NorthWood Runs By Wawasee

SYRACUSE - Wawasee assistant coach Mark Sumpter was thrown into an uncomfortable position Tuesday. Sumpter found out that he would have to coach the Warriors girls basketball team a few hours before the game. Head coach Randy Aalbregtse was sick and would miss that game along with Saturday's game against Northridge.

For Sumpter, it was a different position. Not only did he have to face the No. 1 3A team in the state, he had to do it completely unprepared.

"It's a different role," Sumpter said. "Usually, I call the defense and that's what I worry about. All of a sudden, now I'm calling the offense."

Wawasee struggled in the first half falling behind by 22 points. However, the Warriors fought evenly with NorthWood in the second half, losing 57-33.

"NorthWood's tough," Sumpter said. "I don't know any other team like them. When you run into a team like this, if you make a mistake, they'll take it to you."

In truthfulness, Wawasee did not make a lot of mistakes throughout the game. The Warriors outrebounded NorthWood 35-32 and had just one more turnover than the Panthers. The problem came down to putting the ball in the basket. Wawasee was just 25 percent from the field, while NorthWood shot 49 percent.

Although the Warriors were cold from the field, they had a chance in the second quarter to put a scare into the Panthers. Trailing 16-8 to start the quarter, Wawasee moved into a 1-3-1 zone. The Warriors forced three consecutive empty possessions by NorthWood, but Wawasee could not score either.

Once the Panthers learned where to attack the defense, the game turned into a landslide.

"We forced the turnovers, and we definitely had them reeling," Sumpter said. "Then we go down, and we hurry a couple of shots. We probably should have been a little more patient, but that's been us all year. We force a turnover, then we get hyped up and either throw a bad pass or take a bad shot. I think that could have been a big turning point for us."

When NorthWood finally broke the defense, it turned into the Amy Zercher show. She scored 13 points in the second quarter, including three three-pointers to give the Panthers a 33-11 haltime lead. Wawasee could muster only one field goal in the quarter on 13 attempts in a three-point period.

In the third quarter, NorthWood jumped out to a 39-13 advantage before the Warriors closed out the period on an 11-4 run. Hannah Rensberger had five rebounds in the quarter to spur Wawasee.

"We still don't have the killer instinct yet," NorthWood head coach Steve Neff said. "We went into that horrendous lull, but that's just something we've got to work on. It's early in the year, and we have a lot of time to improve."

In the fourth quarter, Wawasee got as close as 18 points at 51-33 after a Kari Wortinger three-pointer, but the Warriors had too much ground to gain.

"They never gave up," Sumpter said. "We could have just died and said, 'Coach isn't here' and just fold. But we played them pretty well even in the second half, and we got some things accomplished."

Zercher ended with a season-high 23 points and grabbed six rebounds. Natalie Will was the only other NorthWood player in double-digits with 12 points, and Tiff Glingle dished out six assists.

Lydia Carpenter led Wawasee with 12 points and she added seven rebounds. Karissa Evans had a game-high eight rebounds for the Warriors.

Neff was happy to see his Panthers play fairly well coming off of their first loss of the season.

"I was a little bit concerned about tonight," Neff said. "It was our first game we've lost in a while on Thursday, so you don't know how the team's going to react. But I thought they came out real hard, especially defensively, and we didn't allow Wawasee to do much of what they wanted to do."

Wawasee (3-6, 0-1) will face Northridge Saturday at 1 p.m. Sumpter says his team will be much more prepared this time.

"They're going to get used to me in the next couple of days and we'll get a gameplan together and try to get them rolling again. They came out of the shower room and said, 'We didn't give up in the second half.' So I think we'll be upbeat."

NorthWood (6-1, 2-0) will host Northridge on Thursday at 6:15 p.m.