SYRACUSE – Columbia City put Wawasee in a hole, and the Lady Warriors couldn’t climb out of it in a 55-44 loss to the Lady Eagles in a non-conference girls basketball game at the Hardwood Tepee Tuesday night. Three minutes into the game the teams were tied at six, but over the next 15 minutes the Lady Eagles outscored Wawasee 22-7 to take a 28-13 lead. The Lady Warriors closed out the half scoring the last five points, then closed to within seven early in the third quarter before a 13-3 Lady Eagle run put the game away. Wawasee head coach Matt Carpenter gave credit to the Lady Eagles (6-14) for what they did, but felt like his team didn’t perform up to its capabilities Tuesday. “It’s a journey we are on this season, and it’s all about the process,” Carpenter said. “We didn’t take care of what we can take care of tonight, and that was our togetherness, our energy and our passion. We didn’t seem to have that and we weren’t operating as a group in the first half tonight. That’s what I am disappointed about. “That’s when we are good, when we have those things. I thought we were very outcome driven tonight. When our shots didn’t fall, we started getting disappointed and we weren’t operating together anymore, we were trying to do a lot of one-on-one basketball. And that’s not who we are.” Carpenter said Wawasee had a better effort in the second half, but the hole was just too big. “I gave them a couple of minutes at halftime to talk among themselves. As a coach, you don’t want to tell them everything,” he said. “I’ve got some leaders on this team, and as a group they want to play hard. They were disappointed in themselves in the first half, so they came out in the second half and tried to fix the controllable things. Execution still wasn’t there, but give Columbia city credit for that. “Columbia City took care of their business tonight; give them a lot of credit. They came out with aggressiveness, with intensity, and they executed. We did not do that tonight, so while a lot of credit goes to them, there’s a lot of things we can fix on our end, and hopefully we can get that taken care of before Saturday.” Wawasee senior Aubrey Schmeltz had a team-high 11 points, and junior Kabrea Rostochak hit a pair of three-pointers on her way to a 10-point night. Overall, Wawasee’s shooting was as icy as the roads that caused school to be closed Tuesday morning. The Lady Warriors were 16 of 51 from the field (31.3 percent) for the night. Meanwhile, Holly Martinez was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line on her way to a game-high 16 points for Columbia City. The Lady Warriors (7-9) travel to Elkhart Memorial for a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday.
COLUMBIA CITY 55, WAWASEE 44 CC 12 16 19 8 – 55 W 6 10 14 14 – 44 C. City – Darian Farber 1-1 2-2 4, Grace Schrader 0-0 0-0 0, Carly Mabie 1-3 2-3 4, Chelsea Pettigrew 6-9 0-0 12, Holly Martinez 3-6 10-10 16, Morgan Bales 2-4 0-0 4, Olivia Shearer 2-3 0-0 5, Gabby Fry 0-0 0-0 0, Bella Krieg 5-7 0-0 10. Totals 20-33 14-15 55. Wawasee – Kabrea Rostochak 4-7 0-0 10, Hannah-Marie Lamle 3-8 0-0 6, Casey Schroeder 2-5 0-0 4, Hannah Haines 2-8 2-2 6, Aubrey Kuhn 1-11 4-4 7, Madison Beaman 0-0 0-0 0, Aubrey Schmeltz 4-11 3-3 11. Totals 16-51 9-9 44. Three-pointers – C. City 1 (Shearer), Wawasee 2 (Rostochak 2); Rebounds – C. City 24 (Krieg 7), Wawasee 29 (Rostochak 6); Turnovers – C. City 16, Wawasee 15; Fouls – C. City 11, Wawasee 11; Fouled out – none; Records: C.City 6-14, Wawasee 7-9 JV – Columbia City 41, Wawasee 19 Wawasee – McKenzie Smith 4, Sara Pritchard 4, Kiersten Beckener 4, Caitlin Wortinger 3, Morgan Adkins 2, Shelby Bolt 2
