ELKHART – Hank Smith picked the perfect time to show off his shooting ability Thursday night.

Smith’s sweet-shooting show from distance carried his Elkhart Memorial team to a huge 63-50 win over Warsaw in a key Northern Lakes Conference matchup at North Side Gym

Junior guard Smith canned a program-record nine 3-pointers, on just 11 attempts from deep, to carry the Crimson Chargers to the victory.

Brian Elliott turned in his own outstanding game with a tremendous 3-point shooting display for the Tigers. The Warsaw sophomore dropped in eight treys of his own on 12 attempts in scoring a career-high 24 points.

The Memorial win not only stopped its three-game losing skid, but also ended Warsaw’s seven-game winning streak.

The victory also threw the wide-open chase for the NLC championship into a four-team affair. Warsaw, which has won the last three NLC titles, along with Memorial, Northridge and Plymouth are all tied atop the league standings now at 4-2. Northridge beat Wawasee 47-37 and Plymouth topped Goshen 44-32 in NLC play Thursday night.

The battle for bragging rights in the conference will now come down to league finales Feb. 9. Warsaw hosts Plymouth, Memorial plays at NorthWood and Northridge hosts Concord next Friday night. The league is guaranteed to have a two-loss champion or co-champions for the first time since 2004.

Smith’s incredible shooting performance was just part of a lights-out effort by the Chargers. The hosts hit 24-34 from the field as a team, including 11-14 from beyond the arc.

Warsaw, which had not lost a conference road game since losing to Memorial 59-53 in North Side Gym back in 2014, falls to 10-8 overall. The Tigers had won 13 in a row on the road in league play and have won 25 of their last 27 conference contests.

“Their shooting was phenomenal tonight,” said Warsaw coach Doug Ogle of Memorial. “It was a heck of a game by Smith. He made some long threes. On some of his shots, you can’t play defense any different than we did.

“We did not play great tonight, but a lot of that was them. We would have had to play extra solid to withstand that kind of shooting performance.”

Memorial, which improves to 8-8 overall, took the lead for good at 10-9 on a layup by standout Trey Gallope midway through the first quarter. Smith then scored his team’s next eight points to build an 18-13 lead at the end of the opening frame. Smith had 10 points in the first period.

The Chargers, who had lost three in a row to Warsaw, closed the first half with an 11-4 run to take a 35-24 halftime lead. Smith drained 19 points in the half, including hitting his fifth trey of the night with 1.7 seconds left before intermission. Memorial was 14-19 from the field, including 6-7 from deep, in the opening half.

“A combination of things got us in a 12-point hole at halftime,” Ogle noted. “We had too many empty possessions offensively. We came out and had three turnovers out of the gate where we were throwing the ball around just willy-nilly. We got sped up and just had too many rushed plays tonight. We were not poised enough.”

The Tigers cut the Memorial lead to 35-30 as Elliott dropped in back-to-back threes in the first three minutes of the third stanza. Memorial responded though with a 6-0 run as Gallope converted a conventional three-point play and Smith drained another triple.  Smith ended the frame with an incredible spinning, turn around three from the top of the key as the buzzer sounded to make it 46-33.

Smith, who was 2-3 on shots inside the arc, put the game away by hitting a pair of treys to open the final frame to balloon the Memorial lead to 52-33. Elliott swished four treys in the fourth quarter for the Tigers.

“Memorial came into tonight shooting 31 percent from 3-point range and they go 6-7 in the first half,” said Ogle. “You have to assume that they can’t continue to shoot that well and they did. They go 5-7 in the second half.

“Brian Elliott had a good game shooting the ball. Now, we just have to get ready to play Plymouth next week and try to earn a share of the NLC title.”

Gallope, an athletic 6-1 junior forward, had a big night with 15 points to go with seven rebounds and six assists for Memorial.

The Chargers had a key 17-3 scoring edge in points off turnovers thanks to their active, aggressive work defensively. The hosts threw a number of things at the Tigers, including fullcourt pressure and half-court traps.

“We knew that Hank could shoot like this,” said Memorial coach Kyle Sears. “We’ve been waiting for it and he was due to have a game like this. His 3-point shooting has been kind of up and down this season, but we see in practice what he is capable of doing. It was good for him to catch fire tonight. Making 8-12 is insane. Even our kids tonight were telling me to feed him the ball.

“Trey just gives it to us most nights like he did again tonight. He quietly had 15, but I was impressed with his six assists. He finds the right guy at the right times for us.

“I thought that our pressure defense definitely helped us. We were were active, even in our half court defense. Being active is more for us. We have to play that way being smaller. We have to use our quickness and stay active. This win was super important for us. If we lose, we are out of the NLC race. Now, it puts a share of the title in reach again for us.”

Senior Zach Riley had 10 points and six rebounds for Warsaw. Junior guard Nolan Groninger scored six points, ending his streak of consecutive double-digit games at 11.for the Tigers. Groninger dished out six assists.

Junior Tyler Metzinger added four points and junior Jaylen Reese and senior Jack Rhoades three each for Warsaw.

Senior Iyan Jennings added 11 points for Memorial.

Memorial won the junior varsity game 43-40. Keagan Larsh led Warsaw with 13 points. Tedros Berelsman scored nine and Jaylen Coon eight for the Tigers. D’arjon Lewis had 15 points and Brandon Brooks 11 to lead Memorial.

Warsaw hosts Plymouth on Feb. 9. Memorial plays at Mishawaka Marian Saturday afternoon and visits NorthWood Feb. 9.