Lady Tigers Roll Early, Rout Wabash 50-26
Junior Dayton Groninger's career-high 28 points leads Warsaw
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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They also found the hot hand of junior Dayton Groninger early and often. The guard shot for the cycle in the first quarter, making a free throw for a single, a layup for a double and two triples for nine points in the first eight minutes.
She finished with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting to pace the Lady Tigers in their 50-26 win over Wabash in Warsaw’s final non-conference game of the regular season.
Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter said it was good for her squad to get off to a lead after trying to make big comebacks against South Bend St Joseph’s and LaPorte over the holidays. A big part of that was taking care of the basketball and getting, rather than giving, easy shots.
“Typically we’ve played from behind most of our games. So it was nice to come out in that first quarter and build a little bit of a lead,” Harter said.” We got off to a little bit of a slow start in the first couple of minutes, but then we started hitting some shots, we picked up the defense and did some nice things to finish off that quarter.
“It’s amazing how when everything’s going well how it helps you relax out there. And it is very contagious. Hopefully that clicks a switch that we have to be ready to come out every game from the get-go. we’ve been a team that’s typically been slow-starting, and we need to change that.
“We also did a good job of taking care of the basketball and making simple plays for the most part; that’s what you want to do. Sometimes we held the ball a little too long, but it’s easier to get it moving a little bit faster than to reel them back in when they’re just winging it all around.
“The nice thing that I liked; we finally got the ball up the floor (quickly) and got some easy layups. Those are some of the things we’ve been working on, things we’ve been talking about and we weren’t afraid to make those types of passes. You want to see those things that we’ve been working on to get us ready to go for the (rest of) the conference.”
The Lady Tigers also made a to point recognize Groninger was scoring points and feeding her the ball every trip down the floor. Her scoring total broke her previous career high of 20 set against LaPorte Jan. 3, 2015 (a 57-50 Warsaw win).
“Tonight I think we finally saw that. ‘Hey, Dayton’s making her shots, so let’s make sure we’re getting the ball back to Dayton.’ When you have someone who’s on a roll and hitting shots, you want to make sure they get touches within the offense,” said Harter. “I thought the girls did a much better job without me having to tell them ‘Dayton’s hot, let’s get her the ball.’ They did that on their own, and that says a lot about maturity and getting better.
“(At the beginning of the season) it might have been something where we might have had to run a play to get her open, so it was a big step in maturity to realize she had the hot hand. And when she didn’t have a good shot, she passed the ball to someone else who was open.
“We’ve been talking a lot about ‘the we is greater than the me,’ and tonight I thought we did a very good job of doing that.”
The Lady Tigers also got contributions from players with little varsity experience Wednesday night. Kennedy Patton had four points off the bench, and Morgan Bruner saw extensive playing time.
Madi Graham hit a trio of three-pointers to finish with nine points, and Page Desenberg five. Groninger pulled down a game-high seven rebounds as the Lady Tigers enjoyed a 25-17 edge on the boards.
Now 5-12 on the season, Warsaw has five Northern Lakes Conference games left before the sectional. The Lady Tigers are on of three unbeaten teams in the NLC. The final five-game stretch begins Saturday night when Northridge, another of the undefeated teams in the NLC, visits the Tiger Den.
WARSAW 50, WABASH 26
Wab 6 7 9 4 – 26
War 13 12 14 11 – 50
Wabash – Bailey Yoakum 3-7 2-2 9, Madison Barden 3-4 0-0 6, Katie McCauley 0-0 6-10 6, Kristin Cromer 2-3 0-2 4, Chelsea Archer 0-0 1-2 1, Sydni Mullett 0-2 0-0 0, Sabroma Wagner 0-2 0-1 0, Jaycee Parrett 0-8 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Dowdal 0-0 0-0 0, Abby Vinopal 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-27 9-17 26.
Warsaw – Dayton Groninger 11-16 4-6 28, Madi Graham 3-6 0-0 9, Page Desenberg 2-3 1-2 5, Kennedy Patton 2-4 0-0 4, Kenzie Welk 2-4 0-0 4, Morgan Bruner 0-2 0-0 0, Emma Bohnenkamper 0-1 0-0 0, Mariah Rivera 0-2 0-0 0, Abby Glass 0-0 0-0 0, Jessie Kersey 0-0 0-0 0, Kenzie Martz 0-0 0-0 0, Kacy Bragg 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-39 5-8 50.
Three-pointers – Wabash 1 (Yoakum), Warsaw 5 (Graham 3, Groninger 2); Rebounds – Wabash 17 (Parrett 4), Warsaw 25 (Groninger 7); Turnovers – Wabash 17, Warsaw 13; Fouls – Wabash 10, Warsaw 18; Records – Wabash 9-6, Warsaw 5-12
JV – Warsaw 47, Wabash 21
Warsaw scoring – Maddie Ryman 10, Kenzie Martz 6, Jessie Kersey 6, Abby Glass 6, Morgan Bruner 6, Miah Holdsclaw 5, Kerigan Hatfield 2, Hope Fancil 2, Amber Hagan 2, Kati Rodriguez 2[[In-content Ad]]
They also found the hot hand of junior Dayton Groninger early and often. The guard shot for the cycle in the first quarter, making a free throw for a single, a layup for a double and two triples for nine points in the first eight minutes.
She finished with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting to pace the Lady Tigers in their 50-26 win over Wabash in Warsaw’s final non-conference game of the regular season.
Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter said it was good for her squad to get off to a lead after trying to make big comebacks against South Bend St Joseph’s and LaPorte over the holidays. A big part of that was taking care of the basketball and getting, rather than giving, easy shots.
“Typically we’ve played from behind most of our games. So it was nice to come out in that first quarter and build a little bit of a lead,” Harter said.” We got off to a little bit of a slow start in the first couple of minutes, but then we started hitting some shots, we picked up the defense and did some nice things to finish off that quarter.
“It’s amazing how when everything’s going well how it helps you relax out there. And it is very contagious. Hopefully that clicks a switch that we have to be ready to come out every game from the get-go. we’ve been a team that’s typically been slow-starting, and we need to change that.
“We also did a good job of taking care of the basketball and making simple plays for the most part; that’s what you want to do. Sometimes we held the ball a little too long, but it’s easier to get it moving a little bit faster than to reel them back in when they’re just winging it all around.
“The nice thing that I liked; we finally got the ball up the floor (quickly) and got some easy layups. Those are some of the things we’ve been working on, things we’ve been talking about and we weren’t afraid to make those types of passes. You want to see those things that we’ve been working on to get us ready to go for the (rest of) the conference.”
The Lady Tigers also made a to point recognize Groninger was scoring points and feeding her the ball every trip down the floor. Her scoring total broke her previous career high of 20 set against LaPorte Jan. 3, 2015 (a 57-50 Warsaw win).
“Tonight I think we finally saw that. ‘Hey, Dayton’s making her shots, so let’s make sure we’re getting the ball back to Dayton.’ When you have someone who’s on a roll and hitting shots, you want to make sure they get touches within the offense,” said Harter. “I thought the girls did a much better job without me having to tell them ‘Dayton’s hot, let’s get her the ball.’ They did that on their own, and that says a lot about maturity and getting better.
“(At the beginning of the season) it might have been something where we might have had to run a play to get her open, so it was a big step in maturity to realize she had the hot hand. And when she didn’t have a good shot, she passed the ball to someone else who was open.
“We’ve been talking a lot about ‘the we is greater than the me,’ and tonight I thought we did a very good job of doing that.”
The Lady Tigers also got contributions from players with little varsity experience Wednesday night. Kennedy Patton had four points off the bench, and Morgan Bruner saw extensive playing time.
Madi Graham hit a trio of three-pointers to finish with nine points, and Page Desenberg five. Groninger pulled down a game-high seven rebounds as the Lady Tigers enjoyed a 25-17 edge on the boards.
Now 5-12 on the season, Warsaw has five Northern Lakes Conference games left before the sectional. The Lady Tigers are on of three unbeaten teams in the NLC. The final five-game stretch begins Saturday night when Northridge, another of the undefeated teams in the NLC, visits the Tiger Den.
WARSAW 50, WABASH 26
Wab 6 7 9 4 – 26
War 13 12 14 11 – 50
Wabash – Bailey Yoakum 3-7 2-2 9, Madison Barden 3-4 0-0 6, Katie McCauley 0-0 6-10 6, Kristin Cromer 2-3 0-2 4, Chelsea Archer 0-0 1-2 1, Sydni Mullett 0-2 0-0 0, Sabroma Wagner 0-2 0-1 0, Jaycee Parrett 0-8 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Dowdal 0-0 0-0 0, Abby Vinopal 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-27 9-17 26.
Warsaw – Dayton Groninger 11-16 4-6 28, Madi Graham 3-6 0-0 9, Page Desenberg 2-3 1-2 5, Kennedy Patton 2-4 0-0 4, Kenzie Welk 2-4 0-0 4, Morgan Bruner 0-2 0-0 0, Emma Bohnenkamper 0-1 0-0 0, Mariah Rivera 0-2 0-0 0, Abby Glass 0-0 0-0 0, Jessie Kersey 0-0 0-0 0, Kenzie Martz 0-0 0-0 0, Kacy Bragg 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-39 5-8 50.
Three-pointers – Wabash 1 (Yoakum), Warsaw 5 (Graham 3, Groninger 2); Rebounds – Wabash 17 (Parrett 4), Warsaw 25 (Groninger 7); Turnovers – Wabash 17, Warsaw 13; Fouls – Wabash 10, Warsaw 18; Records – Wabash 9-6, Warsaw 5-12
JV – Warsaw 47, Wabash 21
Warsaw scoring – Maddie Ryman 10, Kenzie Martz 6, Jessie Kersey 6, Abby Glass 6, Morgan Bruner 6, Miah Holdsclaw 5, Kerigan Hatfield 2, Hope Fancil 2, Amber Hagan 2, Kati Rodriguez 2[[In-content Ad]]
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