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COLUMBIA CITY - Its Achilles heel all season, ultimately it tripped up Wawasee's girls basketball team.
Plagued by mental breakdowns - which led to numerous turnovers and missed shots, short runners the Warriors would normally hit - Wawasee finished its season with a 72-35 loss to Carroll in the first round of the Columbia City 4A Sectional Tuesday evening.
The Warriors committed 26 turnovers - a number of which led to Charger fast break lay-ups.
At times during Tuesday's shellacking, Wawasee fifth-year coach Kem Zolman shouted instructions at his team to get back on defense.
Mental breakdowns.
Through the course of Tuesday's thrashing, the Warriors couldn't convert lay-ups, couldn't hit shots around the basket, much less get their rebounds.
Mental breakdowns.
"That's been our Achilles heel, it's a mental thing," Zolman said. "Once it starts going downhill we get down on ourselves. This is not a real good situation for our seniors to go out in. We weren't really ready to go out like this, but it's one of those things that happened."
Wawasee's season ends at 12-10, while Carroll improved to 18-3 and plays No. 5 Warsaw Friday night in the semifinal round. Warsaw downed DeKalb 64-40 in Tuesday's second game.
Though it turned into a blowout, for 10 minutes Tuesday the Warriors were right there with the Chargers.
Wawasee took a 9-4 lead early in the first quarter when senior forward Meagan Wallen hit back-to-back three-pointers.
Junior frontliner Mistie Hershberger brought the Warriors within one, 14-13, at the start of the second stanza, but the ensuing 12-0 run Carroll went on changed the face of the game, leading to a 33-18 lead at the half and a 50-28 advantage after three quarters.
While Carroll made scoring look easy with its numerous uncontested fast break lay-ups, the Warriors had a rough go of it in the shooting department.
Draped by a physical Charger defense, coupled with the inability to hit shots in the paint, the Warriors finished the game 11 of 52 (21.2 percent) from the field. Carroll, on the other hand, was 29 of 57 (50.9 percent) from the field and outrebounded Wawasee 44-26.
"We've all talked about defense winning championships," Zolman said. "It's a cliche we all buy into. The bottom line is the ball didn't go in the hole."
As the Warriors struggled to keep their feet, Carroll struck them with a balanced offensive attack.
Junior Tamesha Scott hit 7 of 10 from the field for the Chargers, scoring a game-high 15 points to go with six rebounds and three steals. Abby Noll scored 12 and pulled down seven rebounds, while Kelley Meiklejohn had 10 points and nine rebounds and Amanda Ponsot had 10 points and eight rebounds. Hollace Yoder chipped in with eight points, while Allison Easterhaus and Mary Petrie scored seven and six, respectively.
Wallen was the lone Warrior in double figures, scoring 12, all of which came from the three-point arc. Jessica Leach added seven, while Rachel Canen chipped in with six.
CARROLL 72, WAWASEE 35
Carroll (18-3) 14 19 17 22 - 72
Wawasee (12-10) 11 7 10 7 - 35
Carroll FG FT R S Pts.
* Noll 4-10 3-4 7 2 12
* Yoder 3-6 1-2 3 6 8
* Scotton 7-10 1-2 6 3 15
* Meiklejohn 4-8 2-2 9 1 10
* Ponsot 4-9 2-3 8 2 10
Petrie 3-3 0-0 0 0 6
Pape 0-1 0-0 3 0 0
Norris 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Felger 2-3 0-0 2 0 4
Myers 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Easterhaus 2-6 3-4 6 0 7
Totals 29-57 12-17 44 15 72
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
* S. Sorensen 0-2 0-0 0 1 0
* Fawley 0-2 0-0 2 4 0
* Wallen 4-12 0-0 1 2 12
* Leach 2-7 3-3 11 0 7
* Higginbotham 1-7 2-2 2 0 4
Stichter 0-4 0-1 1 0 0
Canen 2-8 1-1 2 0 6
T. Sorensen 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Hershberger 1-6 0-0 5 0 2
Minear 0-2 2-2 1 1 2
Thomas 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Fick 1-2 0-1 1 0 2
Totals 11-52 8-10 26 8 35
Three-point goals - Carroll 2-7 (Yoder 1-4, Noll 1-3), Wawasee 5-13 (Wallen 4-6, Canen 1-5, Fawley 0-1, Stichter 0-1). Turnovers - Carroll 21, Wawasee 26. Fouls - Carroll 13, Wawasee 15. Fouled out - none.
