Talent and experience trumped inexperience and potential Tuesday at Warsaw Community High School's Tiger Den.
Class 2A's top-ranked Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (3-0) girls basketball team put four players in double-figure scoring to down the Warsaw Lady Tigers 63-49, dropping the home team to 0-2 on the year."They really have four weapons out there, which makes it difficult to guard," Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said.
Luers was led in scoring by juniors Brierra Young and Brooke Ridley, who both scored 14, while senior Hilary Watts and junior Miracle Woods each scored 11.
"That's what makes us kind of tough to guard," Luers coach Denny Reiner said. "We don't have just one kid."
They may not have just one kid, but the Lady Knights' Ridley could fall into that mode. Ridley scored her 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting and also had 12 rebounds.
"She's just such a great athlete," Reiner said about the 5-foot-11 forward. "She does so many great things for us. Her stats were pretty indicative of what she can do."
Having reached the Class 2A state championship game last season, losing to Austin, Harter was aware of what all the players on Luers could do.
"Luers is a great team," she said. "They're very athletic and very experienced. We're a young team and that's why we gave up some runs. We'd come out and forget what we needed to do."
Leading 7-2 early, the Lady Tigers turned the ball over on eight of their next nine possessions. The turnovers opened the door for the Lady Knights, who used a 14-0 run to take a 16-7 lead following a Young three-pointer with 2:08 to play in the first.
"The ball pressure we had was really good and forced a lot of turnovers," Reiner said.
Despite the turnovers, Warsaw regained its composure down the stretch, scoring the last eight points of the quarter to cut the lead to 16-15.
However, during that run, Warsaw senior Kayla Stout suffered an ankle injury with 36 seconds remaining in the half. She had to leave the game with just six points on 3-of-3 shooting. She pulled down two rebounds, and was later seen on crutches.
With Stout out, the Tigers didn't score their first points of the second half until senior Paige Wood hit two free throws at the 2:57 mark in the third quarter.
While the Lady Tigers' offense was struggling, the Lady Knights scored 12-straight points to extend the lead.
"We just didn't get stops when we needed to," Harter said. "That's an area we need to improve on."
With 11 girls gone from last season's 16-6 team, Harter has just Stout and sophomore Lindsay Baker returning with significant minutes. Featuring four freshmen on the roster, at one point Harter had a lineup of freshmen Brooklyn Harrison, Nikki Grose and Eryn Leek playing with Baker and junior Sarah Heagy on the floor. With that kind of inexperience, lumps along the way are expected.
"I can't say enough about how our young kids are playing," Harter said. "They're coming out and playing hard, doing some nice things. I know, sometimes, the negative things stick out to people and they get down on the things. These kids are working hard and are continue to get better. It's a long season."
The young kids did keep the score within striking distance, but each time they got close, Luers found a way to keep them at bay.
"We had a chance to really put them away, but then you look up and their down 10 or nine points in the third quarter," Reiner said. "We just didn't handle ourselves really well in that situation. It was almost like we thought the game was over so we could do what we wanted.
"They were scrappy," Reiner added about the Lady Tigers. "They hung with it."
The scrappiest of the Lady Tigers may have been junior Lauren Burish who scored 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Heagy finished the game with eight points and eight rebounds.
With only two games played this year, the young Lady Tigers will have time to gel, which is what Harter is depending on.
"I'm not down on these girls and no one should be down on them," she said. "They're young, they're learning, they're going to get better and when it's going to count is when it's sectional time. These girls are going to be ready."
Warsaw will get its next shot at a win against 0-2 Tippecanoe Valley Friday.
