Ninth-ranked (Class 4A) Noblesville used its well-known press to get out to an early lead over Warsaw, and rolled to a 55-40 win over the Lady Tigers Saturday night. The Lady Millers have made their mark with a three-quarter court press in recent years, and from the first minute of the game they hurried Warsaw into multiple turnovers. Noblesville led 5-0 before the home team could get the ball past half court. Playing on back-to-back nights with a team that has no seniors, Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter said she and her staff didn’t take much time to talk about the visitors. “We didn’t worry about what Noblesville was going to do until this morning because we have to take things one game at a time,” she said. “Sometimes when you throw too much at a team it overloads them.” It wasn’t that the Lady Tigers had no clue how to break the press; it was more a matter of remaining calm while doing what they needed to do. “We sped ourselves up just a little bit too much. We let their chaotic play and intensity kind of rattle us a little bit. We tried to get rid of the ball too quick at times, instead of slowing ourselves down and making the good reads,” Harter said. “We weren’t being patient enough waiting for the screen to come so then you could read which way you wanted to go. Our timing was off a little bit, and when we had our timing down, we did a nice job breaking (the press) and we did some nice things with that.” Noblesville seniors Alexis Shannon and Katelyn O’Reilly were a difficult one-two punch to handle on the offensive end. The Florida Atlantic signees each recorded 17 points with Shannon getting her points primarily on mid-range shots, while O’Reilly handled business inside, adding 13 rebounds to her stat line. Down 16 at halftime, Warsaw began to consistently break the press, but any hope of a comeback was thwarted when the Lady Tigers couldn’t consistently finish at the hoop, missing multiple layups. “In that third quarter we missed seven layups,” Harter said. “I thought we did a nice job attacking the press, getting in the paint and getting our shots. We were focused on their defense rather than putting the ball in the hole.” Noblesville led 44-21 after the third quarter before the home team closed the gap when the Lady Millers emptied their bench. Dayton Groninger led Warsaw with 12 points. Mariah Rivera scored six points, with Kacy Bragg, Madi Graham and Kenzie Welk getting five points each. Page Desenberg pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. In the junior varsity game, sophomore Kennedy Patton scored 11 of her game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead the Lady Tigers to a 38-31, come-from-behind win. Warsaw (0-4) will play a ranked team for a third straight game when No. 3 (Class 4A) Penn comes to town Tuesday night.
