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Waubonsie Valley battles back but loses to East Aurora

A young Waubonsie Valley team is showing plenty of toughness early on this season, but the hope is that the fight starts to lead to a few more wins.

The Warriors (2-4, 0-2) never held a lead Friday night at East Aurora and faced double-digit deficits for much of the second and third quarters before rallying to get within one point with 11 seconds to play. But two turnovers in the waning seconds proved costly as the host Tomcats prevailed 55-50.

The late miscues, coupled with 11 missed free throws for the night, meant a second straight tough Upstate Eight Conference loss this week for the Warriors, who two nights earlier trailed Metea Valley big in the fourth quarter before falling 64-63.

"We're not going to win many games like that if we don't knock down our free throws. We're 17 of 28 and we got 21 turnovers," said Waubonsie Valley coach Chaz Taft after the tough loss. "And we had some key turnovers down the stretch that can't happen. We've just got to do a better job with the ball and making our free throws down the stretch under pressure."

That said, the Warriors showed a lot of positives in shaking off a tough start at East Aurora, where a loud crowd has been known to rattle many a team over the years.

The quick, deep Tomcats, who have won two straight after starting the year 0-3, led 12-6 after one quarter and 28-18 at the half behind 13 points from Adrian Smith. Waubonsie Valley made just 6 of 24 shots in the first half and then had 6 turnovers against East Aurora's press in the third quarter.

But the visitors would not back down as Brian Phillips hit a pair of 3-pointers while scoring all nine of his points in the third quarter to keep his team close enough to make a fourth-quarter run.

In the fourth Chris Karkazis came up big and so did Jack Connolly and JaQuan Bowman as the Warriors scratched their way back. Karkazis scored inside to make it a 49-47 game with 52 seconds left and then added a reverse layup to get within 51-49 following a pair of free throws by the Tomcats Maurice Nichols.

Connolly, meanwhile, went 5 of 5 from the line while scoring 7 of his 9 points in the fourth quarter, which also saw Bowman deliver two big baskets off the bench.

But the two late turnovers halted a great comeback effort. With two chances to win or tie at the very end, the Warriors threw a long rushed pass out of bounds on one play and stumbled into a traveling call on another.

"They're athletic and they're quick and obviously they're going to use that to get in our face," said Karkazis, who finished with 10 points and 3 assists for the Warriors. "Me personally I've turned the ball over quite a lot and that's definitely something I'm going to work on this year. We're learning and I think we're going to be OK."

For Karkazis and his teammates, it's now time to get back to work on improving.

"We just don't give up and I love that characteristic about us," he said. "Then again we've got to work on X's and O's and we got to work on not turning the ball over, myself especially. We have to be able to soak in the pressure … so what are we going to do in practice? We're going to bust our butts and work on pressure and get in each other's faces and make sure we're better."

Tomcats point guard Lawrence Stewart led all scorers on Friday with 18 points while Mark Rullo paced the Warriors with 12.

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