The Warsaw girls basketball team's 65-26 regular-season finale win over South Bend Riley at the Tiger Den wasn't the biggest story coming out of Thursday's game.
Playing with a pink ball, the pink-uniformed Lady Tigers closed their 2010-11 home campaign in front of pink-clad fans, raising money for the Tracey Ann Yeager Memorial Scholarship in a Pink Out Night."This is the first time we've had a game where all the money we've raised has gone to a scholarship," Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. "We've had a Pink Out Night before, but not quite as big as this."
Tracey Ann Yeager fought cancer for five years, but succumbed on May 31, leaving behind her husband, volunteer Warsaw Community High School football coach Steve Yeager, as well as three children, Samuel, Jack and last night's honorary captain Rachel.
Playing in front of a large crowd, the Lady Tigers didn't waste much time, taking a 22-8 lead into the second quarter and setting the tone for the game.
Despite winning just two games this season, Riley coach Sharon McBride was adamant her team would make the trip to Warsaw, even though the Lady Wildcats weren't in school earlier in the day.
"They were excited about the Pink Out Night, and we had involved them from the very beginning," Harter said. "Their coach called one of my assistants last night and said, 'I know we're not in school, but we're going to be there.' Their (athletic director) said they weren't going to go, but she said, 'Yes, we're going to go. They put all this time and effort into this and we want to be a part of this.' You can't say enough about a team like that."
Harter would have liked to be more cordial on the court, but with Riley committing 29 turnovers to their 26 points, that was difficult to do.
On top of struggling to maintain possession, Riley also struggled with Warsaw senior Kayla Stout, who finished with 25 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and four steals on Senior Night.
"Kayla's done a terrific job for us all year long," Harter said. "It's always an emotional night on Senior Night, but she just came out and played hard.
"What a great send off for her to have such a great crowd here to support what we were doing and to support Kayla too," Harter continued.
Stout was the only Warsaw senior on the court, but Harter seemed just as sad to see senior manager Eva Hahft go, as she was recognized following the game.
"Eva Hahft has done a tremendous job for us over these four years," Harter said. "We're really going to miss her - all the little things I don't have to worry about doing."
One thing Harter doesn't have to worry about is entering the state tournament with a loss.
"It's huge for our confidence," Harter said. "We had some better ball movement, where we've kind of been standing around in a couple losses we had. Defensively, we picked up our intensity. That's what you want going into the tournament."
Warsaw begins its tournament play Friday at Goshen High School, taking on the winner of Tuesday's Goshen/Northridge game in Class 4A Sectional 4.
Before hitting the road for the sectional, Harter was happy to see her team close out its regular season on a positive note - in both a basketball and humanity sense.
"What a great outpouring by the community and all the support they've given," she said.
