After spending nearly a week out of action due to the weather of the past few days, the Warsaw girls basketball team returned to action in a big way on Tuesday evening, defeating Homestead 69-48 at the Tiger Den.
“Today’s athlete has so much pressure on them from so many different facets of life. Sometimes the best thing for them is to take a step back and do nothing,” Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs said after the game. “I wasn’t sure what to expect tonight after all that time off but by golly I think that was the best 32 minutes we’ve played all year.”
The game featured a plethora of young talent, with seven of the game’s 10 starters being sophomores.
Both teams wasted no time setting up their offenses and getting going in the opening minutes, with each side taking a very different approach in trying to score the ball. Warsaw, with a team full of sharpshooters, was adamant in using the three pointer to build an early lead, and for the most part, it worked. Despite the Lady Tigers putting up a ton of threes and less than half of them going in, Brooke Zartman shot at a much higher clip, hitting three shots from distance in the first quarter to score nine quick points.
“You know when she hits one or two shots you know there’s a few more coming behind them. Once she started making those they started pressuring her which was huge for us,” Krebs said. Our kids started finding Winchester down low, started getting everyone involved.”
On the other side, Homestead was eager to get the ball in the paint, and thanks to some pretty passing and tough ball handling, the Lady Spartans were able to do so. The visitors were able to carve up Warsaw in the paint in the opening minutes, keeping the game close as the second quarter neared. After one, the two Brookes, Zartman and Winchester, had scored all 12 of the Lady Tigers’ points.
Alexis Neely would sink a layup early in the second to end that trend. Holding just a one-point lead after eight minutes, Warsaw used the following period to seize control of the game, with Winchester at the forefront of the action. The forward was everywhere for the Lady Tigers, sneaking past her defenders in the lane to score easy layups, using her post moves to score some tough ones down low, and perhaps most importantly of all, using her fantastic rebounding ability to hold Homestead to just one shot per possession. With the offense flowing through her, Winchester soon joined Zartman in double figures scoring.
The defense for Warsaw was another huge factor in the home side extending its lead. In the first quarter, the Lady Spartans were able to use some nice passing to thread the ball through defenders and into the paint, resulting in some easy makes. Now, those opportunities were few and far between, oftentimes now resulting in turnovers.
“I know we’re capable of scoring the ball but it was our defense that won this game for us,” Krebs said. “Great execution, great communication. Every time they went on a run it felt like we had an answer for them.”
After the massive quarter for Winchester and the Warsaw defense, the Lady Tigers had found a little separation for themselves, going up by eleven heading into the third.
Early in the third quarter, there were multiple times in which a tough shot by a Homestead player looked like it could be the play that jump started a run. But every time it happened, the Lady Tigers were quick to get a basket back to snuff it out. After a quiet first half, Joslyn Bricker got it going offensively here, helping her team keep some space between themselves and the visitors.

    Sophomore Joslyn Bricker of Warsaw looks for an opening to the basket during the first quarter. Photo by Gary Nieter

Finally, after continuing to hang around just enough, Homestead was able to take advantage of some sloppy play by Warsaw. After a few possessions ended in turnovers for the home side, the Lady Spartans found ways to capitalize on the opportunities, hitting some big shots in the final minutes of the quarter to pull within five points. The Lady Tigers had a chance for the last shot of the period, but turned it over once more in the final seconds, giving all momentum to Homestead heading into the final quarter.
“When we can get shots up we are going to put points on the board. Other than that one stretch at the end of the third I think we did that,” Krebs said. “Turnovers have been a challenge for us all year and when we limit them we are a scary team.”
Warsaw would get that momentum right back though, holding the visitors scoreless for the first two minutes of the fourth while getting their lead back up to 10. It would grow even larger in the following minutes as Neely and Zartman each hit a three. To make matters worse for Homestead, the Lady Spartans would commit their fifth team foul with four minutes left in the quarter, giving Warsaw free throws the rest of the way.
Despite Homestead’s best efforts, the Lady Tigers would be too much in the final minutes, pushing the lead close to 20 as Zartman caught fire once again and hit a couple of tough shots. Bricker would hit another layup late to become the fourth Warsaw player to reach double figures in the game.
Zartman led all scorers in the game with 24 points on seven three pointers. Winchester had yet another double-double, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Bricker ended her night with 16 points, while Neely added 12 points and six boards.
The Lady Tigers (11-7) will play their next game at home on Saturday against Concord.