Warwick Makes Quick Work Of Garden Spot As Warriors Show Off Offensive Weaponry In Dominating Nonleague Victory
Written by: Andy Herr on December 27, 2021
It’s that strange week between Christmas and New Year’s which typically means one of two things. First, no one has any real concept of time with most everyone wandering around aimlessly wondering what day of the week it actually is. Secondly, this is typically that small window of opportunity where new year’s resolutions start to come together and get envisioned. And yes, while you may not think it immediately, high school basketball teams too can sometimes come up with their own resolutions as well.
For the Garden Spot Spartans, winning more games in the calendar year of 2022 is surely at the top of the goal sheet for the group from New Holland. However, even though the wins thus far have admittedly been in short supply for Garden Spot up until this point in the season, perhaps their most recent outing -an incredibly dominant and head-turning win on the road at Penn Manor last Wednesday in a 54-33 final verdict- can be used as a springboard to help vault the Spartans into the meat of their regular season schedule. And speaking of their upcoming slate, there would arguably be no tougher contest on the road ahead than with their very next game right out of box on Monday night -a tricky road test at Warwick.
When speaking about the Warwick Warriors, hey, maybe concocting new year’s resolutions is nothing more than a pointless and frivolous exercise. After all, while most were projecting the Warriors to take a step back towards the pack amongst the rest of the pack in Lancaster-Lebanon Section Two this season, the resume put forward by the Warriors simply doesn’t seem as if that notion will actually come to fruition. After all, while Warwick didn’t enter the holiday break this year with an unblemished record this year, they kind of sorta did considering they were able to exact some revenge on Conestoga Valley last week in a resounding 53-38 triumph over the Buckskins -a CV group if you recall gave Warwick their only loss of the season to date. Simply put, Warwick has been able to beat literally team put in front of them so far this year. So yeah, besides cleaning up some things here and there, there really doesn’t appear to be much of a reason to go about reinventing the wheel as the start of the 2022 looms on the horizon for those who call Lititz their home.
Fittingly though, for two teams that surely came into Monday night’s affair bouncy and full of energy considering that their most recent outings were arguably their biggest wins of the season yet to date for both Garden Spot and Warwick respectively, the two squads would meet toe-to-toe in a nonleague contest given that a final team opted out of Warwick’s annual holiday tournament at the 11th hour, leaving Garden Spot, Warwick, and Lancaster Catholic unfairly stranded with no place to go. In the end though, while Garden Spot would have their moments early on, Warwick would leave little doubt at the end of this night given their wildly efficient night thanks to the collective efforts put forth from nearly every single Warrior who stepped foot on the floor Monday evening.
As mentioned, while the visitors from New Holland would do the brunt of their damage early on, it didn’t always look like that would be the case. Granted, starting off with two consecutive turnovers on their initial offensive possessions of the contest surely didn’t help the Spartans get into any sort of rhythm, at least off the bat. That said, much to their credit, Garden Spot would be able to retaliate back quite nicely following Warwick’s early volley lobbed at them given a Tyler Martin theft and subsequent layup, as the senior Spartan’s bucket knotted things up at 6-6 with 5:40 left to play in the opening quarter. From there, the gray-clad Spartans would proceed to take their first lead of the evening at 8-6 following a spin move inside from senior big man, Brendan Weaver, at roughly the 4-minute mark of the opening frame.
From that point on however, Warwick would take the lead and never look back.
In fact, it all happened almost immediately. Truth be told, for no sooner had Garden Spot taken the lead did the Warriors take it right back. For that, Warwick was able to reclaim ownership of the scoreboard thanks to a Tate Landis triple down on the offensive end on the Warriors’ ensuing trip following the Weaver bucket before the Warwick senior floor general would get into the act via the assist game with a sweet dime to a streaking Ryan Fink on the leak-out who would finish at the cup for a deuce that not only made it a 15-10 Warwick lead, but also prompted the Spartans to burn a timeout to stave off the host’s salvo with 2:50 left to play in the first quarter. However, the timeout would do little to stop the Warwick onslaught it would have appeared given a pair of second-chance buckets tallied from point-blank range courtesy of Warwick 6’2 freshman forward, Caleb Johnson, helped send his troops into the second stanza with the 20-12 cushion over the opposition.
Yet just as they had done in the waning moments of the first quarter, Warwick only continued to feast by the time the second quarter rolled along as well.
For record-keeping purposes, it took the Warriors all of 40 seconds inside the second frame to double-up their hosts as a tough bucket through contact authored by Warwick senior, Chase Krall, made it a 24-12 affair before an Avery Sapp steal and finish made it a 28-12 ballgame shortly thereafter. Unfortunately for the Spartans however, the snowball would only continue rolling downhill. Ironically, while the aforementioned Krall bucket in the opening stages of the quarter put the Warriors up by a dozen to start things off, a Fink robbery and finish in his own right then put Warwick up an even two dozen at 36-12 before a much-needed floater in the lane courtesy of Garden Spot senior, Ryan Conrad, helped stop the bleeding for the Spartans despite the score now standing at 36-14 with the first half getting set to wrap up. Then, once it finally did end, the Warriors would successfully trot into the locker room with the commanding 39-16 difference between themselves and the Spartans.
In the third quarter, it didn’t really seem to matter who happened to be throwing it from long range considering both teams seemed to have their fair share of trifectas that rained down coming out of the halftime break.
Case in point, Garden Spot’s Luke Steiner who helped get the party started for the Spartans with a 3-ball that made it a 42-19 contest with 5:10 left to go. Speaking of Steiner, the Garden Spot senior would go on to pace his club’s effort with a team-high 10-point outing to lead the Spartans’ charge on Monday night. From there though, it would be the Warriors’ turn to answer back which they did courtesy of a trifecta splashed in by 6’1 sophomore, Carter Horst, which made it a 47-21 Warwick lead with just inside of four minutes left to tick off the third quarter clock. And once the buzzer did ring out, the scoreboard hanging on the wall showed the Warriors in firm control at 56-29 with the final eight minutes getting set to commence.
In the final frame, Warwick was able to keep their foot on the gas pedal.
Right from the outset, a Chase Krall 3-point bomb helped set the tone for the Warriors’ final march home before a solid take to the cup by way of Caleb Johnson inside the four-minute mark made it a 63-29 ballgame, a nice pair of bookended buckets that showed off both Warwick’s mixture of veteran experience that also comes coupled with youthful promise and upside.
On the Spartans’ side, they too would have their share of nice moments down the homeward stretch as well.
In fact, after checking into the contest, Garden Spot senior guard, Angel Rodriguez, was able to thread the needle nicely to Michael Heisey on the fast break, as the junior’s bucket in transition gave the Spartans some nice mojo with time winding down. Then, just before the final horn, freshman guard, Owen Usner, made the most of his opportunity playing at the varsity ranks by promptly canning a triple from the top of the key with time winding down for yet another Garden Spot bucket before time would eventually expire.
And once it did, Warwick was able to chalk up yet another impressive outing to their already stellar early season story with an emphatic and decisive 65-36 victory at the hands of Garden Spot at home on Monday night that was drenched in a wildly efficient offensive output by the entirety of the Warriors’ collective troops.
NEXT UP: As far as Warwick is concerned, there’s really no rest for the weary. That can be said due to the fact that the Warriors will now host Lancaster Catholic back at home on Tuesday night in a matchup between those two familiar programs that has evolved into as much a constant over the years as any of your favorite age-old Christmas traditions. From there, the Warriors will take their first swing at their newest rivals of sorts, the Lebanon Cedars, next week before embarking on nothing but L-L Section One crossover play over the span of the next two weeks after that.
For Garden Spot, their next game will also come against Lancaster Catholic ironically as well. Again, thanks to Warwick’s best-laid plans of a holiday tournament effectively going up in smoke with no time left to try and rectify the situation, all three of the remaining teams will at least try and salvage things by playing a round-robin against one another this week. In the upcoming game against the Crusaders, the Spartans will once again be going back on the road as they travel to Lancaster city to match up with Catholic on Wednesday night. Then, following that contest in the midweek, the grind only intensifies for Garden Spot considering they will then play arguably the best team in the entire league, Lampeter-Strasburg, coming out of the holiday break, before squaring off with Manheim Township and Lancaster Catholic yet again on January 11th.
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