Warsaw Girls Fall Short At Northridge
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Closing their Northern Lakes Conference schedule, the Warsaw Lady Tigers (9-9, 3-4 NLC) fell 48-39 to the Northridge Lady Raiders (16-2, 5-1 NLC). Warsaw scored 18 of its 39 points in the final six-and-a-half minutes of the game.[[In-content Ad]]"I told them, 'If you would have come out and played the way you did during the last three minutes, it's a different ball game.'" Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. "That was the same thing at NorthWood (Saturday). We had spurts when we played really hard, then spurts when we didn't. That's the inconsisteny. We have to get more consistent."
Prior to scoring on eight-straight possessions between the 6:24 and 0:44 marks of the fourth quarter, Warsaw had gone just over five minutes without a point. With the lid on the Warsaw basket, the Lady Raiders took advantage with a 12-0 run that turned a 22-21 lead into a 34-21 advantage.
"I thought our girls really came out well against a really, really good Warsaw team," Northridge coach Doug Springer said. "They're young, but they've really come along after Christmas. This was a good win for us."
The win was Northridge's 16th, setting a new school record for the Lady Raiders, who didn't strike fear in anyone coming into the season.
"We've faced a ton of adversity this year," Springer said. "Early on, we got rid of one of our main players, then we had sickness. We had a couple girls missing here and there because of injuries and sickness. Then, we had some adversity last week when we had a player's grandfather pass away. Then, obviously, the motor of our team (senior Connie Smith) tore her ACL last Friday night against Elkhart Memorial."
Despite all the bumps in the road, Springer has still found a way to bring the girls together. Along with the 16 wins, another first for the girls program this season were wins over Warsaw, NorthWood and Plymouth in the same year. The victory over the Lady Tigers was only the second time Northridge has accomplished that feat and their 48-31 win over NorthWood on Jan. 15 was the school's first-ever win over that program.
"This team has just bought into everything I brought over here four years ago," Springer said. "Our senior class is full of tremendous leaders."
In order to get a second victory over the Lady Tigers, Springer knew he'd have to bring defensive pressure against their bigger opponents. The Lady Raiders did just that, holding Warsaw to 13 points on 5-of-18 shooting in the first half, leading to an 18-13 lead.
"We talked about just coming out and really establishing our pressure game, which is what we do," Springer said. "We don't zone. We might have zoned twice this year. So, we're a man-to-man team."
That pressure defense made life tough for the Lady Tigers, as they had scoring droughts of 3:21, 4:41, 3:32 and 5:08 in the loss.
"Our post players are doing a great job inside, but we need to have some other guards step up and help open up the inside for us a little bit more," Harter said.
One guard that did score for the Lady Tigers was sophomore Jennifer Walker-Crawford, who netted nine, just behind senior Kayla Stout's team-high 10.
Walker-Crawford helped jump-start the Warsaw scoring in the final quarter, hitting back-to-back jumpers and later nailing a three-pointer to cut the Northridge lead to 44-39 with 44 seconds remaining. However, that was as close as the Lady Tigers got as Northridge hit 4 of 6 free throws down the stretch.
Warsaw junior Sarah Heagy finished the game with six points and eight rebounds, while sophomore Lindsay Baker posted five points and three steals.
Northridge was led by senior Emily Peppers-VanNamee's 12 points and senior Tori Roberts' nine points and 11 rebounds.
A matchup between the two schools may be in the cards next week at Class 4A Sectional 4 at Goshen High School, as Warsaw drew the bye for the sectional and will play the winner of the Goshen/Northridge game Friday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m.
Northridge defeated Goshen 49-27 at Goshen on Dec. 16, but Springer is cautious not to overlook the 7-12 Lady Redskins.
"I've been in this long enough to know once you begin the postseason, all records are 0-0," he said. "Anything in the state of Indiana can happen. There will be upsets galore. There will be teams that won in the regular season, but don't win in the sectional. The biggest thing you have to do, is you have to come and be ready to do the little things."
And despite the loss, Harter is hopeful her team can learn from their mistakes in case there is a rematch next week.
"We have the game film now, so we can break it down and look at what we need to do to get better in order to come out and win against Northridge," Harter said. "A big part of it is, we just have to come out and play."
Warsaw is scheduled to close its regular season out Thursday at home against South Bend Riley. The game will honor the team's seniors and will also be Pink Night, with money being raised for the Tracey Ann Yeager Memorial Scholarship. "Pink Zone" T-shirts are selling for $10 and for every person that wears pink to the game, $1 will be donated to the scholarship.
Outside of raising money for a good cause, Harter also wants the bad weather to hold off in order to get one more game in before the postseason games.
"It's important for us to play Thursday," she said. "Hopefully, the weather will be out of here by then. It will be good for us to get back out on the floor and do some of the things we've been talking about and working on in practice."
NORTHRIDGE 48, WARSAW 39
W 4 9 8 18 - 39
N 11 7 14 16 - 48
Northridge - Haley Schrock 3-9 0-0 7, Emily Peppers-VanNamee 3-10 6-6 12, Sydney Sample 3-5 0-0 9, Tori Roberts 4-8 1-2 9, Emylee Smith 0-4 4-8 4, Brianne O'Dell 0-0 0-0 0, Madison Schrock 1-1 4-4 7. Totals 14-37 15-20 48.
Warsaw - Eryn Leek 0-0 0-0 0, Jennifer Walker-Crawford 4-7 0-0 9, Lindsay Baker 2-9 0-0 5, Kayla Stout 2-7 6-6 10, Sarah Heagy 3-6 0-0 6, Madison Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Lauren Burish 0-3 0-0 0, Brooklyn Harrison 1-1 0-0 3, Nikki Grose 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 15-40 6-6 39.
Three-point goals - Northridge 5-10 (Sample 3, H. Schrock, M. Schrock), Warsaw 3-8 (Walker-Crawford, Baker, Harrison); Team Fouls (fouled out) - Northridge 11, Warsaw 17 (Burish); Turnovers - Northridge 10, Warsaw 9; Rebounds - Northridge 30 (Roberts 11), Warsaw 21 (Heagy 8); Steals - Northridge 4 (H. Schrock 2), Warsaw 4 (Baker 3); Blocks - Northridge 3 (Roberts 3), Warsaw 1; Records: Northridge 16-2 (5-1 NLC), Warsaw 9-9 (3-4 NLC)
JV - Northridge 47, Warsaw 42
Warsaw - Grose 22, Abby Schue 9, Melonie Holladay 5, Jordyn Walker 3, Brittney Thompson 2, Gabby Monroy 1
Closing their Northern Lakes Conference schedule, the Warsaw Lady Tigers (9-9, 3-4 NLC) fell 48-39 to the Northridge Lady Raiders (16-2, 5-1 NLC). Warsaw scored 18 of its 39 points in the final six-and-a-half minutes of the game.[[In-content Ad]]"I told them, 'If you would have come out and played the way you did during the last three minutes, it's a different ball game.'" Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. "That was the same thing at NorthWood (Saturday). We had spurts when we played really hard, then spurts when we didn't. That's the inconsisteny. We have to get more consistent."
Prior to scoring on eight-straight possessions between the 6:24 and 0:44 marks of the fourth quarter, Warsaw had gone just over five minutes without a point. With the lid on the Warsaw basket, the Lady Raiders took advantage with a 12-0 run that turned a 22-21 lead into a 34-21 advantage.
"I thought our girls really came out well against a really, really good Warsaw team," Northridge coach Doug Springer said. "They're young, but they've really come along after Christmas. This was a good win for us."
The win was Northridge's 16th, setting a new school record for the Lady Raiders, who didn't strike fear in anyone coming into the season.
"We've faced a ton of adversity this year," Springer said. "Early on, we got rid of one of our main players, then we had sickness. We had a couple girls missing here and there because of injuries and sickness. Then, we had some adversity last week when we had a player's grandfather pass away. Then, obviously, the motor of our team (senior Connie Smith) tore her ACL last Friday night against Elkhart Memorial."
Despite all the bumps in the road, Springer has still found a way to bring the girls together. Along with the 16 wins, another first for the girls program this season were wins over Warsaw, NorthWood and Plymouth in the same year. The victory over the Lady Tigers was only the second time Northridge has accomplished that feat and their 48-31 win over NorthWood on Jan. 15 was the school's first-ever win over that program.
"This team has just bought into everything I brought over here four years ago," Springer said. "Our senior class is full of tremendous leaders."
In order to get a second victory over the Lady Tigers, Springer knew he'd have to bring defensive pressure against their bigger opponents. The Lady Raiders did just that, holding Warsaw to 13 points on 5-of-18 shooting in the first half, leading to an 18-13 lead.
"We talked about just coming out and really establishing our pressure game, which is what we do," Springer said. "We don't zone. We might have zoned twice this year. So, we're a man-to-man team."
That pressure defense made life tough for the Lady Tigers, as they had scoring droughts of 3:21, 4:41, 3:32 and 5:08 in the loss.
"Our post players are doing a great job inside, but we need to have some other guards step up and help open up the inside for us a little bit more," Harter said.
One guard that did score for the Lady Tigers was sophomore Jennifer Walker-Crawford, who netted nine, just behind senior Kayla Stout's team-high 10.
Walker-Crawford helped jump-start the Warsaw scoring in the final quarter, hitting back-to-back jumpers and later nailing a three-pointer to cut the Northridge lead to 44-39 with 44 seconds remaining. However, that was as close as the Lady Tigers got as Northridge hit 4 of 6 free throws down the stretch.
Warsaw junior Sarah Heagy finished the game with six points and eight rebounds, while sophomore Lindsay Baker posted five points and three steals.
Northridge was led by senior Emily Peppers-VanNamee's 12 points and senior Tori Roberts' nine points and 11 rebounds.
A matchup between the two schools may be in the cards next week at Class 4A Sectional 4 at Goshen High School, as Warsaw drew the bye for the sectional and will play the winner of the Goshen/Northridge game Friday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m.
Northridge defeated Goshen 49-27 at Goshen on Dec. 16, but Springer is cautious not to overlook the 7-12 Lady Redskins.
"I've been in this long enough to know once you begin the postseason, all records are 0-0," he said. "Anything in the state of Indiana can happen. There will be upsets galore. There will be teams that won in the regular season, but don't win in the sectional. The biggest thing you have to do, is you have to come and be ready to do the little things."
And despite the loss, Harter is hopeful her team can learn from their mistakes in case there is a rematch next week.
"We have the game film now, so we can break it down and look at what we need to do to get better in order to come out and win against Northridge," Harter said. "A big part of it is, we just have to come out and play."
Warsaw is scheduled to close its regular season out Thursday at home against South Bend Riley. The game will honor the team's seniors and will also be Pink Night, with money being raised for the Tracey Ann Yeager Memorial Scholarship. "Pink Zone" T-shirts are selling for $10 and for every person that wears pink to the game, $1 will be donated to the scholarship.
Outside of raising money for a good cause, Harter also wants the bad weather to hold off in order to get one more game in before the postseason games.
"It's important for us to play Thursday," she said. "Hopefully, the weather will be out of here by then. It will be good for us to get back out on the floor and do some of the things we've been talking about and working on in practice."
NORTHRIDGE 48, WARSAW 39
W 4 9 8 18 - 39
N 11 7 14 16 - 48
Northridge - Haley Schrock 3-9 0-0 7, Emily Peppers-VanNamee 3-10 6-6 12, Sydney Sample 3-5 0-0 9, Tori Roberts 4-8 1-2 9, Emylee Smith 0-4 4-8 4, Brianne O'Dell 0-0 0-0 0, Madison Schrock 1-1 4-4 7. Totals 14-37 15-20 48.
Warsaw - Eryn Leek 0-0 0-0 0, Jennifer Walker-Crawford 4-7 0-0 9, Lindsay Baker 2-9 0-0 5, Kayla Stout 2-7 6-6 10, Sarah Heagy 3-6 0-0 6, Madison Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Lauren Burish 0-3 0-0 0, Brooklyn Harrison 1-1 0-0 3, Nikki Grose 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 15-40 6-6 39.
Three-point goals - Northridge 5-10 (Sample 3, H. Schrock, M. Schrock), Warsaw 3-8 (Walker-Crawford, Baker, Harrison); Team Fouls (fouled out) - Northridge 11, Warsaw 17 (Burish); Turnovers - Northridge 10, Warsaw 9; Rebounds - Northridge 30 (Roberts 11), Warsaw 21 (Heagy 8); Steals - Northridge 4 (H. Schrock 2), Warsaw 4 (Baker 3); Blocks - Northridge 3 (Roberts 3), Warsaw 1; Records: Northridge 16-2 (5-1 NLC), Warsaw 9-9 (3-4 NLC)
JV - Northridge 47, Warsaw 42
Warsaw - Grose 22, Abby Schue 9, Melonie Holladay 5, Jordyn Walker 3, Brittney Thompson 2, Gabby Monroy 1
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092