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GOSHEN – Northridge Raider junior forward Lily Scholl’s 42-points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in Saturday night’s 63-60 sectional championship win over the Warsaw Lady Tigers sent the orange and black home for the season much earlier than the Tigers’ athletes wanted.
While the rest of survivors in the IHSAA Class 4A State tournament breathed a heavy sigh of relief late Saturday night, the Warsaw fans in attendance were still shocked the following morning how soon Warsaw’s campaign came to its end.
Scholl, whom Warsaw held scoreless in their regular season’s first half in the January 10 conference clash, scored 17 consecutive points in the second period Saturday night for the 2026 IHSAA Class 4A sectional champion’s side.
Northridge entered the second frame trailing Warsaw 18-14, and Scholl has 10 of those 14 Raider points already. Northridge fell further behind (26-18) on Joslyn Bricker’s 3-point basket.
Scholl, with her running total of 12 points when the Raiders trailed 26-18, scored every point of the remaining 15-2 run that flipped the switch for her side en route to a Raider 33-28 halftime advantage.
Scholl’s body language was unapologetically explosive when she punctuated this scoring run with a heat-check 3-point shot ripping the cords with 22 seconds left in the half. She and her team headed to the locker room with 27 points of their 33 points courtesy of the Raider junior.
The only time the Tigers regained the lead was in the fourth period when Alexis Neely, who hit all six of her free throws Saturday night, swished both attempts to put Warsaw ahead 49-48.
Kyra Kiser set up the second half’s only lead change with two 3-point buckets including her third quarter buzzer beater bringing the Tigers from a 46-41 disadvantage to within one point behind, 48-47 at the frame’s end.
The senior Lady Tiger forward contributed 7-points (3-4 shooting from the field), 7 rebounds, and solid defense for the Lady Tigers. The latter facet of her game was complimented by Reagan Huss’s tag-team effort inside before Huss had to leave the contest, re-aggravating the injury incurred four weeks ago against the same opponent.
Huss had to sit out the rest of the contest after 13 minutes of action.
The Tigers did manage to tie the game 54-all when Brooke Zartman scored from beyond the arc with 3:29 left in the contest.
Junior forward Alli Ambers then put Northridge ahead for good 57-54 with a three-point basket. The two sides subsequently exchanged buckets and free throws for the remainder of the game as the Raiders’ lead teeter-tottered from one to three points until the final buzzer sounded.
Scholl’s school-record scoring included a 13-14 performance from the free throw line. Her offensive efforts were accompanied by Ambers’s 7 points, and classmate Zoe Yeater’s six tallies. Ambers and Yeater also combined for 9 rebounds.
Warsaw’s stat leaders accompanying Kiser’s aforementioned output included Bricker (25 points – 16 in the first half, 5 assists), Zartman (11 points, 3 assists), and Neely’s 10 points and 3 assists. Cayliegh Goheen added two points in the paint.
The Lady Tigers finished the contest shooting 19-45 for 42.2% from the field, 13 of 14 free throws (92.9% - Bricker, Neely each 6-6), and 9-21 beyond the 3-point arc (42.9%).
Northridge found the mark on 58.5% of their shot attempts including 66.7% second half accuracy to accompany 13-15/86.7% performance from the charity stripe. The 2026 sectional champs only hit 2-7/28.6% from 3-point range, but each hit was crucial.
The Raiders only dished five assists on 24 baskets compared to Warsaw’s 11 assists on 19 makes because most of the team’s scoring came from Scholl making things happen with clever inside moves following passes into the lane.
The Raiders (19-7 overall) advance to Saturday’s regional final to face Valparaiso at Jimtown’s venue. The Lady Tigers’ season ends at 24 wins, three losses with a 34.7 points average margin. The campaign included a program record 23 regular season victories.
Typical basketball media coverage customarily ends on those notes.
The data noted hereafter, however, illustrates some additional, essential postgame observations from Saturday night’s clash in the presence of over 3,500 basketball fans witnessing the Lady Tigers’ triumphs and challenges during their heartbreaking loss in Goshen High School’s Interra Gym.
Was Scholl’s effort like Atlas holding up the globe?
No.
The 5’10” junior found a lot of what appeared to be unchallenged baskets from 10-12 feet range. A deeper dive, however, showed this success resulted from her team’s ability to clear her path moving deceptively without the ball to draw away Tiger defenders who consequently had to reverse course, and chase her, already open in the lane.
In euchre terms, Scholl wasn’t telling her hardwood partners to put down their collective hand, though. Her teammates stepped up to make key buckets in a manner similar to Scholl’s; hence Northridge’s decisive 44-18 points inside the paint showing.
It’s apparent the Raiders watched what the Lady Tigers did on film where Warsaw’s toughest opponents preyed on rare moments when Warsaw ball-handlers turned their backs on defenders in other contests.
Each side only committed 9 turnovers, but each side also disrupted back-turned ball-handlers, tapping balls – held and dribbled – cleanly from behind. Warsaw, nonetheless, still managed to outscore Northridge 10-7 in points off turnovers.
This was another comparative gain carried from the regular season to the post season for the Raiders, who had 18 miscues in January’s Tiger victory while the home side only committed 10 turnovers four weeks ago.
The sextet of Bricker, Kiser, Erin McManus, Neely, Kelsey Wren, and Zartman will be deeply missed by Lady Tiger Nation. Each will do well in their future endeavors.
The season wrap-up of stats noted by season/career separation among three particular Warsaw individuals include the following:
Joslyn Bricker: 663/1,853 pts; 55.4%/54.4% shooting including 65/164 3-point baskets made at 52.8%/43.5%, 83.9%/79.8% free-throw accuracy; 24.6/18.3 points per game.
Bricker is the program’s career scoring leader, and the county’s second leading career scorer behind Shanna Zolman’s (Wawasee 1998-2002) seemingly unreachable 3,085 career points. Bricker made 174 trips to the foul line, and her career 164 3-point baskets scored is among the very top in Lady Tiger history. Her 43 points in a single game eclipsed Jaclyn Leininger’s 22-year record (37).
Bricker also rattled ballhandlers with 213 career steals and wiped the boards clean with 466 career rebounds. She was a distributor, too, averaging 4.6 assists in her senior campaign.
Alexis Neely: 269/816 pts; 48.7%/43.3% shooting including 39/106 3-point baskets made at 42.4%/36.3%; 89.4%/83.1% free-throw accuracy;11.2/8.2 points per game.
Neely also averaged 2.8 and 4.7 assists in the most recent respective seasons. Neely’s stealthy journey past the 800-point mark is even more impressive playing alongside two teammates who combined for over 3,500 points among the same four-year time span.
Neely only missed five free throws this season, a small part of her big overall tangible and intangible offensive growth.
Brooke Zartman: 521/1,674 pts; 47.1%/46.4% shooting including 122/381 3-point baskets made at 13%/43.5% accuracy; 75%/81.1% free-throw accuracy; 19.3/16.6 points per game.
Zartman is the only senior in the group who was a starter in all 101 of her career games, and her defensive game notably improved in her final campaign.
Zartman is the program’s second leading career scorer, also eclipsing Leininger’s previous standard (1,607 pts) this season. She is among the top ten county career scorers. Zartman, was 25 3-point baskets short of the Hoosier State record holder, landing at second all-time.
Zartman punctuated those career stats by setting the season record in each of her four seasons, and currently leading this season’s 3-point shooters in total makes. She established a single game record hitting 11 shots beyond the arc, once again wiping out her previous single game records along the way.
Seniors Kira Kiser and Erin McManus, who with open transfer rules added, could have put their game in the forefront among several other area teams, stayed in the Warsaw program, and had their talents recognized, nonetheless when they signed letters of intent to play college basketball next season.
Kelsey Wren never stopped battling while losing her entire junior season to an injury, modeling perseverance last year, and senior leadership this year.
These seniors were part of 28 Northern Lakes Conference wins without a loss.
The Lady Tiger basketball program’s four-year journey, including their prior season’s state runner-up accomplishment, left an indelible impression upon the most casual and the most ardent Warsaw Lady Tiger basketball fans.
