Warsaw freshman Joslyn Bricker drives to the basket past Valley's Corinna Stiles en route to scoring a game-high 20 points. Photos by Gary Nieter
Warsaw freshman Joslyn Bricker drives to the basket past Valley's Corinna Stiles en route to scoring a game-high 20 points. Photos by Gary Nieter
• •
Warsaw girls basketball head coach Lenny Krebs was clear when he said Wednesday’s practice was “by far” the worst the team had put together this season. After the Tigers 72-36 victory over Tippecanoe Valley at the Tiger Den Thursday night, Krebs was a little less displeased about it.

“I told the girls I will kick them out of every practice if they turn it around and perform like they did tonight,” Krebs said.

Coming off of a season-opening loss to Norwell that saw Warsaw shoot lower than 30% from the field, the Tigers came out firing in this one, hitting nine threes in the first half and putting the game out of reach by halftime.

“I’m proud of our effort. We found our gear,” Krebs said. “We had great intensity, great ball pressure on defense, and offensively we found good shots and hit them.”

The first two minutes were like lightning in a bottle for Warsaw as the team came out and hit its first three three-point shots to jump out to an early 11-3 lead. For the second straight game, Tippecanoe Valley had trouble taking care of the ball, committing some early turnovers that were converted into easy points. The full court pressure of the Tigers caused fits for the Lady Vikings, as the visitors struggled mightily to get the ball past half court. After a quarter, Tippecanoe Valley had made some ground in terms of coming back, trailing by six entering the second.

Warsaw started the second quarter identically to the first, by scoring points in a hurry. After getting the first four of the period and extending the lead to double digits, the Lady Vikings would answer with four straight of its own by Chesnee Miller. Tippecanoe Valley would score just one more point in the quarter, but not before a 17-0 run by the Tigers to put the game out of reach. The highlight of the run was freshman Joslyn Breaker, who scored 13 points in the first half on her way to scoring 20 in the game. Breaker was perfect from three in the first half, hitting all three of her triples.

“We saw Joslyn grow up before our very eyes tonight,” Krebs said. “The makeup of this team is going to be finding the player with the hot hand or who has the good matchup. We could have a different leader every night, and I can’t wait to see what this team looks like when everybody has it going.”

Also putting in the work on offense was sophomore Abbey Peterson, who finished with 15. The leading scorer for Tippecanoe Valley was Kaydence Mellott, who put in 18 points to go with five rebounds. It was a tough night offensively for the Lady Vikings as the team turned the ball over too much to get its offense in a rhythm. Valley also struggled with foul trouble, putting Warsaw in the double bonus just seconds into the fourth quarter. Senior Corinna Stiles fouled out after scoring just six points. It’s the first loss of the season for the Lady Vikings, as the team falls to 3-1 and will play Saturday at Northwestern.

Warsaw hosts LaPorte Saturday evening.