If the Warsaw Lady Tigers win a sectional championship this week they’ll have earned it. Not only do the Lady Tigers have to win three games in four days, they’ll likely have to avenge two of their three losses from this season, and then most likely beat the defending state champion. The 42nd annual girls basketball state tournament starts Tuesday, and the Lady Tigers are trying to win their second sectional title in three years and the program’s 18th overall. Action in Class 4A Sectional 4 at Goshen High School gets underway Tuesday when defending state champion Penn meets the host Lady RedHawks. Concord and Goshen square off at 6 p.m. Wednesday, followed by Warsaw and Elkhart Memorial. Elkhart Central plays Tuesday’s winner at 6 p.m. on Friday, followed by Wednesday’s winners in the second semifinal. The championship game is slated for Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to the LaPorte Regional on Feb. 11 to play the winner from the Lowell Sectional. “Our sectional is tough this year, and we just happened to get a draw where there’s going to be three tough games,” said Warsaw coach Michelle Harter, who led the Lady Tigers to sectional titles in 2013 and 2015. “If we want to win the sectional we’re going to have to come out each night and play well. We start off with Memorial. We went there (in the regular season) and struggled offensively against them. I thought our defense did a great job against them, but we just need to make sure we come out on Wednesday night prepared to attack the basket, be patient offensively, and not look to rush our shots on the inside. “We hope to advance and get the chance to play Northridge again ... two games right off the bat there where we could get some revenge. Northridge is solid, and again, we battled right down to the end with them this season. A big thing we have to do, whoever we play, is make sure we get to the foul line.” There’s no guarantee that Northridge will advance to the semifinal, or that Penn will make it to Saturday’s title game, but on paper it appears they will. Northridge, the defending sectional champion, takes a 23-1 record into tournament play. Northridge’s only loss is a 50-44 setback to Penn on Dec. 13. Penn, who fell 40-33 to Warsaw on Nov. 22, enters the sectional with an 18-4 record. The Lady Tigers are 19-3, and their three losses are by a combined 11 points. Warsaw lost 40-37 at current 2A No. 2 Whitko on Nov. 25, fell 47-43 at Northridge on Jan. 7, and lost 35-31 at Memorial on Jan. 11. The Lady Tigers have won their last four games and give up an average of just 37.5 points per game. “It is a difficult task, having to win three games in four days, and to do it against some really good teams, but this is what you wanna see,” said Harter. “This is why we played the schedule we did. This is why we played different types of teams like we did. We’re going to take what we learned in the first 22 games and use it to, hopefully, win a sectional championship.” Outside of Northridge, Penn and Warsaw – who have just eight losses between them – the other four teams all have at least nine losses this season. Senior Dayton Groninger averages nearly 17 points and nine rebounds this season for the Lady Tigers, while classmate Madi Graham averages 11 points and four boards. Warsaw didn’t have a senior on the roster last season, and since opening last year’s campaign with nine straight losses, the Lady Tigers have gone 30-8.
