NAPPANEE – For Warsaw’s varsity girls basketball team, Saturday night’s bus ride back from NorthWood High School may have felt more like a roller coaster. There was certainly an up-and-down of emotions. While the Class 4A No. 8 Lady Tigers are the outright Northern Lakes Conference champions, they suffered their first loss of the season, a 34-30 setback to the 3A No. 4 Lady Panthers. NorthWood turned the ball over 22 times and shot just 33 percent from the field, but Warsaw scored a mere seven points in the second half and made only 29 percent of its field goal attempts. “This game isn’t going to define our season,” said Warsaw coach Michelle Harter, whose team fell to 18-1 overall and 6-1 in the NLC. “I told the girls to feel the pain from this, learn from it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again “One of our goals was to win the conference, and we did that,” she added. “Our ultimate goal is to win the sectional and play in the regional. This loss takes the pressure off an undefeated season. Now we can just go out and play. I thought the last two games we were tight.” The Lady Tigers, who had the conference wrapped up before Saturday night’s game tipped off, led 10-6 after one quarter of play and 23-16 at halftime. NorthWood coach Steve Neff, whose team improved to 18-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play with its 13th-straight win, said he felt fortuntate to be in the game at halftime. The Lady Panthers turned the ball over 15 times in the first two quarters, including a four-minute span with seven turnovers, and made just 6 of 19 shots from the field before the break. “We felt great at halftime that we were only down by seven,” said Neff, who notched the 630th win of his career. “We threw the ball away too many times in the first half. We weren’t very patient and we played scared.” NorthWood made just 6 of 17 field goal attempts in the second half, but Warsaw struggled mightily, making just 3 of 19 attempts. The Lady Tigers were outscored 10-2 in the third quarter and 18-7 in the second half. “Tonight was the first time all season we haven’t played as a team,” said Harter. “You saw tonight what happens when you play as five individuals instead of a unit.” Typically a strong rebounding team, the Lady Tigers were out-rebounded 40-25. Jennifer Walker-Crawford, despite struggling through a 5-of-14 effort from the field, led Warsaw in scoring with 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. Lindsay Baker added eight points and three steals, while Nikki Grose scored six points and pulled down a team-high 11 boards. For NorthWood, Morgan Olson tallied a double-double of 11 points and 16 rebounds and Savannah Bley added 11 points and seven boards. The Lady Tigers will be in action again Thursday when they host South Bend Riley for senior night, while NorthWood concludes the regular season Friday at conference foe Concord.
