Warsaw Wins Consolation Game Of Lady Tiger Tourney
Warsaw Wins Consolation Game Of Lady Tiger Tourney
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw Wins Consolation Game Of Lady Tiger TourneyIn more ways than one, the Warsaw Lady Tigers split their two games in Saturday’s 42nd annual Lady Tiger Tournament.
What third-year Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs was looking for out of his team was a good start and a great finish.
The Lady Tigers got off off to a good start in the opener against Chesterton, racing out to an 8-0 lead, but gave up 38 points in the first half of a 56-53 loss - a loss that snapped the hosts’ five-game winning streak.
Playing in the consolation game of their own tournament for the first time in nine seasons, the Lady Tigers trailed Perry Meridian 16-11 late in the first quarter but together the great finish Krebs hoped for, outscoring the Lady Falcons 42-10 the rest of the way en route to a 53-26 win.
With the 27-point win, Warsaw improved to 10-6 on the season.
Huntington North, a 49-28 winner over Perry Meridian in the other morning semifinal, beat Chesterton 43-27 in Saturday afternoon’s championship game.
“We seem to really enjoy and like the challenge of coming back,” Krebs said of his team’s first-quarter deficit against Perry Meridian. “I don’t know why, but this morning we put ourselves in a hole after we led 8-0. We’ve got to do a better job of having good starts and great finishes.
“That’s what we emphasize, we want a good start, but we’ve got to have a great finish. I didn’t think we got off to a very good start against Perry Meridian, but the girls found a way to kick it into gear.
“We talked before the game, but this game was going to be all about heart … you get into the consolation game and it’s all about heart and passion. It’s about who wants it more, and we finally found a gear, and we started to make some better decisions on our field goal attempts. We weren’t shooting well from outside, and we found some close range looks and got Perry Meridian in foul trouble. It always helps when you can get some free throws, some free points off of those. That made the difference in the game, when we finally started being more intellingent, for the lack of a better word, on when and where we were shooting.”
In the win over Perry Meridian, Warsaw was 7 of 27 from the field in the first half and 8 of 18 over the final 16 minutes.
The Lady Tigers, who outrebounded the Lady Falcons 45-29, were 17 of 22 at the free throw line.
Perry Meridian was 8 of 45 from the field overall and 7 of 9 from the charity stripe.
Warsaw trailed 16-14 after one quarter of play, but led 29-18 at halftime and 41-20 heading into the final frame.
The Lady Falcons scored just two points in the second quarter, two points in the third quarter and three in the fourth.
At one point, Warsaw was on a 30-4 run.
Brielle Harrison led the Lady Tigers with 11 points and 13 rebounds in the win, while Abby Sanner tallied nine points and six boards, Audrey Grimm chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds, and Kaylee Patton finished with eight points.
Sally Mortensen scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds for Perry Meridian, while Savanna Pipes chipped in with seven points.
Mortensen and Warsaw’s Kensie Ryman were named to the all-tournament team.
Ryman had 14 points and four assists in the two games as the Lady Tigers’ point guard.
In the three-point loss to Chesterton, Warsaw led 8-0 early, but trailed 21-14 after the first quarter, 38-27 at halftime and 50-44 heading into the final frame.
Kendall Wayne led the Lady Tigers with 12 points in the loss, while Ryman, Harrison and Sanner scored nine points each.
Emma Schmidt scored 19 points in the semifinal win for Chesterton, while Nalani Malackowski and Ashley Craycraft tallied 13 and 12 points, respectively.
The Lady Tigers have six games remaining in the regular season, with the next being a home game against Northern Lakes Conference foe Northridge Saturday.
Of Warsaw’s six remaining games before the state tournament, four are NLC contests. The other two are against Homestead and Elkhart Central, teams that are currently 23-5 combined.
