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Returning to Fort Wayne for the second time in seven days, the Warsaw girls basketball team set their sights on Northrop as they tried to pick up their third win in as many tries to start the season. While the Lady Tigers did pick up the victory, it wasn’t always as pretty as the 67-44 final score might indicate.
“It was ugly at times, but we were really good in some stretches. We need to maintain those stretches for longer periods of time and prevent ourselves from dipping so low when we’re not playing well,” Warsaw coach Lenny Krebs said. “I’m happy we won but there are things that we need to get better at. That’s why we’re playing these tough games.”
The opening minutes of the game could best be described as sloppy, with each side throwing the ball around with reckless abandon, leading to a plethora of early turnovers. This kept scoring at a minimum in this early going, with both teams struggling to get into any sort of rhythm. Midway through the opening quarter, things were tight.
Joslyn Bricer was the early source of offense for her team, scoring seven of their first 14 points. The reigning Times-Union Player of the Year was extremely aggressive getting to the basket, either making her layup attempt or drawing a foul and making a pair at the line.
But the Lady Bruins did well to stick around early on, using their size to do a majority of their damage down low. Senior Swynn Jackson had a very efficient first period, leading all scorers with 10. After eight minutes of action, the Lady Tigers held onto a 19-14 advantage.
That lead was doubled and then some in the opening minute of the second, as Brooke Zartman scored a quick five points in fifteen seconds to reach double figures scoring, while also pushing her team’s lead to double digits as well.
After this, scoring went back to a minimum, with multiple minutes going off the clock with maybe a bucket or two being scored. The lead now sat at eight with four minutes left in the first half.
But, as is the case with this team, once the shots started falling, they did so in bunches. Back-to-back threes by Zartman and Alexis Neely pushed the advantage to a commanding 15 in a hurry.
Warsaw senior Alexis Neely battles her way through the Northrop defense to the basket in the first quarter...Nieter
With momentum now fully on the side of the visitors, the only thing slowing them down was foul trouble. Both Bricker and Zartman headed into the half with two, as Warsaw held a 14-point lead.
Just two minutes into the third quarter, the fast tempo of the Lady Tigers struck again, ballooning their advantage to 20. Everybody was getting in on the action, including the first two points of the night from Kyra Kyser on an excellent pass from Neely.
From this moment on, Northrop took control of the game. Using a 2-3 zone, the home side began giving the Lady Tigers fits defensively. On the other end, their aggressiveness was paying off for them, and the Lady Bruins were getting to the line at will. Soon, the 20-point lead was now just 12, and all the momentum belonged to the home side.
Warsaw got back on track in the final two minutes, with Zartman and Bricker leading another flurry that erased all of the progress Northrop had just made. With just eight minutes to go, the Lady Tigers lead was now back to 21.
“We’d like to be playing our A-game, but we don’t need it right now,” Krebs said. “It’s November. We want to be playing our A-game in February. It’s all part of the process.
With the margin too much for the home side to overcome, the fourth quarter went along rather smoothly as both teams took turns displaying good offense. Zartman joined Bricker at the 20-point threshold early in the period, as her team coasted to a third consecutive victory to start the season.
With less than two minutes to go in the game, the Lady Tigers emptied their bench. Junior varsity player Charlotte Kesler was fouled in the final minute and scored her first varsity points.
Bricker led all scorers with 24 points to go with four rebounds and four steals. Zartman has 22 with five made triples. As a team, the Lady Tigers had 12 offensive rebounds.
“I thought in the second half especially, we did a great job of controlling the game through the glass,” Krebs said. “That’s going to be a big key for us this year.”
Warsaw (3-0) is at Valparaiso on Saturday.
