The first half Tuesday against Whitko might have shown the best the Warsaw girls basketball team has to offer. The second half might have shown the worst.

But the first 16 minutes were enough to push the Tigers to a lopsided 59-26 win over the overmatched Wildcats at the Tiger Den.

Warsaw (10-4) used its superior size and strength inside to totally dominate the first half and run up a 42-10 advantage over Whitko (4-8). The Wildcats struggled on offense, turning the ball over 17 times and getting only 23 shots at the basket.

The Tigers, on the otherhand, had no problems offensively. Tiffany Ross scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the first half on 6 of 8 shooting from the field. Warsaw owned the boards with a 22-11 advantage, including 15-3 in the second quarter.

"We got physically manhandled," Whitko coach Ray Davis said. "Yeah, they were a little bit bigger than us, but the biggest thing that showed was that they are stronger than us. They just pushed their way around inside. We knew we couldn't let them get the ball inside in the halfcourt or we would be dead.

"We wanted them to shoot from the outside," he said. "But in the first half, they got it exactly where they wanted to inside the lane and took advantage."

Warsaw used its physical stature inside for a 14 of 18 outing at the charity stripe. Whitko did not attempt a free throw until the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

"We worked on a lot of press and forced a lot of turnovers," Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst said. "We got the ball inside to Tiffany, and she had a field day in the first half. I thought we played well in all phases of the game in the first half."

Warsaw outscored Whitko again in the second half, but it was by only a 17-16 count. The Tigers hit on just 7 of 30 shots from the field.

"We have to play 32 full minutes of basketball, and that is the only negative thing about the whole game," Wienhorst said. "I know it is difficult when you get up by that many points, but we have to be intense and focused the whole game."

Whitko cut down on its turnovers from the first half with only 12 and seemed to have a better flow to its offense, but the 32-point margin was way too much to overcome.

"We didn't give up," Davis said. "We tried to do things against them, and we ran our offense better in the second half."

The Wildcats ended up with 29 turnovers, while still playing without starting point guard Kelly Osborn.

"They were running the press in the first quarter, and we were making passes that just weren't there," Davis said. "Brittany (Waybright) and (Trisha) Peters are at the point, where to look against the press without Osborn there. There were times we threw it away, and there were times we got baskets behind the press for easy baskets.

"We just didn't take advantage of that enough. We just have to come back and regroup."

Warsaw ended up 17 of 23 from the charity stripe, while Whitko was just 1 of 1.

Jackie Edwards added 11 points and 9 boards for the Tigers, while BrieAnn Starkweather paced Whitko with eight points.

Warsaw hosts Fort Wayne Snider Saturday, while Whitko hosts Rochester Thursday. [[In-content Ad]]