slippage

Wahoo had come through their 1995 "big games" with big victories.  The win over GICC seemed to put them on solid ground to defend the state title.  But there were still three regular season games to be played before districts.  The possibility of a letdown was real.

But the Warriors responded by flexing their muscles against an overmatched Valley team, scoring 64 first half points on the way to a 109 – 65 victory.  It appeared that Wahoo was dialed in and marching towards an undefeated season.  After brushing away the Terriers, Wahoo turned its attention the next night to David City Aquinas.  Things looked to be well in hand as Wahoo jumped to a 20 – 9 first quarter lead behind 10 points by Eric Eddie.  But Aquinas was able to play Wahoo even the next two quarters and had the lead under ten points early in the fourth.  Then Wahoo pulled away with Mike Simons netting 7 fourth quarter points and Wahoo registered a 77 – 57 win.  Coach Watton reflected, "Hopefully it will be good for us to be tested because it will make the kids realize you have to come out and be prepared for every game.” 

The final contest of the season was a road trip to Schuyler.  The two teams played to a 13-13 tie the first quarter.  With the fans waiting for one of patented scoring runs in the second quarter, the home team Warriors stayed very patient, avoiding turnovers, and taking advantage of attempted steals for some easy layups.  At the half, Wahoo found themselves behind 21-25.  It was the lowest points scored in a half by a Wahoo team in the regular season in six years (since December, 1987) and only the third time Wahoo had trailed at half this season.  The Wahoo offense finally got rolling in the third period with Eric Eddie and Mike Simons combining for 16 of Wahoo's 19 points and the Warriors claimed a 40-36 lead.  The fourth quarter became mostly a freethrow shooting contest in which Wahoo managed to retain their lead, finally winning 52 – 46.  Wahoo's 52 points was its lowest score since the Elkhorn Mt. Michael game of 1992.

The win gave Wahoo a perfect regular season record of 22 – 0, but there wasn't much of a celebration as the Warriors' planned march to another title seemed to be slipping a bit.  Coach Watton summed things up:  "I hope this proves to be a good lesson for us.  This is kind of a disappointing way to end the regular season, but if we learn something from it, I guess it was worth it."