Gage Reinhard, and everyone behind him, look on as he sinks his second three-point shot of OT. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – A seven-point overtime victory on February 17, 2011 was the last time the Wawasee boys basketball team defeated Westview. That was until Tuesday night. The green and gold Warriors snapped a three-game losing skid to the red and gold Warriors by earning a seven-point overtime victory, 69-62.

“We really needed to pull this one out,” said Wawasee senior Gage Reinhard. “Our main goal for the last few weeks of the season is to get on a run going into sectionals, be the hot team. We played like that tonight. We we’re all shooting well in the fourth and we really picked up our defensive play going into overtime.”

Wawasee (8-10) was shooting well as a team in the fourth quarter, but Reinhard was on a different level in overtime. Westview turned the ball over on its first OT possession and then sent Reinhard to the charity stripe where he hit two free throws to give his team the lead for the first time since the first half.

Another Wawasee defensive stop led to a Reinhard three to put the home team up 61-56. Reinhard added yet another three on the next possession to keep the lead steady at 64-58. Jeffrey Moore followed that three with a wide-open lay-in to put Wawasee up nine with just over a minute to play. The overtime session proved to be way to much for Westview while Wawasee looked as if it had the energy to play another game.

“I think they felt the momentum swing in their favor,” said Wawasee head coach Steve Wiktorowksi of his team’s overtime performance. “It was a little bit of new life, a little bit of a breather after going back and forth for a while. I think they were just determined to win it at that point.”

Tuesday’s game had the feel of a season-changing win for Wawasee. The Warriors overcame a few defensive breakdowns early, a 10-point fourth quarter deficit and Chandler Aspy to escape with a victory.

Aspy was a beast for Westview all night. He finished with a game-high 31 points and 10 rebounds. He looked to be the sole reason that Westview would escape, but failure to get him the ball in closing seconds of regulation led to overtime. Once in the extra session, Wawasee was not letting Aspy be a paint problem anymore.

“We did a better job at taking his baseline away,” Wiktorowski said. “We did a better job at turning him into the middle where we had better help. We just didn’t do a great job at controlling him early, but our defense really improved throughout the game.”

Wawasee played solid defense on the final possession of regulation to make sure Aspy did not get the ball, forcing Westview’s unwilling Lincoln McDonald to take the game-winning shot attempt as time expired.

Reinhard finished the game with 22 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Though he was not the only senior to come up big for Wawasee. Alex Clark came up with big buckets in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 while Aaron Voirol may be the biggest unsung hero of them all.

Voirol kept Wawasee alive in the first half with an eight-point second quarter effort and made a gutsy decision late by driving inside to tie the game 56-56 to force OT with just 19 seconds on the clock.

The Warriors will host Mishawaka in a make-up game Wednesday night. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.

Westview won the junior varsity contest 44-36 over Wawasee. Westview was led by Lucas Yoder’s 15 points while Wawasee was led offensively by Stephon Miller who had 13 points.