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Having won three of their last four games by 60 points or more, the Warsaw girls basketball team had not been tested in the month of December. With rival Columbia City coming to town on Tuesday night, the Lady Tigers looked to finally get one. Despite the game being blown open in the fourth quarter, the contest was much closer than the final result, a 70-46 Warsaw win, would indicate.
“We needed a game like that. Hats off to Columbia City for coming in and giving us a fight,” Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs said after the game. “We needed to get a little battle tested before the Hall of Fame Classic and I think a game like that will do that for us.”
The Lady Tiger offense started the game on fire, with Joslyn Bricker scoring the first seven points of the game. She’d go on to lead all scorers with 28. After the initial spurt by the Butler commit, she passed the torch off to fellow senior Brooke Zartman, who scored five quick points of her own as the team scored 12 points in the first four minutes of the game.
But as would be the case for most of the night, the Lady Eagles did not bow out quickly after dealing with the initial spurt by the home team. Led by senior Anisa Tonkel and her team-high 19 points, Columbia City battled valiantly throughout the game, and especially in the first half. While the visitors went down by double digits multiple times, they continued to claw back and hang around.
As has been the case all season long, the Warsaw offense was just too much. Each time the Lady Eagles were able to shrink the lead down to one or two possessions, the Lady Tigers would return fire with one of their patented “scorebacks” to quickly erase any progress the visitors had made.
“I was concerned with our ability to score against this defense because it is so good,” Krebs said. “The fact that we were able to score 70 tonight tells you how good we’re capable of being. Proud of the effort and how we continued to find the best shots all night long.”
Warsaw senior Alexis Neely pulls up for a three-pointer during the second quarter...Nieter
After fighting off another Lady Eagle run towards the end of the half, Alexis Neely came up with five big points, as well as some key assists in the final minutes before the break to push the lead back up to double figures heading into the third quarter. The third followed the same patterns of the first half, as Warsaw sat up comfortably at times before the visitors went on a run of their own to trim the advantage. But time and time again, the Lady Tiger defense came up with stops when they needed them most.
“These girls are so good offensively that it kind of gets lost how good they are on the defensive end,” Krebs said. “They do so many things that don’t go on the stat sheet and they do them so well. This was a total team effort.”
After trading blows for 24 minutes, the fourth quarter belonged to the home side. After pushing the lead up to above 20 for the first time in the game, Warsaw didn’t look back. Along with the usual suspects, players like Kyra Kiser and Cayleigh Goheen made a big impact in the final period. Whether it was coming up with a tough rebound or making the perfect cut to the basket, the Lady Tiger forwards were everywhere.
Zartman scored the final two points of the night as the starters came out with about a minute left, putting the exclamation point on the team’s sixth win in a row.
Warsaw (11-1) will compete at the Hall of Fame Classic at New Castle Fieldhouse on Monday. The Lady Tigers will take on Evansville Central at 11 a.m., with the consolation game being played at 6 p.m. and the championship game at 8 p.m.
“We’re excited for the opportunity. It’ll be a cool experience to be a part of Indiana basketball history,” Krebs said. “But we’re not just excited to compete. We’re going to be looking to win it.”
