First-year Warsaw girls basketball coach Michelle Harter stresses to her players the importance of getting the ball in the post area.
The Lady Tigers took advantage of easy buckets in the paint Tuesday, leading from start to finish in a 58-44 win over the visting Carroll Chargers."One of the things I've been stressing to the players is getting the ball inside," said Harter, whose team improved to 10-5 on the season by winning its fourth game in a row and fifth in the last six contests. "When it's not there, you can kick it back out, but when you can get the ball in the post you can do so many more things."
Five-foot-11 sophomore Kayla Stout led the way for Warsaw with a game-high 17 points and a team-high six rebounds, while 6-0 junior Sarah Shilling chipped in with 14 points and six rebounds.
The Tigers, who scored the first seven points of the game, finished the contest 13 of 17 from the free throw line.
Warsaw's frontline accounted for all of its free throw production, as Stout was 9 of 12 and Shilling was 4 of 5.
"I told the girls I wanted to get the ball inside and get their post players into foul trouble," said Harter. "I told them to go up strong, and if there was nothing there, then to kick it back out. We were able to score points in the paint and get to the free throw line."
The Chargers scored 24 of their 44 points from three-point range and only shot seven free throws, hitting four of them.
Warsaw made just one three-pointer in the game, but took advantage of the lob pass into the post and its abiltity to get to the free throw line en route to the 14-point win.
Working the ball into the post allowed Warsaw to shoot 50 percent from the floor, while Carroll shot 41 percent from the field.
While Harter is a defensive-minded coach, her team's offense was more than just effective Tuesday night.
"I do preach defense," said Harter. "But facing that defense in practice every day, I think that has made our offense better. It's helped our offense come along, and tonight our offense was pretty good."
Junior Kelci Freds, who scored the game's first four points, finished with 11 points and six assists for Warsaw, while senior Alex Glenn chipped in with six points and five rebounds.
Warsaw led 15-9 after the first quarter of play and held a 32-22 advantage at halftime.
By the end of the third quarter, the Lady Tigers were up 48-32.
With the 14-point loss, Carroll fell to 5-9 on the season, having lost its last four games.
Beth Howard and Ciara Geiger led Carroll with 13 points each, while Elizabeth Goings chipped in with nine points.
Warsaw will be in action again Saturday at Northern Lakes Conference rival Concord.
