Lady Tigers Defend The House In Home OpenerLenny Krebs has a high standard when it comes to his team’s defense.
The first-year Warsaw girls basketball coach had reason to smile Wednesday night in his first home game at the helm of the tradition-rich program.
In a 39-23 win over Manchester, Warsaw held the Lady Squires scoreless in the second quarter and to just 13 points after the first quarter.
The Lady Tigers, who improved to 1-1 on the season, made 12 steals in the victory and benefited from 22 Manchester turnovers.
“The last time Warsaw did that was the Goshen game last year,” Krebs, who coached at Goshen for 14 years, said of shutting out Manchester in the second stanza.
“I belive Goshen did it to Warsaw the first quarter last year, and then Warsaw did it to Goshen in the second quarter. You don’t find that very often.
“I’m probably hard on the girls. We might have caused a lot of issues defensively that contributed to shutting a team out ... making them take some rushed shots, but we have a high standard for what we want on the defensive end. I would like to think we had something to do with that.”
Warsaw led 16-10 after one quarter of play, 22-10 at halftime and 31-17 at the end of the third quarter.
The Lady Squires, who fell to 2-1, finished the game 9 of 27 from the field, making four baskets in the first half and five in the second half.
“Just pressure,” said Manchester coach Jacob Everett when asked what Warsaw did defensively to frustrate his team.
“They would switch it up a little bit. They threw that 1-3-1 at us. They threw the matchup zone at us. They played man-to-man.
“The man-to-man really got us when they pressured us. We just weren’t able to handle it very well. That just led to more turnovers down the stretch.”
Though his team’s offense struggled, Everett was pleased with the Lady Squires’ effort on the defensive end.
Manchester held Warsaw to just 23 points over the final three quarters.
“Defensively, I think we played just about as well as we could,” said Everett. “We held them under 40 points, which is right where I wanted us to be. It was just their pressure, trying to handle that, and facing a bigger school. If we handle their pressure better we’re right in the game.”
Senior Kerigan Hatfield led Manchester with nine points, while junior Emma West chipped in with seven.
Junior Kacy Bragg scored a game-high 12 points for Warsaw, while junior Maddie Ryman and sophomore Kaylee Patton finished with 10 and nine points, respectively.
“I was happy with our progress from Game 1 to Game 2, and that’s what we’re looking for,” said Krebs, who joked that after coaching against Warsaw for 14 years he almost walked to the visiting team’s bench before tipoff.
“Our goal is that gradual process of being better today than we were yesterday, and I thought we made that progress on both ends of the floor.
“Offensively, it becomes a lot easier when you knock some shots down. I think we got better from the Bishop Luers game to now. We still have a lot to learn.”
The Lady Tigers won the junior varsity game 37-35 after finishing the contest on a 7-0 run.
Warsaw is in action again Friday at Huntington North, while the Lady Squires travel to Bluffton Saturday.
WARSAW 39, MANCHESTER 23
Man 10 0 7 6 – 23
War 16 6 8 8 – 39
Manchester – Jirni Cripe 0-1 0-0 0, Kennedy Fierstos 0-8 0-0 0, Emma West 3-8 1-1 7, Kiera Hatfield 1-2 0-0 3, Sydney Day 0-0 0-0 0, Kerigan Hatfield 3-5 0-1 9, Erika Kendall 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 9-27 1-2 23.
