Lady Tigers Give Top-Ranked Squad A Fight The Warsaw girls basketball team was able to push the top-ranked girls basketball team Tuesday, but fell in an attempt to win its first TCU Lady Tiger Classic title in eight years. After defeating Perry Meridian in the day’s opening game, 62-49, the Warsaw Lady Tigers (9-2) had a date with the Class 4A No. 1 Hamilton Southeastern Lady Royals (12-0) in the night’s championship tilt, losing 62-56. Having taken down South Bend Washington 64-59 in their opener, Southeastern came out strong against Warsaw, building a 7-0 lead in the first minute and getting in front 19-3 with 3:09 remaining in the first quarter. But just as Warsaw fans were getting concerned inside the Tiger Den, the Lady Tigers went on a 20-2 run over the next six minutes, nabbing a 23-21 lead after a bucket by junior Lindsay Baker with 4:59 left in the first half. “Give our girls credit for building the lead like they did, but also give credit to the Warsaw kids for battling back,” Southeastern coach Chris Huppenthal said. “A lot of times, you look up and see a 16-point deficit, and you’re ready to give in. They didn’t do that tonight.” At last year’s tournament, the two squads met in the consolation game, with Southeastern getting a slim 40-39 victory, so the Warsaw girls knew they weren’t going to be overmatched. “The girls believed they could come in and compete, and believed we could beat this team,” Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. “We just came out a little timid in the first half and spotted them that 16-point lead. When we started playing strong and playing with some confidence, we started to chip away.” Southeastern responded to the Warsaw surge with a 12-3 run of its own, to regain control, although the game was never put away as the Lady Tigers never returned to their early-game form. “We quit throwing the ball around and giving them easy lay-ups,” Harter said about her team’s play in the first quarter. “That’s where they scored a majority of their points in that first quarter — off our turnovers. We just threw the ball around and weren’t strong with it.” Against Southeastern, being strong with the ball is key, as 6-foot-4 junior Taya Reimer is patrolling the lane. Ranked as ESPN’s fourth overall junior prospect, as well as its No. 1 forward, Reimer can control a high school game without using too much offense, which was displayed against Warsaw. Despite scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting in the first half, Reimer did make her presence known, posting eight rebounds and three blocked shots in the same time period. “Taya can do so many things,” Huppenthal said. “She can handle the basketball, shoot the basketball and rebound the ball. She does so many things well. In the first half, I don’t know if we were looking for her. I have to go back and watch the film, but it didn’t seem like she was much involved in the offense. She’s too good of a player not to be involved in the offense. I think she became more assertive in the second half.” By the time the game was over, Reimer had 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, four assists and seven blocked shots. “The girls were saying, ‘We’re shot faking. What else can we do?’,” Harter said. “The idea is to keep taking it up strong and keep shot faking. If she blocks your shot, it’s going out of bounds and we’re getting it back. You just have to continue going up strong and attack.” Reimer helped Southeastern shoot 64 percent on the day, but she wasn’t the only one hitting at a high percentage. Senior Jordin Alexander scored 16 on 6-of-8 shooting, while junior Jessica Pongonis had 13 on 4-of-6 shooting and senior Jessica Stewart hit 4 of 7 to score 11. For Warsaw, Baker kept rolling after scoring a career-best 25 points in her team’s opening win over Meridian, hitting 6 of 10 three-pointers. In the championship game, Baker notched another career best, going for 26 points, while also getting five rebounds, five steals and two assists. “We’ve always known that Lindsay can be a scorer for us,” Harter said. “She’s just started to relax and she’s gotten some confidence in her shot. Lindsay just does so many other things out there on the floor, that if her scoring’s not there, she picks up her defense — she gets in there and rebounds. It’s nice to see those shots falling for her, because she’s been working so hard.” Baker’s last shot of the night fell with 29 seconds remaining, and cut Southeastern’s lead to 57-55. Following a quick foul, Southeastern sophomore Kirsten Alexander hit two free throws to go in front 59-55, but the game wasn’t over quite yet. Down by four, Warsaw junior Jennifer Walker-Crawford was fouled and hit 1 of 2 shots, to make it a one-possession game. Still needing to foul, the Lady Tigers sent Pongonis to the line for another one-and-one attempt, and after missing the first, the ball bounced right back to her, at which time she threw it out to Reimer, who was fouled and hit one of two to push the lead back to four. Southeastern went on to hit two more free throws to make it a six-point game, but even in defeat, Harter took some positives from the game. “The girls just have to come out and know they are a good team, and play with that confidence and don’t let other teams intimidate them,” Harter said. “When we realize that, we’re pretty good and it’s pretty hard to beat us. “I told the girls they shouldn’t be hanging their heads, they should be walking away with some confidence,” she added. “They just battled the No. 1 team and had a chance to win. That’s what you want.” The loss is Warsaw’s second of the season against a top-ranked team, as it fell to then-Class 2A No. 1 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers in the second game of the season, but the tough contests aren’t finished yet. On top of still playing tough NLC teams, such as Northridge (11-1), NorthWood (10-1), Elkhart Memorial (8-2) and Goshen (9-3), the Lady Tigers still host Class 4A No. 2 Penn on Jan. 18. “Our schedule is strong, and we don’t get much of a break on the team’s we play,” Harter said the schedule, which resumes Tuesday at Marion. “That’s a OK, because your ultimate goal in the 20 regular season games is to get you prepared for the sectional. The games we played here today, against Perry Meridian and Hamilton Southeastern, as well as Luers and the games we have coming up — going to Marion and having Northridge come here (Jan. 7) — it doesn’t get any easier. These games all prepare us for our ultimate goal, which is to win the sectional championship.”
