Down 14 points after a quarter of play, it looked as if the Warsaw girls basketball team was in for a long night. But that was not the case, as the Lady Tigers rallied in the second and made a game of it. What looked to be a one-way contest turned into a thriller, with Warsaw finishing off the comeback with a 73-71 win in overtime.
“I’m proud of how our kids responded to falling behind. I told them we were going to have some adversity tonight and I wanted to see how they handled it,” Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs said. “If you want to learn how to survive in the arena, you have to learn how to fight in the arena.”
The visitors enjoyed a fast start to the game, scoring the first five points while Warsaw struggled to hold onto the ball long enough to get shots up. About two minutes into the contest, a fantastic cut into the lane by Joslyn Bricker was finally good enough for the home team to put some points on the board.
The Lady Viking defense was pesky to say the least, jumping into passing lanes and putting bodies on offensive players while making it difficult for the Lady Tigers to possess the ball. This tough defense by Valparaiso was enough to make life incredibly difficult early on for Warsaw. That defense turned into easy offense, forcing Krebs to burn a timeout down 9-2 midway through the first.
Things didn’t get much better following the break, as the Valpo lead grew to double digits as the quarter wore on. Warsaw continued to struggle taking care of the basketball and the visitors were keen to take advantage of it. With just one made field goal in the first six minutes of play, the hole the Lady Tigers had dug themselves in kept getting larger and larger.
While the defensive intensity showed up for the home side in the final few minutes of the first, Warsaw was still unable to get the lid off of the basket. After eight minutes of play, the Lady Tigers trailed 19-5, with three of those points coming from Alexis Neely at the free throw line.
After making just one shot from the field in the opening quarter, Warsaw quickly got a shot to fall in the second on a fantastic pass by Brooke Winchester to a cutting Braylie Chastain. They didn’t stop there. A contested layup for Bricker as well as a putback shot by Winchester, it was suddenly a single-digit game again. A steal and score by Bricker made it an 8-0 run and forced a timeout call by the Lady Vikings.
Just as the Warsaw timeout call in the first didn’t do much to help, the Valpo TO here didn’t either. Back-to-back threes by Winchester and Neely tied the game up as the run had ballooned to 14-0 over the first four and a half minutes of the period. A big three by the visitors finally put them on the board and kept them in front, which led to a mini-run of their own to go back up by five.

    Warsaw junior Joslyn Bricker moves under the basket to score during the second quarter...Nieter

The final two minutes of the first half saw the two sides trading buckets, with neither team finding an edge as the buzzer sounded. After blowing its massive lead, Valpo was able to get it going here to take a five-point lead at 31-26 into the break.
After a very quiet first half, Brooke Zartman nailed a three in the opening seconds of the third for her first points of the game. The Lady Tigers continued to improve offensively, but the Lady Vikings were consistently able to stick in front. One of those baskets by Valpo’s Lillian Barnes put her over the 1,000 point threshold for her career. But Warsaw kept fighting, and a big three by Bricker tied things up once again. Finally, a make by Neely gave Warsaw its first lead of the night at 39-37.
It was short lived though, as the visitors were quickly able to jump back in front. Once again, the Lady Tigers had a run in them, and a pair of threes by Bricker and Zartman put the home side back in front with a four-point edge, its largest lead of the night thus far. What looked to be a blowout in the opening minutes of the contest had turned into quite the game.
“Joslyn was just amazing for us tonight. She never stopped fighting, she gave it everything she had,” Krebs said. “Even in overtime dealing with a cramp, she just kept going.”
The third quarter came to a close on a pair of free throws by Bricker to give her 20 points in the game. Zartman also put together a big quarter, scoring eleven in the period. Valpo answered with a layup by Barnes in the final seconds to shrink the Lady Tiger lead to just one as the final eight minutes of regulation approached.
There wasn’t much scoring to speak of in the first few minutes of the fourth, as Warsaw was able to hold onto its slim lead with some great defense. This all changed at around the four minute mark, where a huge three by Bricker made it five straight points for the Lady Tigers to extend the lead to six.
The Lady Vikings didn’t take long to get back into it though, as the turnover bug that bit the home team in the first quarter reappeared here, leading to four easy points for the visitors to make it a one-possession game once more. After another turnover thanks to a very effective press, things were tied up with three minutes to go.
A big three by Neely put her team back in front, but moments later, Valpo banked one in from outside to tie things up again with just two minutes to go now. The shots from deep continued to fall, as Zartman nailed one from the corner to put the Lady Tigers up by a trifecta once again. Barnes, who was pretty much the entire offense to this point, answered with an and-one to give her 31 points and tie things up yet again.
With less than a minute to go, a huge layup by Bricker put the Lady Tigers in front for the fourth time in the last three minutes, and perhaps most importantly, the defense got a crucial stop to give themselves the ball back with 30 seconds remaining.
It wouldn’t be enough though, as a steal and score by Barnes tied things up with just 10 seconds to play. Warsaw never got a final shot up, meaning overtime would be necessary to determine a winner.
“Lilly Barnes is a player that can just do it all. I’m already dreading having to go to Valpo next year to guard her,” Krebs said. “She’s a terrific player.”
Barnes stayed hot in the extra period, stepping into a three to put the visitors up two after Winchester split a pair of free throws. Another steal and layup for Bricker tied things up with two minutes to go. With Valpo now up by one with a little over a minute remaining, the defense of the visitors tightened up. It didn’t matter to Zartman though, as the junior sank a long three for yet another lead change.
With 20 seconds to go, Warsaw remained up by one point with possession of the ball. Some masterful work by Bricker handling the ball melted a ton of time off the clock, giving her free throws with five seconds left. While she only made one, it was enough, as a last second heave by the visitors rimmed out to give the Lady Tigers the win.
Bricker finished the game with 30 points. Zartman added 17. Winchester and Neely each had eleven, with Winchester grabbing eleven rebounds.
Warsaw (5-0) will play at the Duneland/NLC Shootout on Saturday.
“We needed a game like this. When you get to tourney time, you have to win games like these. We haven’t had to handle any adversity up to this point. A game like this makes us better,” Krebs said.