Warsaw's girls basketball team scored 177 points in its first two games, wins over Bremen and Tippecanoe Valley.

The Tigers scored 89 in the next two, losses to Crown Point and Huntington North. Warsaw made but 15 of 50 field goals (30 percent) against Crown Point and 17 of 61 (28 percent) against Huntington North.

The offense returned Wednesday night against Fort Wayne Northrop. Spurred by a blazing first half, the Tigers (3-2) ran by Northrop (2-3) 73-56.

For the second straight game, junior guard Kara Kesler led Warsaw in scoring, pouring in a career-high 18. Senior forward Jenna Rooney added 13 points and nine rebounds, and sophomore guard Hilary O'Connell delivered 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.

But the performance Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst had been waiting for was delivered by senior center Nerecia Taylor. The senior center hit 5 of 6 shots and finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Taylor had scored 15 in the previous four games combined.

"It was a big, big confidence builder for her, because she hadn't been hitting her shots," Wienhorst said. "The difference is her making rebound shots for us. When you get a lot of offensive rebounds and miss your shots, it's almost like a turnover."

Taylor helped the Tigers close the first quarter on a 12-0 run to turn an 11-5 deficit into a 17-11 lead.

Northrop committed six turnovers in the opening quarter, several caused by Warsaw's full-court press. The Tigers converted the turnovers into baskets late in the quarter.

With the teams tied at 11-11, a turnover forced by the press led to a Taylor layup. Taylor scored, drew a foul and missed the free throw, but teammate Amie Poling rebounded the basketball. She missed a shot attempt, but Taylor grabbed the offensive rebound and scored.

In 14 seconds, Taylor scored four points to push Warsaw ahead 15-11.

Northrop regrouped to pull within 23-21 with 5:04 to go before halftime, but as they did in the first quarter, the Tigers closed out the Bruins in the second quarter. Warsaw outscored the Bruins 13-4 to claim a 36-25 halftime lead.

After two off-games, Warsaw's offense made 15 of 24 field goals (62 percent) in the first half. Taylor paced the Tigers with eight points.

"The major difference tonight was we hit our shots inside," Wienhorst said. "(Taylor) coming off the bench did a nice job.

"We made a lot of nice steals on our diamond-and-one press, but it's all or nothing. If we didn't make the steal, they shot a layup. We have to work on retreating better."

If Warsaw's full-court press and Taylor were two reasons Warsaw led, another was its depth. The Tigers played 10 players in the first half, while Northrop relied primarily on its starting five. Warsaw's bench outscored Northrop 16-4.

"We started slow, but then we rotated our second group in there, and they gained some momentum," Wienhorst said. "We had fresh legs in there, and (Northrop) tired."

Through four games, the Bruins had hit three three-pointers. Because he knew the offense was one-dimensional, and because he knew the Bruins averaged but 52 points per game, Wienhorst wanted to force an up-tempo game.

"We wanted to do that at the beginning of the game, because we knew they didn't have the numbers," Wienhorst said. "We wanted to run up and down the floor and tire them out, especially right before halftime and in the fourth quarter."

After combining for 10 in the first half, Kesler and Rooney scored 21 in the second half to pace the Warsaw offense. Kesler had 12 and Rooney nine.

The Tigers led by double-digits for most of the last half, as the closest Northrop got to Warsaw again was seven at 49-42. The Bruins were one defensive stop away from getting back into the game, but Taylor's offensive rebound and putback bumped Warsaw's lead to 51-42 and put the momentum squarely on the Tigers' shoulders. A Kesler free throw put Warsaw up 52-42 with 5:37 to go, and the Tigers only extended the lead the rest of the way.

WARSAW 73, FW NORTHROP 56

Northrop (2-3) 11 14 15 16 - 56

Warsaw (3-2) 17 19 13 24 - 73

Warsaw FG FT A S R Pts.

Kesler (G) 4-10 10-12 2 4 5 18

Rooney (F) 4-9 5-6 0 2 9 13

O'Connell (G) 3-9 2-2 4 0 4 10

Parker (F) 2-4 1-2 0 1 1 5

Overton (F) 2-2 0-0 1 3 1 4

Taylor 5-6 0-1 0 1 7 10

Colt 2-8 3-4 4 3 1 8

Wyatt 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Poling 2-4 0-0 2 1 6 5

Conley 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Knisely 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Stanley 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 24-52 21-27 15 15 39 73

Northrop FG FT A S R Pts.

Elmer (C) 7-12 1-2 0 3 7 15

Zent (F) 2-8 8-10 3 3 4 12

Melchi (G) 4-10 1-2 8 2 4 9

Keefer (F) 4-7 0-0 0 1 6 8

Bartelheim (G) 1-4 0-0 0 0 1 2

Corbin 2-8 0-0 2 1 2 5

Gates 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 2

Brewer 1-2 1-2 0 1 2 3

Yoder 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 22-53 11-16 13 11 27 56

Three-point goals -ÊWarsaw 4-13 (O'Connell 2-4, Colt 1-4, Poling 1-1, Rooney 0-3, Kesler 0-1), Northrop 1-5 (Corbin 1-3, Bartelheim 0-1, Zent 0-1). Turnovers - Warsaw 20, Northrop 20. Total fouls -ÊWarsaw 16, Northrop 23. Fouled out -ÊParker. Technical foul -ÊNorthrop bench.

JV: FW NORTHROP 37, WARSAW 31 (OT)

Northrop scoring -ÊKelly Yoder 11, Kellie Konopacki 10, Cortney Longardner 8, Kristen Simpson 4, Lauren Simpson 2, Ashlie Hedges 2.

Warsaw (2-3) scoring - Stephanie DeRenzo 11, Ashley Wyatt 7, Holly McGriff 6, Kayla Burner 4, Abby Sumpter 1, Holly Stackhouse 1, Keriann Conley 1. [[In-content Ad]]