NAPPANEE - The Wawasee Warriors have finally gotten over that hump.

The hump that is the first game of the sectional.

For three straight years, the Warriors have come into the NorthWood Girls' Basketball Sectional with high expectations, only to be bounced out of the tournament in their first game.

And they almost didn't do it.

Jimtown ran up a quick lead on the Warriors in the first half, but Wawasee made a late surge to advance with a 50-41 win Tuesday.

Wawasee now will face No. 10 NorthWood Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Down by eight at halftime, Wawasee cut the lead to three at the end of the third quarter, and then the fourth quarter was all Wawasee.

Karissa Evans hit a shot to bring the Warriors within one at the start of the quarter, and then Jimtown turned the ball over.

Kari Wortinger gave her team a lead it would not lose with seven minutes left.

The Warriors kept tacking on to the lead with strong inside play from Lydia Carpenter, who had six points down the stretch to put the game out of reach.

"I'm very happy with the result," Wawasee coach Randy Aalbregtse said. "At this point in the season that's all that matters. I thought we were in a trance early, but our intensity in the second half was the turning point."

The Warriors move on to face the team that handed them their first defeat of the season back in December, NorthWood.

Aalbregtse knows their strengths, as well as what is needed to move onto the sectional championship game.

"They've got excellent ball players," he said. "We have to play excellent defense and take care of the ball, and be able to rebound well."

For one Wawasee player, getting back at NorthWood is a big motivating factor.

"Ever since December, this is the game we've been looking forward to," senior Carly Beer said. "When we were down our whole motivation was to come back to play NorthWood."

Beer led the Warriors with 14 points. Carpenter added 12. [[In-content Ad]]