NORTH MANCHESTER - Wawasee coach Randy Aalbregtse gave his basketball players one last message before they left for their road game against Manchester Thursday evening.

"I told my kids on the bus just before we left, 'This team plays as hard as you play,'" Aalbregtse said. "I knew it was going to be a dogfight."

He couldn't have been more right.

This is not the same Squires team of years past. Those teams often folded the moment they stepped on the floor. This is not the case with this year's Squires, who harangued and harassed the undefeated Warriors before losing 45-40. Wawasee, 7-0, had won its previous three games by 12 points or more. The Squires fell to 4-3.

The Warriors won because they were able to contain 5-foot-8 Manchester sophomore Megan Eckert, who entered the game 10th in the state in scoring with 23 points per game. She had scored at least 17 in each of her first six games, but she had just 10 on 3-of-12 shooting against Wawasee.

"I'd seen her (Eckert) once, and she had 34," Aalbregtse said. "Then I saw in the paper she had 27 against Marion. I knew she was a very good player. I told our kids they needed to be aware of No. 44 (Eckert) and No. 11 (Katie Parker) every time.

"We started Karissa Evans on her, and she did an outstanding job containing her. We played very good defense tonight. We couldn't have won without the defensive end of the floor. We missed layups and had a lot of turnovers."

Manchester coach Jody Shewman knew Eckert wouldn't be perfect, or at least close to it, forever.

"Megan's averaging 23, and she had 12 or whatever (10) at the end," Shewman said. "That's a big thing to overcome. Her shot wasn't falling. I knew the game was going to come where her shots weren't going to fall."

The Warriors won with scoring from the perimeter and from inside. Six-foot-one junior center Lydia Carpenter, who came in scoring 18 points per game, scored 12 and pulled down 12 rebounds. Wawasee starts a three-guard lineup - Aubrey Coy, Carly Beer and Kari Wortinger - and each guard scored nine points.

"He has good guards on the outside as well as two good posts," Shewman said. "He has a balanced team."

With Wawasee's Carpenter and 5-11 forward Karissa Evans in the middle, the Squires never established an inside game. They were forced to rely on a perimeter game and transition baskets. Five-foot-six junior guard Jodie Peden paced Manchester with 16 points, and Parker added nine. Peden had been scoring 6.5 ppg.

"We shut down the Eckert girl, but others stepped up," Aalbregtse said. "Peden comes out and hits some big shots for them. They get a lot of credit."

The Warriors were always on the brink of putting the game away, but the pesky Squires always clawed their way back.

Wawasee's 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter disappeared into a 19-19 halftime tie when Peden nailed a three-pointer right before the buzzer. The Warriors scored just three points on 1-of-11 shooting in the second quarter, a quarter that saw the game turn into a physical free-for-all at times and saw the referees slap Aalbregtse with a technical foul.

The game settled down in the third quarter, and Manchester 5-11 center Lindsay Seagert picked up her fourth foul with 5:37 to go in the quarter. With her out, Carpenter went to work. Her back-to-back field goals capped a 10-2 Wawasee run that gave the Warriors the 29-21 lead with 3:11 left in the quarter.

Here came the Squires again. A Peden steal and layup pulled the Squires within one at 34-33 with 4:38 left in the fourth. Beer then hit arguably the biggest basket of the game. Just 14 seconds after Peden's layup she answered with a trey that extended the Wawasee lead to 37-33.

Any momentum the Squires had was lost because of Beer's basket. Wawasee's lead would never shrink less than four the rest of the game.

"We tied it halftime, got down by seven, came back within two or three," Shewman said, "and then we just couldn't get over the hump."

Aalbregtse praised Shewman after the game.

"She's done an excellent job with them, changed things around," he said. "Their attitude's good. The kids enjoy playing. They're executing, doing the things she wants them to do."

Wawasee hosts a Saturday tournament that begins at 10 a.m.

"I'm tickled to death," Aalbregtse said about being 7-0. "They have found ways to pull together and get the job done. Right now, the thing I like most about this team is they're playing hard, playing together and accepting each other at both ends of the floor."

Manchester hosts a 6:30 p.m. Monday game with Northfield.

WAWASEE 45, MANCHESTER 40

Wawasee (7-0) 16 3 13 13 - 45

Manchester (4-3) 12 7 8 13 - 40

Wawasee

FG FT A S R Pts

Carpenter (F) 5-7 2-5 0 2 12 12

C. Beer (G) 3-13 2-2 4 2 1 9

Coy (G) 4-10 0-0 3 4 4 9

Wortinger (G) 3-6 0-0 6 2 7 9

Evans (F) 3-7 0-1 0 0 9 6

S. Beer 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0

Lamb 0-2 0-0 0 0 2 0

A. Cockburn 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0

Totals 18-46 4-8 13 11 36 45

Manchester

FG FT A S R Pts

Peden (G) 7-15 0-0 1 3 5 16

Eckert (F) 3-12 4-4 2 1 4 10

Parker (G) 4-11 0-0 2 2 4 9

Groombridge (F) 0-3 1-2 1 2 5 1

Seagert (C) 0-2 0-0 2 1 4 0

Michel 1-4 0-0 0 0 1 2

Zile 1-2 0-0 1 2 1 2

Wieland 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0

King 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0

Markstahler 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 0

Totals 16-52 5-6 9 12 27 40

Three-point goals - Wawasee 5-13 (Wortinger 3-5, Aubrey Coy 1-2, C. Beer 1-6), Manchester 3-4 (Peden 2-3, Parker 1-1). Turnovers - Manchester 18, Wawasee 18. Fouled out - Parker. Total fouls - Manchester 11, Wawasee 7.

JV: Wawasee 38, Manchester 14

Wawasee (7-0) scoring - Kara Price 11, Hannah Rensberger 10, Sara Frantz 5, Mary Cockburn 4, Dina Coverstone 4, Michelle Lamb 2, April Salazar 2

Manchester (1-6) scoring - Brandy Hatfield 2, Sherri Wagoner 2, Krista Michel 2, Kasha Wieland 2, Brandy Briner 2, Demara Knight 2, Bree Day 2 [[In-content Ad]]