With the first round of the sectional tournament less than a week away, the Warsaw girls basketball team and their fans said goodbye to the Tiger Den for the 2023-24 season as the Lady Tigers hosted Angola for their final home game. The contest was not in doubt for long, as Warsaw used yet another fast start to blitz the visitors and walk away with a 67-38 win.
“We challenged them to come out strong, this is the last time you’re going to play on this floor this year,” Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs said. “We wanted to come out fast because this group deserved to go out with a win.”
This contest began like so many others at the Tiger Den have this season, with a Warsaw avalanche. The Lady Tigers looked crisp to begin the game, with Brooke Zartman getting the action started with a three pointer in the opening seconds. The defense complimented the offense perfectly, with Warsaw players digging into their stances around the perimeter to force three turnovers on the first four Angola possessions. Coach Krebs seemed to be enjoying what he was seeing from his defensive unit, demonstrating the stance he was looking for while on the sidelines.
Outside of the opening three from Winchester, a majority of Warsaw’ points in the first half would be scored by either Joslyn Bricker or Brooke Zartman. Both players were lights out to begin the game, with Bricker making the defense pay in the paint as she drove on her defenders for some tough layups with zero hesitation. Zartman was her usual self, hitting five three pointers in the first half alone to get her team out of a jam when the offense began to stall.
After a quarter, the Lady Tigers were enjoying a 16-point lead after scoring 23 points and giving up just a pair of field goals to the Lady Hornets. The opening minutes of the second looked to be the moments in which Warsaw would put the game away for good, but it didn’t happen. The home side went through a bit of a dry spell on the offensive end in the middle of the period, and looked out of sync at times as they turned the ball over and missed some shots. Angola was able to take advantage of the poor play, going on a run of their own to get back into the game. In the end, the damage wouldn’t be too severe, as the Warsaw lead shrank from 19 to 13.
“This has been a group that has battled through adversity all season long,” Krebs said. “They’re a team that gets up when they go down and they did that once again tonight.”
Eventually, the Lady Tigers would right the ship and hold a 17-point advantage going into halftime, but 32 of the 41 points scored by the home side had come from two players. If Warsaw wanted to take complete control of the game, more players would have to get involved.

    Warsaw sophomore Kelsey Wrenn dribbles along the baseline toward the basket during the first quarter. Photo by Gary Nieter

Or… maybe not. The Warsaw lead grew to over 20 early in the third after a pair of layups by Bricker. Not long after that, Winchester got back onto the scoreboard with her second three of the game. A couple of minutes later, the forward would use her extensive arsenal of post moves to make a pair of close-range shots to become the third Warsaw player in double figures.
In the final minute of the quarter, Zartman would hit her sixth three and Bricker would make yet another highly contested layup to put both of them over 20 points for the game. Combined with Winchester beginning to put the ball in the hoop a lot more efficiently, the Lady Tigers were able to use this boost to extend the lead to 29 going into the fourth.
With five minutes to go in the game and the lead now 31 for the home side, Krebs began the process of emptying his bench and allowing his junior varsity players to get some experience in the final home game of the year. One of the few varsity players still on the court, Kelsey Wrenn, made the most of the minutes and hit her second three of the game.
Zartman and Bricker each finished the game with 22 points, with the former grabbing six steals and the latter pulling down five rebounds. Winchester added another double-double to her resumé with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Wrenn scored six points while Alexis Neely added two. Senior Dalaney Vilamaa scored one point in her final game at the Tiger Den, but was great on the glass, finishing with five rebounds.
“If I was building an all-character team, Dalaney Vilamaa would be my first pick,” Krebs said. “I’m so proud of who she is and what she’s done this season. I can’t speak highly enough about her.”
Warsaw (14-7) is off until Tuesday, when the team travels to take on host-school Northridge in the opening round of IHSAA Sectional 4.
“We’ve already beaten Northridge once in a way that should have proven that we can hang with them but they’re still favored. I hope the girls come out with a little bit of anger,” Krebs said. “This is their sectional, they’re the reigning champions and it’ll be that way until someone takes them down. We need to go on the hunt and take it.”