Warwick 57 Garden Spot 44: wrap

Written by: Dell Jackson on February 3, 2024

Warwick 57 Garden Spot 44
February 2, 2024

Warwick can make three’s..like a lot. Tonight’s game they popped 9 of them. However, it’s the defense that has buoyed the Warriors 10 game win streak. Only 2 teams have topped 50 point in that span (51 and 53), and the last 4 games the Warriors are giving up an average of 43 points per game. Garden Spot’s Jace Conrad, 6’1” junior, entered the game averaging 18 ppg. It was obvious from the beginning that Warwick was going to make him work for his points. Warwick rotated players on Conrad by using denial and then just tough man (Coach Christensen gave big props to Mason Burr and Carter Horst for their defensive work against Conrad).

Carter Horst stated, “Our job was to face guard (Conrad)..our defensive mind set was to eliminate their shots as best as we could.”

Coach Christensen said, “Jace is a good scorer. You’re not going to stop him, but we did a good job on him tonight.”

Warwick got off to a quick lead on buckets by Caleb Johnsen, 6’3” jn. Garden Spot would answer as AJ Hurst, 6’1” jn, nailed three triples, scoring Spot’s next 9 points.

Jace Conrad broke into the scoring column late in the period at the Spartans took a 17-13 lead late in the first period. Warwick had the ball under their own basket with 1.4 ticks on the clock. Time for a quick shot? Or…. maybe a lob play to Carter Horst to end the stanza at 17-16- Spot’s favor.

After a Horst triple for Warwick to start the second, Spot would go on a 7-0 run to seemingly take control, the last bucket being a beautiful stop and pop jumper by Conrad. Warwick cut toe lead to 3 at 26-23 with less than 3 minutes left till half. Warwick would unleash their patented three-ball barrage – Ya’Majesty Washington, 6’3” sophomore, and Caleb Johnsen, 6’3” junior, hitting back-to-back bombs. Cody Ryan ended the 8-0 run with a drive with 47 seconds left on the clock. 31-26 at the break – Warwick’s favor.

Spot started to get the ball inside to Bryce Weaver, 6’5” senior, with some success in the third. However, Warwick would shut down Spot’s perimeter game and continue to hit three pointers (Hurst, Johnsen, Washington and Hurst all hit three’s in the third). Defensively Warwick held Spot to 8 points in the quarter.

Garden Spot cut the deficit to 9 points around the 5 minute mark of the 4th, but Warwick started to grind away at the clock and cause the Spartans to foul them as they went to the bucket. Warwick controlled the game from the 3:47 mark of the 4th as Carter Horst scored on a drive to basically put the game away.

Unofficial stats.
Rebounds: Warwick 26, Garden Spot 30
Turnovers: Warwick 6, Garden Spot 8
Blocks: Warwick 1, Garden Spot 2

Points:
Warwick: Carter Horst 24, Caleb Johnsen 16 ( a very steady 16), Ya’Majesty Washington 12
Garden Spot: Jace Conrad 10, Bryce Weaver 9, AJ Hurst 9