While Meat Loaf had a hit song with Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, for Warsaw's varsity girls basketball team it was more like three out of four.

Trailing visiting Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial 15-9 after the first quarter Thursday evening, the Class 4A second-ranked Tigers overcame their shooting woes and emotions of senior night to post a 60-41 win.

The 19-point win was the 19th straight conference victory for the Tigers, who wrapped up their second consecutive undefeated NLC season and conference title with a 7-0 record.

Warsaw has won 20 of its last 21 conference games, and sits at 105-10 in NLC regular season contests in the 18-year tenure of Will Wienhorst.

"Senior night is always hard," said Wienhorst, whose overall coaching record improved to 415-133, including a mark of 311-92 at Warsaw. "I've coached young ladies for 25 years and have had 25 senior nights, and it's always tough. We didn't play very well in the first quarter, but we overcame that and played extremely well defensively in the final three quarters. I thought we played very good defense after the first quarter."

After scoring 15 points in the first quarter, Elkhart Memorial's shots were heavily challenged in the final three quarters, and the Crimson Chargers were held to just 26 points total through the second, third and fourth.

The loss dropped Memorial to 13-7 overall and 5-2 in the NLC, a record that tied them for second in the conference standings with Plymouth. Prior to this season, the Crimson Chargers had just 22 wins over three years.

"Elkhart Memorial has got a nice team," Wienhorst said. "They finished the season 13-7, tied for second in the conference, they're an improved team."

Though the reason may forever be unknown, teams generally don't seem to play well on occassions such as senior night.

Thursday was no exception for the Tigers.

A team that has won 21 of its last 22 games, shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor as a team this year, Warsaw went an uncharacteristic 3 of 14 from the field in the first quarter Thursday.

While Warsaw Miss Basketball candidate Jaclyn Leininger missed her first five shots of the game, Memorial shot 50 percent from the floor in the first quarter and led the second-ranked Tigers by as much as eight.

But as if it were a weak defender, Warsaw shook its shooting problems and started the second stanza with a 17-2 run, turning a 15-9 deficit into a 26-17 lead when Leininger scored with 3:18 remaining in the half.

Scoreless in the first quarter, Leininger came to life in the second, scoring 16 of Warsaw's 22 points in the frame.

"Jaclyn hadn't had that many misses in a row all year," Wienhorst said. "She did a great job getting things back together. Jaclyn is a great basketball player, and not that she didn't play well, but she started focusing in the second quarter. When she does that it's pretty hard to stop her."

Leininger went from an 0-of-5 performance in the first quarter to making 11 of her next 18 shots. She finished the game with 28 points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and a steal.

Fellow senior Michelle DeGeeter, a four-year starter who has helped the Tigers to a 76-15 record in her career, had 10 points and nine rebounds, while sophomore Julie Seiss had nine points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Already the school's career leading scorer and single season leading scorer, Leininger hit the 600-point mark this year when she hit the first of two free throws with 4:05 remaining in the third quarter Thursday, giving Warsaw a 45-23 advantage.

Leading 47-31 after three quarters of play, the Tigers opened the final frame with a 7-0 lead, building their biggest advantage of the game at 23 points.

Junior Rebekah Reichard scored seven points for Warsaw, while Kara Mayer, Laura Heiman and Danielle Kindig had two each.

Senior Holly Durcholz, who started on senior night, contributed four rebounds.

Alyssa Pittman led Memorial with 18 points, two of which were scored in the wrong hoop by Durcholz, while Ashley Lovelady had 10 and Allison Sears nine.

Warsaw is in action again Friday in the semifinal round of the Warsaw 4A Sectional. The Tigers play the winner of East Noble and DeKalb at approximatley 7:30 p.m. Carroll and Columbia City play in Friday's 6 p.m. contest.

NO. 2 (4A) WARSAW 60, ELKHART MEMORIAL 41

Elk. Mem 15 6 10 10 - 41

Warsaw 9 22 16 13 - 60

Elk. Memorial FG FT R S Pts.

* Pittman 6-12 4-5 0 1 18

* Sears 4-14 1-4 9 2 9

* Lovelady 4-12 2-2 6 0 10

* Miller 0-3 0-0 4 0 0

* Kinder 1-6 0-0 10 2 2

Beal 0-2 2-4 1 2 2

Price 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Davis 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Fields 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Linton 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Peoples 0-1 0-0 0 1 0

Totals 15-50 9-15 30 8 41

Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.

* Mayer 0-3 2-4 5 1 2

* Seiss 4-7 0-0 6 3 9

* Durholz 0-2 0-1 4 0 0

* Leininger 11-23 5-7 4 1 28

* DeGeeter 4-8 2-4 9 1 10

Abbitt 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Braddock 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Clay 0-1 0-0 2 1 0

Smith 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Reichard 3-4 1-3 2 0 7

Sand 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Heiman 1-1 0-0 1 0 2

Kindig 1-1 0-0 2 0 2

DeGeeter 0-1 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 24-51 10-19 36 7 60

Three-point goals - Elk. Memorial 2-7 (Pittman 2-5, Lovelady 0-1, Miller l0-1), Warsaw 2-13 (Leininger 1-6, Seiss 1-3, Mayer 0-2, DeGeeter 0-2). Turnovers - Elk. Memorial 215, Warsaw 12. Fouls - Elk. Memorial 16, Warsaw 12. Fouled out - Lovelady.

JV - Warsaw 71, Elkhart Memorial 42

Warsaw scoring - DeGeeter 12, Hathaway 12, Wood 11, Francis 9, Logan 9, Scherer 6, Kiser 4, Clark 3, Johnson 3, Conley 2

Warsaw JV record: 16-2 [[In-content Ad]]