Boys basketball: Penn, Warsaw earn semifinal wins in Elkhart Sectional

Penn High School's boys basketball team will shoot for a third straight sectional championship.

The Kingsmen dispatched host Elkhart 52-43 in the semifinal nightcap Friday evening of the Class 4A Elkhart Sectional at North Side Gym.

Penn (18-6) will meet Warsaw (18-5) at 7 p.m. Saturday for the sectional title. The winner advances to the Michigan City Regional March 9.

Opening night: Penn, Concord claim Indiana boys basketball sectional wins at Elkhart

Warsaw defeated No. 13 Concord 48-35 in the first semifinal Friday night.

Warsaw beat Penn 56-53 in overtime back on Jan. 9. The Kingsmen have won the last two sectional crowns at Elkhart, while Warsaw's last sectional title came back in 2017.

Penn 52, Elkhart 43

Balanced scoring and defense earned the Kingsmen a familiar place with a tough semifinal win.

Penn recovered from a slow start to top the Lions for the second time this season. The Kingsmen beat Elkhart 55-49 in a Northern Indiana Conference contest back on Feb. 16.

Elkhart bolted to a 7-0 lead to open the game on its homecourt. Penn settled in to take a 15-12 lead after the opening period.

The Kingsmen, who graduated all five starters from last year's team that lost in the semistate title game, led 28-25 at halftime. Peyton Miamba and Alexander Hawthorne each had six points and Dominic Bonner and Trey Miller added five apiece to pace Penn.

Penn, which has won nine of its last 11 games, led 42-37 at the end of the third period. The Kingsmen finished the win with a 10-6 edge in the final frame.

Bonner paced the Kingsmen with 15 points and Miller contributed 12 points.

Will Cochrane led Elkhart with 13 points.

The Lions finished at 3-20 under first-year coach Will Coatie.

The latest: South Bend area IHSAA boys basketball sectional scores, pairings, tipoff times

Warsaw 48, Concord 35

The Tigers exacted a measure of revenge at the right time on their Northern Lakes Conference counterparts.

Warsaw, which lost 56-45 at Concord in a league meeting on Jan. 19, rode a red hot start to victory Friday night.

The Tigers led 18-5 at the end of the opening period en route to a 28-17 halftime advantage. Warsaw shot lights out in the opening half, hitting 11-of-13 from the field. The Tigers were 5-of-7 from 3-point land in the first half.

Warsaw led 39-31 after the third period and scored the first five points of the final frame to push its lead to 44-31.

Luke Bricker tossed in 20 points to pace the Tigers. Robbie Finlinson scored seven points and Drew Sullivan added six for the winners.

Warsaw finished 18-of-29 from the field, including 7-of-15 on 3-pointers.

Braeden Messenger led Concord with 12 points. Jaylan Bolen scored 10 points for Concord, which shot 10-of-33 overall from the field, including 3-of-14 from distance.

Concord finished its season 18-5.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: IHSAA 4A high school boys basketball sectional semifinals at Elkhart