The Warsaw Lady Tigers used three of their trademarks to take a 65-46 win over Carroll in the Tiger Den Wednesday night. The first trademark is the Lady Tigers’ team defense. While Carroll did exceed Warsaw’s defensive scoring average, the Lady Chargers committed 25 turnovers against the Lady Tiger pressure. Warsaw has not allowed a team more than 50 points in a game so far this season. The Lady Chargers also struggled to get the ball inside. They kept the game close through the middle of the third quarter with the three-pointer, and went 11 of 24 from beyond the arc in the game. Dayton Groninger has become a scorer the Lady Tigers can rely on. Nine of her game-high 23 points came in the first quarter when Warsaw established a lead it didn’t relinquish. She also had six points in an 11-0 Warsaw third-quarter run that effectively put the game away. From there the Lady Tigers seemed to always have someone step up and fill in critical elements. In this case senior Madi Graham went for a career-best 21 points, 16 after halftime. Page Desenberg had 10 points, and eight different players had at least 10 minutes on the floor. The Lady Tigers also got to the free throw line often, hitting 26 of 32 attempts. Graham and Groninger each hit 11 of 12 free throws. The key to one of their best all-around games of the season, according to Lady Tiger head coach Michelle Harter, was to enjoy the moment. “Something we’ve been talking to the girls about is to just go out and play ball,” she said. “It’s so much more fun when you’re just out there playing, and you’re taking the simple play, looking to attack the basket, and taking good, high percentage shots. A lot of that started on the defensive end.” Carroll came out and ran its own press, and Warsaw did have its moments where it turned the ball over. The Lady Tigers were at thir best when they moved the ball basket to basket rather than sideline to sideline. “The girls picked it up tonight. They came out and were communicating offensively, defensively, and I thought we handled Carroll’s man-to-man pressure really well; not attacking east and west, but looking to go north and south,”?Harter said. “When we looked to attack, we sped up a little bit down the stretch there and turned the ball over. But I’d rather have us looking to do that and turn the ball over out of bounds and they have to go against our defense than a live-ball turnover.” In the junior varsity game, Maddie Ryman scored 27 points to lead Warsaw to a 50-38 win over Carroll. The freshman team lost 20-15 to the Lady Chargers. Warsaw (8-1) opens Northern Lakes Conference play Saturday night, hosting Plymouth in the Tiger Den.
