With two massive wins already under their belt in the early season, the Warsaw girls basketball team returned to the Tiger Den for the home opener against Fort Wayne Snider Thursday night. The Lady Tigers were able to shake off a slow start and explode in the third quarter to remain undefeated with a 74-45 win.
“I love our grit, I love our determination. This was a beautiful win for us tonight,” Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs said.
Some aggressive early defense for the Lady Tigers worked to the advantage of the home team early on, as Warsaw was able to force some turnovers in the opening minutes of the game. However, the Lady Tigers struggled turning those TOs into points, making just one shot from the field in the first three minutes of the game while also being a little careless with the ball.
The low-scoring opening quarter chugged along with Warsaw up 4-3 at the midway point, with no points being scored in the last two and a half minutes. Eventually, it would be Snider that picked it up offensively, scoring seven straight points to open up an advantage. The run was finally ended on a three by Abbey Peterson, who returned to the Lady Tiger roster this season after taking her junior year off. Another three by Alexis Neely moments later tied things up.
That’s how things remained as the opening period came to a close, as another offensive lull in the final minutes kept things knotted up at 12 all going into the second.
After a scoreless first quarter, reigning Times-Union Player of the Year Brooke Winchester scored four quick points at the charity stripe early in the second, which followed up by a three ball from Brooke Zartman, quickly gave the Lady Tigers a 22-15 lead and forced a Snider timeout.
With the Warsaw offense beginning to pick it up a bit, the Lady Panthers did well to match their output, doing everything in their power to keep things from getting out of hand. Each time it looked like the home team’s run was going to become a back breaker, the visitors answered with a big bucket.
“We did really well to build those leads but then we lost our edge a bit, whether it was being careless with the basketball or missing an assignment defensively,” Krebs said.
A three by Zartman, the team’s leading scorer to this point this season, pushed the lead to double figures with two minutes to go in the half, but was quickly answered by a Snider three moments later. Another deep ball by the Lady Panthers with just seconds remaining in the second cut the lead down to six, where it would stay as Warsaw headed into the break with a 33-27 advantage.
“It wasn’t a pretty first half but I can’t fault the effort. I felt like we were in a bit of a panic mode for a lot of that first half,” Krebs said. “We wanted things to go our way so badly we were overthinking things a bit.”
Once again, both teams struggled to get the lid off of the basket in the opening minutes of the third quarter, with no points going down for nearly two minutes until a Winchester three. That seemed to get the home team going, as Zartman matched her with a three of her own to put Warsaw back up double figures a minute later.

    Senior Brooke Winchester of Warsaw looks to the basket to score during Thursday night's home game against Fort Wayne Snider...Nieter

This time, Snider was unable to muster up an answer. The lead continued to grow for the Lady Tigers, with a layup by Zartman and a pair of and-ones from Joslyn Bricker put the home side up by 16. Bricker continued to come alive in the third, becoming the second Warsaw player to reach double digits scoring (Zartman) as the edge ballooned to 20.
Not long afterwards, Winchester joined the two juniors in double figures as the avalanche continued. It wasn’t just the lights out shooting that was contributing to the lead. Warsaw was playing some lights out defense as well. Players were cutting off passing lanes, contesting shots and taking charges. The Lady Tigers were doing everything well and it was showing on the scoreboard.
“Just a total team effort today. We work hard on defense. We love putting pressure on people and finding new ways to do that,” Krebs said. “Any time you can use your defense to create some easy shots, it’s going to build your confidence.”
The end result of a fantastic quarter for the home side was Warsaw outscoring Snider 31-9 to open up a 28-point lead going into the fourth quarter and effectively putting the game out of reach.
The Lady Tigers took their foot off of the gas a tad to begin the final eight minutes, at least on the offensive end. The defense remained tight and Snider was unable to get much offensively either. Neely became the fourth Warsaw player to record at least 10 points with a layup about four minutes into the fourth.
The final minutes of the game were drama free as the Lady Tigers took their time during each possession, burning the remaining time off the clock and cruising to their third straight win to start the season.
Zartman led all scorers with 25. Winchester finished with 15 and 10 rebounds. Bricker added 13 and Neely had 10.
Warsaw (3-0) is at home Saturday night against Huntington North.