SYRACUSE — It was far from a banner night for the Wawasee boys basketball program. The Warriors dropped a 60-37 decision to Concord, their 33rd straight Northern Lakes Conference loss, setting a new league record.

The loss puts Wawasee past the NorthWood teams that dropped 32 in a row from 1988-1993.

Wawasee started the game well, holding an 11-7 lead and controlling the pace. But in the final 50 seconds of the first quarter the Warriors appeared to grow impatient and committed three turnovers that led to six points for the Minutemen. That stretch was part of a 13-2 that stretched between the first two quarters.

A very, very sloppy second quarter left Concord looking for answers and the Warriors looking for even more. At the break it was a 31-19 Minutemen advantage but neither team looked impressive.

The Warriors did do a serviceable job defensively on Denzel Haliburton, Concord’s leading scorer entering the game. The junior had just 5 points at the break and would finish with 12. The player to step up for the MInutemen was somewhat of a surprise.

Cedric Mitchell entered Friday’s contest averaging just over seven points per game but proved to be the biggest thorn in the side of the Warriors. Mitchell scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds, leading all players in both categories. Mitchel also tallied three assists and a pair of steals. The Warriors never had an answer for him.

Wawasee started the third quarter with a lot of energy, closing the gap to 31-26 and forcing a Concord timeout. The Minutemen responded with possibly the quietest and sloppiest 18-0 run in basketball history, but it was an 18-0 run nonetheless. The gargantuan scoring run that carried over into the fourth quarter was the knockout blow for Wawasee.

The Warriors had little to cheer about outside of the nice beginnings to the first and third quarters but Tyler Smith did have a nice game. The junior Warrior tried to keep his team in the game with three steals and a team-high 13 points but he couldn’t do it on his own. Chase Rookstool also made a nice impact forcing two steals of his own and leading the team with six rebounds. Cayden Wegener added nine points for Wawasee.

“We’ve got to handle adversity better,” said Wawasee head coach Steve Wiktorowski. “Every time Concord went on a little run or when we had a turnover things just snowballed. We came out in the second half playing really well then they switched to a 2-3 zone and that completely took us out of the game. We got back on our heels and, again, it just snowballed.”

Wawasee (2-12, 0-5) has little time to dwell on the loss as it will turn around to play potential sectional opponent Lakeland at home Saturday night. But Wiktorowski wants his team to have Concord on its mind going into the Lakeland game.

“I’m not sure I want to take the focus off of what happened tonight,” Wiktorowski stated. “We’ve got to learn from this. If we’re going to go anywhere this year and improve physically then we have to improve mentally as well. That’s the biggest thing we talked about after the game. Mentally is where we really lost this game. We lost confidence in ourselves way too quickly.”

Wawasee won the JV game 48-40. Bennett Hoffert led the Warriors with 16 points.