No. 3 Fairfield Tops Lady Warriors In Title TiltBENTON – Wawasee saw its girls basketball season end and the careers of three seniors come to a close.
But not before the Lady Warriors gave No. 3-ranked Fairfield (22-2) all it wanted in the championship game of the Class 3A Fairfield Sectional Saturday.
Wawasee (13-11) had a scoreless drought of more than eight minutes during the first half and trailed 18-7 at halftime and 25-15 with 10 minutes left in the game.
But the Lady Warriors rallied to forge a 27-all tie before falling 42-34. The Falcons bested Wawasee 63-26 when the two teams met on Nov. 7.
In the rematch, junior Casey Schroeder scored 19 points (10 in the fourth quarter) for the Lady Warriors to go with seven rebounds.
The Class of 2018 made contributions for Wawasee. Aubrey Kuhn tallied all six of her points in the fourth period. Kabrea Rostochak pulled down four rebounds to go with two points.
Hannah-Marie Lamle produced three points.
While they were 1 of 13 from the floor in the second quarter and 10 of 30 for the night, the Warriors were not shy about taking the ball to the basket.
“That’s what we were looking to do,” said Wawasee coach Matt Carpenter. “We couldn’t live and die by the three-point shot. One of our points of emphasis was paint touches on both ends.
“What you saw was Casey Schroeder use her athleticism and aggressiveness to create scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates.
“When you add in the outside shooting for Aubrey Kuhn and Hannah-Marie (Lamle) being able to catch it and facilitate out of the high post. We just didn’t hit enough shots tonight.”
Carpenter expressed pride in the way his outsized team played defense all night.
“When your tallest player is 5-8 and you’re going against a team who can put two posts (Fairfield seniors Jordan Kintigh and Katie Lashley are 6-foot and 5-10, respectively) and also has outside threats and length and athleticism on the wings, the only thing you can do is try to keep the ball out of the paint and have help-side on those posts.
“We also had to front the ball and have good ball pressure. All of those things to happen to keep the ball out of posts’ hands. What that does is put a lot of pressure on your perimeter defense as well. Sometimes you over-help too much and you leave some shooters open and you get scrambling.”
Wawasee earned a chance at another sectional crown (the program has 13, the last in 2011) by topping No. 6 Tippecanoe Valley 40-39 in the semifinals Friday.
“I don’t think too many teams can do what we did trying to play man-to-man against that much size inside over the last couple nights (Friday against Valley and Saturday against Fairfield),” said Carpenter.
The Falcons out rebounded the Lady Warriors 30-23, with much of edge coming on the offensive glass.
“We have to board better than we do,” said Carpenter. “In the first half, we gave up about four (offensive rebounds) and that’s about three too many.
“That being said, we kept fighting.”
Fairfield went up 31-27 on a left-wing three-pointer by senior Jenean Schwartz at the 2:52 mark and the victors made 11 free throws down the stretch to earn a spot in the Columbia City Regional.
Leading scorers for Fairfield Saturday were Erica Zook (13 points) with seven free throws in the fourth quarter, Kintigh (10 points) to go with 11 rebounds and Lashley (8 points) to go with seven rebounds.
