Photos by Gary Nieter, Times-Union Senior Audrey Grimm of Warsaw makes a clean block on the shot attempt of Merrillville's Torri Miller as junior Abby Sanner moves in to help defend.
Photos by Gary Nieter, Times-Union Senior Audrey Grimm of Warsaw makes a clean block on the shot attempt of Merrillville's Torri Miller as junior Abby Sanner moves in to help defend.
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There wasn’t an all-tournament team chosen at Saturday’s four-team classic hosted by Warsaw Community High School.

Had there been, Warsaw junior frontliner Abby Sanner likely would have been the MVP.

Leading the Lady Tigers to double-digit wins over Merrillville and South Bend Adams, Sanner finished the day with 30 points and 26 rebounds.

The 6’2 junior tallied 20 points and 16 rebounds as the hosts beat Merrillville 47-22 in the morning session, and followed that with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 59-42 win over Adams.

Sanner finished the two games 12 of 21 from the field and also blocked three shots.

“I thought offensively this morning Abby did a nice job. The girls on the perimeter did a nice job finding Abby, finding some of those inside people. We knew that was where our advantage was,” said fourth-year Warsaw coach Lenny Krebs, who notched his 50th win with the Lady Tigers in the 17-point victory over Adams.

“Against Merrillville, we knew we had a size advantage if we could get the ball inside. I thought the girls did a nice job of finding Abby. I hope Abby can realize how good she is when she’s going to the basket strong, when she’s jumping and elevating for rebounds. There were a couple times  when she would elevate for a ball and it was like ‘holy cow, where did she come from.’

“Getting her to do that on a consistent basis, that’s going to make us so much more efficient offensively.”

With the two wins Saturday, the Lady Tigers improved to 4-0 on the season. All of Warsaw’s wins this season have been by a margin of at least 15 points.

In beating Merrillville, the Lady Tigers used a dominant second quarter, an eight-minute frame in which Warsaw outscored the Pirates 18-3 en route to a 26-8 halftime advantage.

“I thought this morning we played some disciplined defense,” said Krebs. “If you had told me we were gonna hold Merrillville to eight points in the first half I’d have probably given you a hug and a kiss at the moment because I never imagined we’d be that efficient defensively.

“On the flip side, the second game, I don’t know if you watched the same game I did, I didn’t think we were very good defensively.

“You would have never guessed we played defense the way we did this morning. That’s one thing we talked about in the locker room after the game … we’ve got to have a healthy respect for every single opponent. We’ve got to bring our best effort, be disciplined and focused and be all of those things. I thought the second game we struggled a little bit defensively, but we definitely got some young kids some experience today.”

Because of Covid 19 protocol, the Lady Tigers haven’t had a full squad in practice or a game.

Krebs himself has missed practices and games.

In the morning win over Merrillville, junior Kacilyn Krebs added nine points and six rebounds, while seniors Audrey Grimm and Kensie Ryman scored seven and six points, respectively.

Against Adams, the Lady Tigers led 22-12 after one quarter of play and again used a strong second quarter, this time outscoring the opposition 19-9 in the stanza to take a 41-21 lead into the break.

Senior Kendall Wayne paced Warsaw against Adams with 13 points, while sophomore Lauren Grose scored 11 points, Sanner 10, Ryman nine.