Two more area teams began their respective girls basketball seasons at the Hardwood Teepee Wednesday night, as Wawasee hosted Manchester in a cross-county matchup. The home team started the game by getting out in front early and never surrendered that lead, holding on to a 54-37 wire-to-wire victory.
Crisp passing was the name of the game early on for the Lady Warriors, as the home side scored three baskets in the first minute of play, all of which were assisted on. The Wawasee defense also came to play, forcing a few turnovers to get some easy buckets in transition.
After the initial blitz, the Lady Squires anchored down defensively and held their opponents scoreless for the next two minutes. Outside of a bucket from sophomore Emma Walker, the visitors were not able to muster up any offense of their own.
The Lady Warriors were able to stay in front largely due to the offense of senior Mackenzie Hackleman, who scored eight of the team’s first 10 points. She was getting some great help from her teammates, who found her making some smart cuts in the lane for some quick layups.
Offense continued to be a struggle for Manchester as the first quarter coming to a close, with perhaps the biggest play for the visitors of the quarter being Peyton Ream being fouled while shooting a three. She hit all of her free throws, but the cut into the deficit was quickly erased as Hackleman buried a stepback three with just a few seconds remaining in the period to put her team up 16-8 after eight minutes.

    Junior Peyton Ream of Manchester looks to score while driving to the basket as Lucy Wilkinson of Wawasee defends...Nieter

She’d follow it up with another make from distance to extend the advantage to double digits just moments into the second quarter. Molly Beer, the only other Wawasee player to score up to this point, added another bucket soon after on a put-back after an offensive board.
The offense picked up a little bit for the visitors, as Hadley West drained her second three of the night to cut the lead back to single digits with just under three to play in the half. Now, it was Wawasee experiencing the drought. With chances to expand on their lead, things stayed where they were until late in the second, as Kiersren McCreary scored five points off of the bench to create some distance once more.
A tough final minute of defense by the Lady Warriors kept their lead in double figures, as the home side went into the locker room with a 28-17 edge.
The first two minutes of the third quarter came and went without any more points going up on the board. Eventually, the home side was able to get the lid off of the basket and extend its lead to 16 with four and a half minutes to go, its largest of the game so far.
Manchester on the other hand was struggling to take care of the ball long enough to get shots up. Time continued to tick away without the visitors scoring their first points of the second half. While the Lady Warriors weren’t shooting lights out, they were in firm control of the game thanks to their aggressiveness on both ends of the court.
Another big three by Hackleman made it a 21-point game with two and a half minutes to go in the third, thanks to an extended 10-0 run by Wawasee. This led to a timeout, and the play drawn up coming out of it finally allowed Manchester to get on the scoreboard with a three by Peyton Ream. Moments later, Walker converted on an and-one attempt to quickly make it a 15-point affair.
The visitors continued to show life as a steal and fastbreak bucket by Allie Egolf made it an 8-0 run. The home team was able to right the ship in the final minute of play though, with senior point guard Lucy Wilkinson chipping in with her first four points of the night as Wawasee took a 16-point lead into the final quarter of play.
Similar to the prior period, points were hard to come by in the opening minutes. Holding on to such a large lead, the Lady Warriors didn’t seem to mind. The home side was content to pass the ball around and drain some time off of the clock while waiting for the best shot available. Despite them not falling, time continued to tick away and the game looked to be more and more out of reach for the trailing Lady Squires.
A pair of threes by Ava Couture and McCreary really put things out of reach with four minutes left, putting the home side back up by 20. Another drought for the home team followed the two makes, and while Manchester was able to chip away, not enough time remained for the sizeable gap to be shrunk down enough.
Wawasee (1-0) will play at Prairie Heights Saturday night while Manchester (0-1) is at Triton Thursday evening.