Warsaw Grinds Out Win Over Northridge
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
MIDDLEBURY - For the second straight year, the Warsaw Tiger girls' basketball team left its game with Northridge just thankful for a win.
These games are not masterpieces when these two teams get together. Not by a long shot. Last year Warsaw shot 30 percent from the floor and escaped with a 39-36 home win over Northridge.
Like last year, Tuesday night's game was ugly, but the Tigers escaped with the 'W', this time 46-37 on the road. The Tigers, ranked No. 20 in this week's Associated Press poll, improved to 4-0.
The two teams looked like two over-the-hill, has-been fighters duking it out. Both were sluggish. Neither could deliver the knockout punch.
Until Sherri Ross landed two big blows in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers as a team scored eight points in the eight minutes in the third quarter.
Ross scored six points by herself in a span of 25 seconds in the fourth quarter.
With 4:32 left, Ross scored a bucket in the paint and drew a foul. She hit the free throw, and the Tigers led 40-31. With 4:07 left, Ross grabbed an offensive rebound, scored two more and drew another foul. She hit the free throw, and the Tigers led 43-31 after her back-to-back three-point plays.
Sheila Whitaker's three-pointer, her only points of the evening, set up the Ross knockout punches.
Northridge cut the lead to 32-29 with 6:58 left in the third quarter, the smallest Warsaw lead since the first half. Whitaker drilled a trey with 6:34 left, giving Warsaw the 35-29 lead. More importantly, the Tigers snatched back the momentum, and Ross put the Raiders away two minutes later.
The Tigers looked like they might turn the game into a laugher early. They led 21-10 after Ross hit a three with 4:24 left in the first half. But the offense sputtered. Northridge went on an 8-0 run and trailed just 24-18 at halftime.
Nobody knows why Warsaw was flat. What is known is that this game fell between a Friday win over state-ranked Crown Point and an upcoming Saturday home game with state-ranked Huntington North. Two big games. Northridge is Northridge. A game against an unranked conference opponent who now owns a 3-2 record.
The Raiders stayed in the game early with the help of poor Warsaw shooting in the middle quarters and by changing their defenses. The Tigers made 5 of 21 field goals (24 percent) in the second and third quarters and scored 16 points. Northridge would go from what was mostly a matchup zone to a straight 2-3 zone, and the Tigers, still searching for a floor general, were often caught with the deer in the headlights look.
"We turn the ball over too many times," Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst said. "We dribble it, people are open, and we don't see them. We missed too many bunnies (easy shots).
"We're missing a key element in Sherry Haines." Haines, who graduated, was Warsaw's starting point guard last year. "She was stability on the floor," Wienhorst said. "You saw tonight, several times, we just point-blank didn't know what we were doing."
Warsaw shot 36 percent on the evening, hitting 15 of 41 shots from the floor. The Raiders slowed the game down and were deliberate on offense. But once they had the ball, they could rarely put it in the basket. The problem was they had no go-to person. They took only 30 shots from the floor and hit 12 (39 percent). April Allison led them with 10 points.
Ross, who came in averaging seven points per game, hit three three-pointers and led all scorers with 19. Twin sister Tiffany added nine points.
"We're 4-0," Wienhorst said. "I think our girls came in here and thought they should win by a set amount of points. That's not the case anymore. There are good teams in our conference. We still have to play good basketball."
Warsaw, 1-0 in the NLC, hosts Huntington North at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
"Last Friday, we were the getters," Wienhorst said. "We went after Crown Point. Tonight, the tables were turned. We need to play the same type of basketball game in and game out. I don't think we will have any trouble getting up for Huntington." [[In-content Ad]]
MIDDLEBURY - For the second straight year, the Warsaw Tiger girls' basketball team left its game with Northridge just thankful for a win.
These games are not masterpieces when these two teams get together. Not by a long shot. Last year Warsaw shot 30 percent from the floor and escaped with a 39-36 home win over Northridge.
Like last year, Tuesday night's game was ugly, but the Tigers escaped with the 'W', this time 46-37 on the road. The Tigers, ranked No. 20 in this week's Associated Press poll, improved to 4-0.
The two teams looked like two over-the-hill, has-been fighters duking it out. Both were sluggish. Neither could deliver the knockout punch.
Until Sherri Ross landed two big blows in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers as a team scored eight points in the eight minutes in the third quarter.
Ross scored six points by herself in a span of 25 seconds in the fourth quarter.
With 4:32 left, Ross scored a bucket in the paint and drew a foul. She hit the free throw, and the Tigers led 40-31. With 4:07 left, Ross grabbed an offensive rebound, scored two more and drew another foul. She hit the free throw, and the Tigers led 43-31 after her back-to-back three-point plays.
Sheila Whitaker's three-pointer, her only points of the evening, set up the Ross knockout punches.
Northridge cut the lead to 32-29 with 6:58 left in the third quarter, the smallest Warsaw lead since the first half. Whitaker drilled a trey with 6:34 left, giving Warsaw the 35-29 lead. More importantly, the Tigers snatched back the momentum, and Ross put the Raiders away two minutes later.
The Tigers looked like they might turn the game into a laugher early. They led 21-10 after Ross hit a three with 4:24 left in the first half. But the offense sputtered. Northridge went on an 8-0 run and trailed just 24-18 at halftime.
Nobody knows why Warsaw was flat. What is known is that this game fell between a Friday win over state-ranked Crown Point and an upcoming Saturday home game with state-ranked Huntington North. Two big games. Northridge is Northridge. A game against an unranked conference opponent who now owns a 3-2 record.
The Raiders stayed in the game early with the help of poor Warsaw shooting in the middle quarters and by changing their defenses. The Tigers made 5 of 21 field goals (24 percent) in the second and third quarters and scored 16 points. Northridge would go from what was mostly a matchup zone to a straight 2-3 zone, and the Tigers, still searching for a floor general, were often caught with the deer in the headlights look.
"We turn the ball over too many times," Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst said. "We dribble it, people are open, and we don't see them. We missed too many bunnies (easy shots).
"We're missing a key element in Sherry Haines." Haines, who graduated, was Warsaw's starting point guard last year. "She was stability on the floor," Wienhorst said. "You saw tonight, several times, we just point-blank didn't know what we were doing."
Warsaw shot 36 percent on the evening, hitting 15 of 41 shots from the floor. The Raiders slowed the game down and were deliberate on offense. But once they had the ball, they could rarely put it in the basket. The problem was they had no go-to person. They took only 30 shots from the floor and hit 12 (39 percent). April Allison led them with 10 points.
Ross, who came in averaging seven points per game, hit three three-pointers and led all scorers with 19. Twin sister Tiffany added nine points.
"We're 4-0," Wienhorst said. "I think our girls came in here and thought they should win by a set amount of points. That's not the case anymore. There are good teams in our conference. We still have to play good basketball."
Warsaw, 1-0 in the NLC, hosts Huntington North at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
"Last Friday, we were the getters," Wienhorst said. "We went after Crown Point. Tonight, the tables were turned. We need to play the same type of basketball game in and game out. I don't think we will have any trouble getting up for Huntington." [[In-content Ad]]