As Brielle Harrison held the ball and let the final seconds tick off the clock of Warsaw’s 13-point win over Columbia City Tuesday night, my brain threw up a picture of the Lady Tigers’ short-term schedule.
It got me excited.
Warsaw started the season by rotating wins and losses that added up to a 3-4 start. The Lady Tigers had shot the ball poorly, they had turned the ball over too much and they just … I don’t know how to describe it … there was just something missing.
Game No. 8 was at the famed Chrysler Fieldhouse in New Castle on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Warsaw built an early lead and held a double-digit lead deep into the second half. After squandering a lead to Penn in the fourth quarter just a few nights before, the final eight minutes at New Castle started to tighten up.
It would be overdoing it to describe the final period at New Castle a “moment of truth” or that the “season was on the brink,” but what did happen was certainly a turning point.
They held on to win.
And win, and win, and win and win and win again.
They are now 9-4, with impressive wins over a Carroll team who was 7-2 and another over Plymouth, by 30, who entered last Saturday’s game at 9-1.
So, what’s the difference? Everything!
Their defense has been better, which led to some fast break opportunities and easy baskets without having to run an offense.
That took pressure off their half-court offense, which allowed the girls to relax, and led to them shooting better.
The increased scoring put pressure on their opponents to score more against the Lady Tiger defense … you see the cycle, right?
They scored 89 against Oregon-Davis – a top 15 scoring game in almost 1,000 games in Lady Tiger Basketball history.
They scored 57 against Plymouth – 21 in the first quarter.
They scored 59 against Columbia City – 22 in the first quarter.
There is the potential for this team to continue this strong play given what the schedule presents, and they will need to continue it now because it will get really hard really fast. The month of January will bring road trips in six of seven games, including to places like Middlebury, The Pit and to Homestead (the current No. 1 team in Class 4A).
It won’t be easy. It never is, and it shouldn’t be. And it would be foolish to think they will shoot over 60 percent from the field every game while holding their opponents under 35 points.
But if they can even come remotely close, it could be a fun stretch.
