SYRACUSE - It wasn't supposed to be so easy for the Wawasee Warriors girls basketball team in the first round of the sectional Tuesday night. The first time Wawasee and Northridge tangled, the game went down to the wire, and this one was expected to be the same.

This time, the game was never really in doubt as the Warriors stifling defense held the Raiders to 25-percent shooting from the floor and just one three-pointer in 17 attempts. That translated into a 43-29 Wawasee victory and the right to advance to the semifinal round on Friday.

"We had that attitude that you get when you just expect to win," Wawasee head coach Mark Sumpter said. "There was no doubt in their mind that they were going to win tonight."

The Warriors got production from almost everyone that stepped on the floor Friday night whether starter or backup.

Starting guard Sonya Beer had a solid all-around game with team-highs in points (12) and assists (4). She also grabbed five rebounds. On the other end of the spectrum, players like Hannah Rensberger, Kara Price and Michelle Lamb came off the bench to provide solid time on the floor when the starters rested.

"It was a good team effort tonight," Sumpter said. "There were some key points in the game where people stepped up and got some rebounds or some stops on defense that we needed. There were probably seven or eight players that really played well."

Beer scored the first basket of the game on a layup that started a seven-point run for the Warriors. By the time Northridge finally got a jumper from Alana Warlick to make the score 7-2, more than five minutes had run off the clock. Beer added another basket late in the period to put the Warriors ahead 9-2 heading into the second period.

After Sara Frantz scored on an underhanded, off-balanced heave to give Wawasee a nine-point lead, Northridge's Mandi Hutchison hit a three-pointer to give the Raiders some life.

But Mary Cockburn and Beer followed that with three-pointers of their own as the Warriors extended the lead to double digits. At that point, Wawasee's leading scorer, Lydia Carpenter, went to the bench for the rest of the half, while her substitutes Rensberger and Lamb came in and provided scoring punch with seven points and three rebounds combined in the quarter.

"The defensive pressure (set the tone in the first half)," Sumpter said. "The key to our last three wins has been our outside shooting. Once we start hitting from out there, Lydia can basically have a hayday against just about anybody we play."

Wawasee led 28-13 at the break and outscored Northridge 8-6 in the third period to move out to a 15-point lead.

The only real Northridge threat came at the start of the fourth quarter. As Wawasee tried to slow down the tempo, the Raiders began to force turnovers. Northridge scored the first eight points of the period to make the score 36-27, but by that point there was only 2:47 to play in the game, and the Warriors made their free throws down the stretch to win easily.

"I think our kids have matured over these last three games," Sumpter said. "We got a little careless at the end of the game and maybe we had a lack of focus. They knew what they were doing wrong."

Wawasee ended the game with 20 turnovers, but had only eight in the first three quarters before Northridge got desperate and began taking risks in the final eight minutes. The Warriors also outrebounded Northridge 40-31 even though no one on the team had more than five boards.

Erica Lee, Northridge's top scorer at 14.4 points per game, was held to 11 points on 5-of-22 shooting.

"We wanted a tremendous amount of ball pressure on (Erin) Payne, but yet be able to control Lee underneath," Sumpter said. "We were always in her way. We were very aware of when we needed to help and when we didn't."

Wawasee (12-9) has won seven of nine games and will meet 20-3 Lakeland on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Lakeland survived an upset bid from 9-11 Angola with a 46-45 win following Wawasee's win. The Lakers' all-time leading scorer, Brooke Crawford, scored just nine points and fouled out with six minutes to play in the game. However, Lakeland still came back from 15 points down in the third quarter when Angola's Beth Gainey missed two free throws with no time on the clock that would have tied or won the game for the Hornets. [[In-content Ad]]