GOSHEN – Wawasee looked the best it had all season for three quarters of Thursday’s basketball game. The Warriors played solid interior defense and converted on offense, but everything unraveled once the fourth quarter started.

Wawasee entered the game’s final quarter tied with Goshen 35-35 and were outscored 25-11 in the frame to take a 60-47 loss, the team’s 28th-consecutive Northern Lakes Conference defeat.

The Warriors led Goshen at the half, 19-17, and were leading by two near the end of the third quarter before a Colton Potter buzzer-beater tied things up at 35. The visiting team appeared to not be rattled at the start of the fourth quarter by taking a three-point lead following a bucket and foul shot from Aaron Voirol. Voirol’s opening-minute shot was the last field goal Wawasee had until there was 2:18 left in the game. Goshen went on a 16-1 between those two baskets for the Warriors.

That was not how it was supposed to go. Wawasee came ready to play. The Warriors won the battle on the boards and had less turnovers than the Redskins. Wawasee even dug itself out of an 11-2 hole in the first quarter. This was supposed to be the streak-snapping victory that the Warriors had been waiting for. It was supposed to be.

As Wawasee fans left the Goshen gymnasium silent and bewildered about a conference losing streak that will now carry into year number five, head coach Steve Wiktorowski began his postgame interview with a same sense of bewilderment after a rough fourth quarter performance.

“You’ve got to put yourself in a position to win,” said Wiktorowski when asked about his team’s fourth quarter collapse. “I thought we did that through the first three quarters. We took a good hit early in the game and came back to take the lead by half. We really settled in. I thought we came out of the locker room and got right back into that mode.

“In the fourth, Goshen hit a couple of shots and got some momentum. Some kids that we were trying to help-off into the post hit some shots. Shot that you have to almost dare them to hit in the fourth quarter. When they started doing that we had to go full five-on-five and (Austin) Woolett and (Brady) Bechtel are both tough to defend in that situation.”

Woolett and Bechtel combined for 28 points on 10-19 shooting and were a perfect 6-6 from the line. Potter (11 points) and Jack Gingerich (10 points) joined there teammates with double-digit scoring. Gage Reinhard (18 points) and Alex Clark (14 points) were the only Warriors to score in double digits.

There really are no answers at this point for the NLC cloud that hangs over the program’s head and the only option is to move on and change the focus to what lies ahead.

“Maybe it will help out now that we won’t go into fourth quarters thinking about the NLC,” Wiktorowski stated. “We’re just miserable, especially these seniors are, about this streak. But we have to look at the positives and move on very quickly.

“We have two weeks to prepare for the sectional. There are some good teams in our bracket, one of which is an NLC team. We’ve made a lot of improvement the last few weeks, more guys have been stepping up. Our offense is coming around and our defense has been pretty good. Those are the things you need to win.”

Wawasee (7-10, 0-7) will host Mishawaka for a 2:30 p.m. tip Saturday afternoon.

In the junior varsity game Goshen pulled out a 35-32 win over Wawasee’s JV. Mitchell Collins led all scorers with 13 points for Goshen. Wawasee was led by Trevon Coleman’s 12-point effort.