With two weeks having gone by since the team’s last game, the Warsaw girls basketball team took its undefeated record into 2025 by hosting the Lady Tiger Tournament on Saturday. Warsaw showed no signs of rust following the layoff, scoring 105 points against New Haven in the first game and 90 against Chesterton in the championship to improve to 15-0.
“If we want to win a championship, we need to learn how to play a full 32 minutes, and I think we did that in both games today,” Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs said. “I was a little worried about the rust with the time off coming in but we shook that off quickly. That time off was a great way to get rested and prepare for a busy January.”
The 105 points as well as 59 points scored in the first half of the morning game were both school records.
Warsaw began the championship game right where they left off in the morning contest: with a three by Joslyn Bricker. That was just the beginning of an early onslaught for the home side, as a layup by Braylie Chastain and another triple by Brooke Winchester made it 8-0 just 80 seconds into the game.
It wasn’t long until the Lady Tigers were up by double figures, thanks to some suffocating defense as well as some lights out shooting. After tying the school record with eight made threes earlier in the day, Brooke Zartman made three more in quick succession to make it a 21-4 game.
“When we shoot the ball well, it’s hard to stop us. We took a lot of threes but I feel like in that second game especially, we did a great job of mixing things up inside and out,” Krebs said.
Falling behind more and more by the minute, Chesterton finally came up with a response, hitting two consecutive shots from deep themselves. However, they couldn’t match the output of the Lady Tigers, who were still white hot shooting the basketball. Zartman got into double figures with her fourth triple of the game with less than a minute to go in the quarter, putting her team up 22 in the process.
Bricker added two more points at the charity stripe in the final seconds to put the final stamp on an excellent first period that saw the home side score 34 while giving up 10. For the quarter, the Lady Tigers shot 10-10 from the field, 6-6 from deep.
Abbey Peterson got in on the fun with the first Warsaw make in the second, hitting one from beyond the arc at the right wing. Outside of that shot, things slowed down significantly for the Lady Tiger offense here, as it was the only field goal in the first four minutes of the quarter.
Warsaw finally hit another shot as Bricker made a nice move to the hoop, hitting a layup to join Zartman in double figures. While the offense was not firing at the clip it was earlier in the game, the home team’s defense was doing more than enough to keep them in front by a sizable margin. Getting clean looks was incredibly difficult for the Lady Trojans, with the suffocating 2-3 zone Warsaw was playing doing wonders to prevent the opposing team from getting any closer.
“Defensive intensity leads to offensive confidence, and I felt that we were locked in defensively today. When we’re connected defensively, it’s tough to score on us,” Krebs said.

    Warsaw junior Alexis Neely goes up for two of her career high 24 points during Saturday morning's game against New Haven...Nieter
Five straight points by Winchester gave her 12 for the night and got the Lady Tigers back on track, as they now led by 30. Not having scored yet in the second period, Zartman changed that with five straight of her own to make it a 35-point game, resulting in the second half being played with a running clock. She made her sixth three of the night in the final seconds of the first half, giving her team a 55-18 edge at the break. Even with the lull for the first few minutes of the quarter, the team still shot 62%.
Four quick points to start the third quarter put the home side up by 40. Just hours after tying the school threes record, Zartman inched closer to doing so again, hitting her seventh of the game with a little over five minutes to go in the quarter.
Despite the game being well out of reach, Warsaw continued to keep its foot on the gas, playing tight defense and searching for the best shot possible on the other end. For the most part, the Lady Tigers continued hitting those attempts, with their advantage ballooning closer and closer to 50.
It finally got there on a Bricker steal and score with a little less than a minute to go in the quarter. A great feed from Zartman to Bricker on the fast break a possession later gave the junior 21 points in the game, as she joined Zartman with 20+. As the third period came to an end, the Lady Tigers now led 73-20 with eight minutes to go.
Warsaw began the fourth quarter with mostly reserves on the court, leading to Erin McManus and Kyra Kiser scoring their first points of the game. The home side continued to play its brand of basketball until the very end, extending its lead to 60 in the final minute.
Zartman finished the championship game with 25 to lead all scorers. She had 28 points in the game against New Haven. Bricker scored 21, while Winchester added 16. She put up 17 points and 20 rebounds in the morning game, third most in school history. Alexis Neely rounded things out with 12. The junior had a career-high 24 points in the first game.
Warsaw (15-0) plays its biggest game of the season thus far on Saturday against conference rival and fellow top-ten team Northridge.
“It’s one of the biggest tests we have left. We want to see how we play on the road in a tough atmosphere. We’re taking the approach that we’ve won three straight conference titles and they’re going to have to take it from us,” Krebs said. “I’m excited for the week ahead and to see what we can do. It’s going to be a fun game and a fun atmosphere."