to a double-digit lead with Austin Miller’s steal and fast break layup at the 2:22 mark of the period.

“Coach Nate O’Connell and I, that was kind of the plan. We knew they were a little inexperienced. We did not want them to come out and feel comfortable, so we were in our trapping defense to start the game. It was a little bit of a risk, but we felt with their inexperience it kind of threw them out of a rhythm,” explained Everingham. “I thought that was a good strategic game plan coming in and playing against Fairfield.”

Miller finished with a team-high 12 points despite scuffling to a 1-for-10 mark from 3-point range, and he also tallied a game-high four steals. His diving steal against Nolin Sharick at the timeline and quick assist from the ground to Kameron Salazar for a transition lay-in with around 20 seconds to go put the exclamation point on the win.

“I told the guys I didn’t think we played particularly well and neither did Fairfield, and it’s probably a typical first game of the year-type thing, but Miller diving on the floor for that ball kind of exemplifies who we have to be in order to be competitive,” said Everingham. “Yeah, Austin Miller is our guy. We shot the ball horrifically tonight and still won the game. Austin is an extremely good shooter. It’s nice to see him go 1-for-10 from 3-point land and still win the game. I think that’s a good sign for our team.

“Last year we counted on Ben Hoffert quite a bit, and we struggled to get everybody on the same page at the same time. Tonight Austin didn’t have his best game, but others around him played really well. So it’s exciting for us.”

Ethan Hardy put up 11 points with six rebounds and a block, while sophomore Jack Stover notched 10 points. Stover’s classmate Keaton Dukes scored another seven points with six rebounds for Wawasee, which opened with a win for the first time since Everingham’s first year at the helm in 2016-17.

Fairfield was paced by Sharick’s game-high 20 points.

The Warriors host Angola in their home-opener at the Hardwood Teepee Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

Wawasee’s JV also won in the auxiliary gym in Fairfield Tuesday, 41-26. Caden Welty gave the JV Warriors 11 points, and Mason Possell put up 10.

LADY FALCONS 55, LADY WARRIORS 33

While their boys counterparts got off to a fast start, the Lady Warriors fell behind 15-0 at the outset of Tuesday’s early game. They already  trailed by more than 20 points midway through the second period, and, despite winning a competitive second half, they couldn’t manage to dig their way out of that deep early deficit.

“We’re still learning. We’re still growing as a team, but at this point we’ve got to figure things out quicker. For our girls, they’re capable of playing really well. They’re capable of playing extremely hard and communicating, but we didn’t see it,” said head coach Matt Carpenter.

Jada Carter pulls up between Chloe Dell and Riley Miller in Tuesday’s girls game.

“I think what you saw in the second half is the kind of intensity and energy that they can play with. Now what we have to figure out as a team — coaches, players — is how do we get that right away? Because the last couple games we’ve come out slow, and it’s a lot more challenging, especially when you’re down 15-0 against a good team that’s well-coached.”

The main culprit for the Falcons’ dominant first half was a 7-for-11 3-point shooting clip against Wawasee’s zone. Riley Miller went 3-for-3 from deep on her way to 13 points for the night, while freshman Brea Garber knocked down 3-of-4 treys in the first half on the way to a game-high 13 points. That long range attack dried up for Fairfield in the second half as the hosts hit one triple in just four tries after the intermission.

“Fairfield is a very good passing team, and they’re a very good shooting team when they get good passes and we’re in scramble mode. We were in scramble mode all first half,” explained Carpenter. “Honestly, we were doing two things  — one the ball was getting by us, we weren’t containing penetration — and two, we were over-helping. So I just simply told them ‘Have they beat you by going to the basket yet? Stop over-helping.’ They hit (seven) threes in the first half. You have to adjust to teams, and some teams are going to penetrate to kick, not penetrate to finish. Tonight, Fairfield had that mentality in the first half because they knew we were going to over-help.”

Fairfield got a third player in double digits as Chloe Dell scored 10 for her team. The Warriors, by contrast, had just one player in double figures as Abby Steiner knocked down a trio of 3s and put up 11 points off the bench for her team.

“I love having her come off the bench like that because she can bring some energy. At 5’4”, as a left-hander, she’s kind of sneaky with how she can get by some people, and she’s got a quick first step and she can actually finish inside for being so short. You add to that, the fact that she can shoot the 3 when she’s open, and she can bring us a lot,” Carpenter said.

Abby Steiner scored a team-high 11 points off the bench for Wawasee.

Ella Beezley finished with six points, and Kennedy White scored five. Jada Carter tallied a team-high four steals, but it was Danielle Jenkins who really distinguished herself with pesky defensive hustle.

“Danielle plays with a tremendous amount of heart and energy. You’re never going to lack for effort from her,” Carpenter said. “Sometimes she makes a decision or two that I question, but I’ll take her any day, any week when she plays that hard. That enthusiasm, that energy rubs off on her teammates, and she is a pest defensively, too.”

After a 3-0 start, the Lady Warriors now slide to an even 3-3. It’s a skid that began with a lopsided loss to a very good Concord team Friday, then continued with a defeat at the hands of a one-win Triton team and now through Tuesday’s road game. The Lady Warriors will look to bounce back next Tuesday at West Noble.

“I think we’re going through some growing pains. I don’t want to say that we’re young because I tell them that that’s not an excuse, so I don’t want to give that excuse either. What I do attribute it to is us trying to find our identity. We came out swinging and we won some games and got some momentum, and then we took one right to the chops at Concord, and we’re learning how to we bounce back from that adversity and what do we need to fix so it doesn’t happen again,” said Carpenter.

“I feel like we started to find that identity in the second half tonight, and that’s the team that we’re extremely proud to coach and that’s the team that I expect to come out here after Thanksgiving.”

Wawasee’s JV won their match-up, 21-11, to move to 5-1 on the season. Ava Harker finished with eight points and four rebounds, and Lindsay Doss came down with six rebounds for the Warriors.