After Slow Start, Warsaw Rolls To Not-So-Pretty Rout
After Slow Start, Warsaw Rolls To Not-So-Pretty Rout
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Mark Howe-
After Slow Start, Warsaw Rolls To Not-So-Pretty RoutThere are those who wax poetic to profess great affection for the game of basketball.
Wednesday night’s game at the Tiger Den is not exactly the thing of beauty those folks think about while expressing that affection.
But Warsaw did pretty much whatever it wanted, and what the Tigers wanted to do is pressure Wabash into a bunch of turnovers, on the way to a 74-28 non-conference girls basketball win.
Neither team settled in very well early on, with each side failing to take care of the ball and getting a lot of empty offensive possessions. But after an injury to Wabash’s Nicole Gunderman, Warsaw began to take control of the game.
Gunderman left with an apparent head injury, hitting her skull on the floor, with 4:14 to go in the first quarter. After her replacement, Isabelle Davis, hit a pair of free throws, to give the visitors a one-point lead, Warsaw went on an 11-0 run, keyed by a pair of Kacilyn Krebs treys, to take a 14-4 advantage. Mariah Wyatt's layup just before the buzzer cut the lead to eight at the end of the first stanza.
Early in the second Kaylee Patton hit a mid-range jumper from the right side, Krebs nailed a third trey, this time from the left side, to retake a double-digit lead, and the Tigers were never threatened again.
But Tiger head coach Lenny Krebs said he wasn’t pleased with the start the Tigers had, especially on offense.
“I thought we were trying a little too hard to make things happen in the game. I thought we were in a frantic, panic mode, trying to put 20 points on the board with one shot,” he said.
Warsaw's pressure defense forced Wabash into a whopping 23 first-half turnovers, and at least a third of the Apache fouls in the first 13 minutes came while trying to recover from a turnover. Warsaw could have widened the gap even more, but went a little more than four minutes without a field goal and turned the ball over nine times in the first half themselves. It was no surprise the Tigers scored 22 of their 31 points in the opening half off of turnovers.
The Apaches finished the opening half with one fewer foul (12) than points scored.
The onslaught picked up intensity in the third period, when Warsaw outscored Wabash 26-4, and held the Apaches without a field goal in the quarter, to take a 57-17 advantage. By the midway point of the fourth quarter, each coaches had pulled their starters.
Wabash finished with 41 turnovers in the game, but played defense well enough to get the Tigers to give up the ball 19 times.
Coach Krebs was happier with his team’s performance after the intermission.
“In the second half we came out much more calm, relaxed, and just let the process happen,” he said. “We spent halftime talking about ‘just let the game come to you. Stop trying to force so much.’
“I’d be willing to bet we had most of our turnovers when we were trying to force things too quickly. We just have to relax and let the offense work. We have too many weapons we can utilize if we just relax.
“And that’s what we saw in the second half; a more relaxed team. You know, when we got going and start shooting the ball well, by golly we’re a fun team to watch.
The key to the Tiger offense’s effectiveness is movement, not just from passing, but by players getting from place to place.
“Once we started moving the ball better and got some people movement within the context of the offense, that’s when we started playing well. And this is a team that once we hit one or two, we feed off of that energy and three, four and five come right behind it,” Krebs said.
“We have to learn how to generate that energy at times. There were times in the first quarter we were waiting on something good to happen instead of and generating the energy and letting the play take care of itself. Something good happens when you generate that positive energy. We have to quit waiting around for something good to happen and generate that energy.
“If you thought we were in a frantic mode, I’m sure they felt the same way. Even with the 41 turnovers, I thought we were out of position a little too much defensively at times. We got away with some things we’re not going to get away with against (future opponents) Crown Point or Penn or some of the other teams we have coming up.“
Kaylee Patton led all scorers with 20 points, including a 4-of-8 effort from beyond the arc. Kacilyn Krebs finished with 13 points and Ardrey Grimm had 10 in the winning effort.
Wyatt led Wabash with 11 points. Gunderman did not return to the game, but did heartily cheer her teammates from the end of the bench.
In the junior varsity game, Hannah Hatfield had 13 points, Marin hart 12 and Zoe Began 11 for the Tigers in their 55-15 win over Wabash.
Warsaw (4-0) travels to Merrillville Saturday for the Duneland - Northern Lakes Shootout.. The Tigers will take on Crown Point at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the host Pirates at 5:30. Northridge is the other Northern Lakes Conference team in the event, with both Raider ames just before the Warsaw games, at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
