The Warsaw Lady Tigers had two significant runs in their game with Elkhart Memorial Wednesday night. The first came in the opening quarter when Warsaw took a 15-4 lead; the second from midway through the second period to late in the third frame. The two runs allowed Warsaw to put away the Lady Chargers, 52-33 in a Northern Lakes Conference game at the Tiger Den. The Lady Tigers built an early lead by playing strong defense and taking advantage of Memorial turnovers. When Memorial scored the final point of the first quarter, then opened the second stanza with a 10-2 run capped by the second trey of the period from freshman Ay’Zana Billings-Tiller, it cut Warsaw’s lead to 17-14 with 4:09 left before halftime. Warsaw coach Michelle Harter called timeout, and strongly encouraged her team to go back to doing the things that got them the lead. Junior Kenzie Welk hit back-to-back threes to spark a 21-3 run from the timeout to when Memorial coach Steve Scott called a timeout with 2:41 to go in the third. “It was a fun game to coach; it was a fun game for the girls to play. We talked from the get-go, coming out and being intense, playing with toughness, and holding each other accountable,” Harter said. “So many times we’ve come out and we do the little things and we get on a roll. And then I think we kinda think ‘OK, we can kind of relax and not continue to do those kinds of things.’ The girls continued tonight. We had a little lull in the second quarter, so we called timeout and chewed on ‘em a little bit, then we picked it right back up. We talked about continuing to do those things. “At halftime I said ‘alright, we won the first half. Now we have to come out and we have to win the second half to win this ballgame. We can’t come out and think you have a lead and stop doing the things you were doing. I think the girls came out from the beginning and had one of their best third-quarter starts we’ve had in a really long time.” Warsaw had one of its better games of the season in terms of taking care of the basketball; they turned the ball over just 11 times, and only six times after the first quarter. Meanwhile, Memorial committed 17 turnovers. “It’s amazing, when you take care of the basketball the more looks you get, the better looks you get,” Harter said. “I thought the girls were doing a nice job tonight of cutting hard. I think at times during other parts of the season we didn’t cut with a purpose. Tonight we were cutting with a purpose, we were using our ball fakes, we were leading the girls where they were going instead of throwing the ball where they’re at. “I told Kenzie (Welk) ‘how much easier is it to shoot when you’re wide-open because we’re attacking the basket, because now you can step up and they can kick out and you’re ready to shoot.’ But that’s exactly what it takes. Madi came out and stepped up for us, Dayton, everybody on the floor tonight, Mariah, Page, those five came out tonight with a little fire in their eyes, which we hadn’t seen.” Welk scored a dozen points in the first half and finished with a game-high 19. Dayton Groninger had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Warsaw is now 3-1 in the NLC, and tied with Goshen for third place in the conference. The Lady Tigers (6-13 overall) will take on the Lady RedHawks Saturday night in Goshen.
