As David Bauer’s desperation trey rimmed out, bounced off the back iron and splashed through the nets, Coach Mike Uffmann couldn’t be all that surprised. After all, his Warrenton boys basketball …
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Warrenton Loses in Final Moments, Again
Posted
By Derrick Forsythe, Record Sports Editor
As David Bauer’s desperation trey rimmed out, bounced off the back iron and splashed through the nets, Coach Mike Uffmann couldn’t be all that surprised.After all, his Warrenton boys basketball team had struggled mightily in clutch moments during the week leading up to Thursday’s 46-43 loss to Winfield.Why would this meeting be any different?“It didn’t look great coming off his hands, but it found every piece of that rim to go in,” said Uffmann. “That’s been the story of our week.“We don’t finish games,” said Uffmann. “We let up too easy. We haven’t won a lot of games in the past, so we’re still trying to figure out how to win games.”The Warriors dropped their fourth game in a row. Along the way, they lost two overtime meetings and surrendered a fourth-quarter lead in another contest.“In three of those games we had the ball with the last possession and about 30 seconds left,” said Uffmann. “We don’t have that killer instinct. We’re waiting on someone to step up and finish a game.”Not until he considered how poorly his team had played during its first matchup with Winfield — a 74-49 drubbing at the season-opening Winfield Tournament — could Uffmann appreciate what the Warriors have since accomplished.“We’re a way better team than we were that first week,” said Uffmann. “Craig didn’t play in that game, and he’s a huge contributor to our team. We’re also playing smarter ball.”It just hasn’t come in the form of wins during a befuddling, inconsistent season.On Thursday, the GAC Conference foes traded the advantage throughout a tight ballgame that saw Winfield leading 9-6 after one quarter.“We’re bigger than them in almost every position, so our goal was to get the ball into the paint,” said Uffmann. “In the first half we didn’t do that, so we made an adjustment to get the ball into the paint during the second half.”An extremely low-scoring first half was emphasized by Winfield’s one field goal during the second period, which allowed Warrenton to pull ahead 16-12 at the break.Both teams looked drastically different in the third quarter, each producing more points than over the first two quarters combined. They were deadlocked at 34 heading into the fourth period.Junior Alec Tonioli gave the Warriors a 43-42 lead, before Winfield evened the game at the free-throw line.Exiting a timeout with 14 seconds remaining, Warrenton was determined to make its opponent’s final possession as challenging as possible.“Initially, I thought we were playing great defense on them,” said Uffmann. “We threw a 3-2 at them, so they wouldn’t run Bauer off a screen. He tried to penetrate, but we kept helping.”Multiple attempts to penetrate the lane failed for Bauer, who finally backed out beyond the key. Smothered by defenders, he lofted an off-balanced three-pointer that managed to find its way through the nylon.“We’ve been 50 percent or under on our free throws the past four games,” said Uffmann. “If we knock down just a few more of those, we’d be above .500 right now.”
The Warrenton boys basketball team lost on a three-pointer at the buzzer against Winfield.
