Wilson Uses Trademark Recipe, High IQ And Overall Unselfishness, To Stifle Warwick As Bulldogs Prevail In Early Season Defensive Showcase
Written by: Andy Herr on December 15, 2023
Before we start, let’s just go ahead and get the obvious out of the way early here. That of course being that this is a year in which big things are expected to come from the Warwick Warriors. That’s not a bad thing of course. Far from it in all honesty. Long story short, if you enter a season with high expectations, it obviously beats the alternative, right?
Without much in the way that requires a deep dive into a ton of research, it’s readily apparent as to why 2023-24 was shaping up to be a year that the Warriors haven’t seen in more than a generation by and large. Aside from the fact that had it not been for the wonky year that came with shortened postseason brackets enveloped inside the COVID year of 2020-21, Warwick probably would’ve made good on making it three consecutive trips back to the league finals had it not been for the Lebanon Cedars who took Section Two’s lone spot in the field, with the Cedars going on to finish as the league champs that year.
That’s the macro element to demonstrate that the Warwick boys’ basketball program over the course of going on darn near a decade now is sitting on nothing but solid footing. For the micro element as far as it relates to this team in particular, how about the fact that the Warriors came into the season losing no one to graduation? Oh yeah, it’s also largely the same team that went on to make the 5A state playoffs despite falling in the opening round, but not before giving previously unbeaten Radnor all it wanted and then some in the District 1-5A’s champs backyard to kick off the PIAA tourney last March. For that reason, it was understandable as to why Warwick scheduled the way it had in the first few weeks of the season. Case in point, matchups against the likes of perennial eastern PA juggernaut, Coatesville, before rounding that out with a trip to Waynesboro against two other 6A foes, Chambersburg and Waynesboro respectively, with the Warriors coming out of Franklin County last weekend with a 1-1 mark, making for an even 2-2 overall record heading into this week.
And wouldn’t you know it, but this week too brought on even more ardent 6A competition for them.
Certain teams just have an unmistakable identity to them. Ironically, perhaps the two shining examples happen to be located within just a couple miles of each other. For just as much as the Reading Red Knights are renowned for getting up and down the floor while employing a full-court pressure defense that never lets up, the Wilson Bulldogs on the other hand are a little more deliberant in their course of action.
Why stop though? Just keeping going to that same well that continues to nourish you without fail.
For years and years now, Wilson head coach Matt Coldren’s teams have played a style that while some in tune with today’s version of basketball may scoff at in that it’s not in any way flashy or glamorous, basketball purists on the other hand are likely to fall head-over-heels in love with the way the Bulldogs run their show that relies heavily on patience, ball rotation, never settling for the first open look, and then leaning on a defense that makes most every game resemble that of getting a cavity filled for the opposition.
That said, Warwick knew exactly what they were getting into on Thursday night once they made the trip up to West Lawn to take on the Bulldogs. Aside from a history that dates back more than a few decades now, Warwick and Wilson are also playmates these days in the West Reading Summer League. And when you add all that up, particularly for those with a rooting interest in the Warriors’ camp most specifically, it’s easy to see understand why this game continues to be on the schedule. Suffice to say, for a program that expects big things of itself, you will undoubtedly learn something about your squad –either for the good or for the bad—after going toe-to-toe with Wilson over the course of 32 minutes.
And as if to be right on cue, Wilson proceeded to deliver one of its vintage performances on Thursday night in this nonconference tussle.
To say that points were at a premium in the early going of this one might be in the running for understatement of the century.
With that in mind, seeing Wilson’s Madyx Gruber hit a cold-blooded step-back triple with a hand in his face which gave the hosts their first lead of the evening at 3-1 with 5:50 left in the first probably should’ve been a harbinger of things yet to come. However, Warwick’s Trevor Evans was warm to the fight in his own right as the Warriors’ 6’3 senior proceeded to offer up a trey of his own not long afterwards, putting the visitors up by a 4-3 count roughly one minute later.
In many ways though, perhaps the early outside shooting put forth by either side early on was a bit of fool’s gold considering how things transpired in the aftermath of the initial volleys.
There, in the waning stages of the opening stanza which saw both team’s shooting touch leave them –particularly from the outside of the semi-circle—going inside figured to be the most beneficial way of curing such a scoring spell. Fortunately from Wilson’s perspective, they would indeed find their answer in the form of big man, Luke Levan, with Levan proceeding to rattle off his own personal 4-0 run later in the quarter to give the Bulldogs the 7-4 cushion before the first quarter would later expire with the hosts in possession of the 11-7 lead.
Once in the second quarter, Warwick seemed to realize that Wilson’s formula of going inside would be equally beneficial for them.
Case in point, Warwick’s Carter Horst going on to tally the Warriors’ first two-point field goal of the night with a tough bucket inside to get the red-clad guests back within that four-point margin, 13-9. Speaking of which, Warwick continued to find the same sorts of success as the second frame trudged onward seeing as a how Tyree Hughes bucket at the cup would then cut the Wilson advantage down to a penny at 16-15 with three minutes left before the halftime respite.
Problem was, Wilson, namely Madyx Gruber, was about to show that the Bulldogs could retaliate right back in the form of long-range bombs to counter any sort of Warriors’ momentum.
So, with his troops right on the verge of perhaps surrendering their first lead since the early portions of the opening frame, the sparkplug of a junior point guard proceeded to rise and fire in two back-breaking treys inside the final few offensive trips of the second quarter as Gruber not only added half a dozen points to his eventual game-high total of 18 once the night was over with, but the six-point swing here and now more importantly allowed Wilson to head into the locker room with an extra pep in their collective step given their 22-15 lead up on the scoreboard.
To their credit though, Warwick certainly showed a significant amount of growth and extra grit to themselves as the third quarter rolled along on Thursday night.
As the age-old notion in the game goes, once the offense leaves you, so too does the defense usually. But not for Warwick. And not now.
For proof of that, look no further than a pair of 2-2 trips to the charity stripe by way of Caleb Johnsen and Tyree Hughes respectively, as the junior and senior tandem helped to whittle the Bulldogs’ lead down to a modest 23-21 difference with just 3:10 left in the third by that point as Warwick was having to find other ways to try and manufacture points. For their efforts, despite clearly playing with anything but their fastball throughout the first three periods, Warwick had to love their love current positioning upon heading into the final frame all things considered albeit down by a minuscule 27-25 difference.
The fourth quarter though? Well, that’s when the dentist drill truly came out.
While it may have started off rather innocently in the form of a Tommy Hunsicker trey, a bucket which gave Wilson the 30-27 lead at the time, a pair of far more emphatic takes to the tin courtesy of Madyx Gruber proceeded to put Warwick into a very tight spot considering the Bulldogs’ lead now stood at 36-27 with still over half of the final quarter yet to unfold.
Unfortunately for the contingent from Lititz, their team would get no further in terms of taking the lead from there on out.
In terms of the score itself, a pair of clutch buckets were chipped in via another of the litany of Bulldogs’ football turned basketball players, Correll Akings, as the sophomore guard showed off the same wheels he demonstrated from his running back position this fall as the Akings’-led rally began with a theft and layup in transition. Then, playing with the advantage of the winds of a 40-29 at their back with a minute and change left to go, the unselfishness of Wilson came out to play as the Bulldogs peppered the ball around the perimeter, rarely getting baited into taking an open look that could’ve spurred a possible Warwick runout opportunity.
And while Caleb Johnsen would certainly do yeoman’s work for the Warriors’ charge –particularly in the second half in which the 11th grade college prospect tallied 11 of his team-high 12 points – with a 3-ball in the waning moments, it would prove to be far too little and far too late in this instance as the Bulldogs were able to walk off with a 43-32 final verdict in a game that one could rightly put right beside the Wilson name in the basketball dictionary if such a textbook were to exist.
Okay. So now Warwick finds itself at 2-3 with the onset of Section Two play staring right back at them in the middle part of next week. And regardless of what you may make of the Warriors’ current and whether it should be more above .500 than it currently is, that’s a debate that really doesn’t bear much fruit and would just go around in circles. Again, they know what they are capable of and games like Thursday, yes, even in a losing venture, will make the Warriors’ all the more better moving forward provided that they heed the lessons given to them thus far. And what better way to start a possible hot streak to break free from your early doldrums than by beating your most, hmm, desirable rival you’d like to beat shall we say to put it mildly, than by beating Manheim Township on Monday night at home? After all, it’s the only rivalry so fierce that ownership of a McDonald’s location found alongside Route 501 is always on the line. And with the Streaks coming into that one amid a tough stretch of their own, those McNuggets and McFlurries are sure to taste that much better for the eventual victor in that one.
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