Stori Bright wins the tip for the Warriors to start Tuesday’s game against Eastside.

SYRACUSE – As the postseason creeps closer, the Wawasee boys basketball team continues to fine-tune its play. Eastside rolled to town Tuesday night on an eight game winning streak for its first-ever matchup with the Warriors. Wawasee slammed the door on that streak, downing the Blazers 70-55.

The offensive production issue that lingered for an earlier stretch of Wawasee’s season seems to be gone. Tuesday’s game marked the third win in a row for the Warriors and the third straight game in which they have scored 69 or more points.

Eastside presented plenty of problems as it had several scorers and managed to hit nine threes. That stellar shooting helped the Blazers get their first lead of the night in the second quarter, 18-17, with a 12-0 run that began in the first quarter. But once Eastside made that big run, the Warriors picked up their game on both ends of the court.

Wawasee outscored its opponent 13-8 in the second quarter and 18-9 in the third to help extend its lead. Eastside made a push in the fourth, getting the game down to 57-51, but the Warriors were able to find success from the foul line late.

Jake Hutchinson fakes a pass inside.

It might surprise some fans that were in attendance, but more than one Warrior made it to the charity stripe in the game. A total of five Wawasee players actually shot one or more free throw attempts against the Blazers, though it was Gage Reinhard that spent the majority of his time at the line.

Reinhard was nearly automatic from the stripe, hitting 15 of his 16 attempts. The senior helped build momentum before the half with his precise shooting as he was fouled on a three-point attempt at the buzzer and hit all three of his free throws to double his team’s lead going into the locker room, 30-24. Reinhard finished his night leading all players with 25 points and five assists. He also added five rebounds and a steal.

As a team Wawasee shot 92.3-percent (24-26) from the line. The Warriors also owned the glass, dominating the battle on the boards 32-16. Stori Bright led all players with nine rebounds.

It was not a perfect game for the Warriors, but Wawasee overcame 11 turnovers and some bad missed shots to score a big win. Finding ways to win games in any fashion is exactly what you want to see from a team at this point in the season.

Alex Clark hits a mid-range jumper despite tight defense from an Eastside player.

“Overall we played pretty solid,” said head coach Steve Wiktorowski. “We had a few up-and-down moments, but overall I was pretty proud.

“We talked about how tonight is a very common, sectional type of game. You’re maybe not playing you’re very best and you just have to grind it out. We were playing against an offense we weren’t used to seeing, but we found a way to win. This team is getting better and better at that. We’re maturing and finding ways to beat whatever team is in front of that particular night.”

Wawasee (10-10) had additional scoring help from Alex Clark (14 points) and Aaron Beer (eight points). The Warriors also benefited from getting 11 points of their bench, another improvement that has been noticed in recent weeks.

In the junior varsity contest Eastside won 38-31 in overtime against Wawasee. The Warriors were led by Tim Conley’s seven points.