The NorthWood basketball team roared into Warsaw Tuesday evening boasting an undefeated record and a No. 10 ranking.

And once these trumped up Panthers stepped onto the Tiger Den floor, they did what they have done the last three years.

They tamed the Tigers.

For the fourth straight year, the NorthWood girls' basketball team beat Warsaw, this time 55-33. Warsaw knocked Wawasee out of the running for the Northern Lakes Conference title Saturday. Now NorthWood has probably kicked Warsaw out of the race.

NorthWood improved to 17-0 overall and 5-0 in the NLC. Warsaw fell to 11-6 and 4-1. Each team has one conference game left. NorthWood faces Concord, who has struggled this season.

"The band, the fans, the yelling, the noise...this is always a big game," NorthWood coach Steve Neff said. "We've been lucky. They've won four in a row over me a lot of times, too. What goes around comes around."

NorthWood scored 55 and Warsaw 33, but Warsaw had the game's leading scorer. Warsaw junior forward Tiffany Ross scored 21 on 9-of-10 shooting from the field. Her teammates combined for 12 points on 4-of-28 shooting.

Ouch.

"We tried every offense we had," Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst said.

And?

"We stood."

NorthWood did not stand.

NorthWood hit 21 of 36 shots from the field, but no player scored more than 12. Forward LoriDawn Klotz and center A.J. Whitehead each had 12. Guard Amy Sloat scored 10. Guard Amy Zercher and forward Natalie Will each scored nine.

Neff kept those five on the floor almost the whole game. He made only two substitutions until the last two minutes.

Good ball movement, good spacing, players who made good, hard cuts to the basket...you name it, NorthWood did it offensively. Out of the 21 field goals, Panther players assisted on 17 of them.

Wienhorst expected the same things from his team. After all, his Tigers passed the ball so well in recent wins. A 59-43 win over Manchester. Good ball movement? Check. A 66-40 win over Benton Central. Good ball movement? Youbetcha.

But the offense went flat against NorthWood.

"Give NorthWood credit for their defense," Wienhorst said. "But we had people where they needed to be. The ball didn't get there because we stood. On their half-court trap, we stood, instead of attacking the basket.

"I can honestly say, too, from player to player, NorthWood is the most athletic team we've faced all year. They're quick at every position. With their team speed, they can hit the gaps and then pass the ball. When you stand like we did, and you don't hit the gaps, you don't move the ball."

NorthWood led 13-5 after one quarter, but the Tigers took a chunk out of the lead in the second quarter. A Sherri Ross field goal with 3:21 left before halftime hacked the NorthWood lead to three at 18-15.

The Tigers put the pressure on NorthWood, but the Panthers quickly boomeranged it back to the Tigers. NorthWood outscored Warsaw 8-2 after Ross' basket to take a 26-17 halftime lead.

Tiffany Ross scored the first basket of the second half to make it 26-19. Again NorthWood quickly attacked Warsaw. Three-pointers by Whitehead then Sloat pushed the Panther lead to 32-19. Those baskets staggered the Tigers, who got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Warsaw has two players who score double figures this season: Tiffany and Sherri Ross. The Panthers and their 2-3 zone frustrated Sherri, who scored two on 1-of-10 shooting.

Offensively and defensively, Neff liked what he saw.

"We were patient and worked the ball," Neff said. "We kept spreading the floor out. We kept the ball moving until we found a person who was open.

"I thought our defense played extremely well, any time you hold them to that amount of points. We were able to take away the passing lanes and push the one Ross girl (Sherri) so that she could dribble only one direction."

Warsaw hosts Goshen at 6:15 p.m. Thursday to end the regular season.

"Give NorthWood credit," Wienhorst said. "They took us out of our game. I know for a fact NorthWood is not a 20-point team better than us. But tonight, they were." [[In-content Ad]]